Welcome to episode #173 of the Own Your Best Life Podcast. In today’s episode, we’re diving into a practice that can transform your daily routine—soulful time blocking. Join me as we discover how to align your schedule with your spiritual aspirations for a more balanced and fulfilling life – and how I changed my life with this practice.

I’ve been playing with my schedule and the time I’ve been spending on work, with the family and on my health and spiritual practices. As different activities have ramped up or down, we need to shift and realign – so this is where we are. I’ve specifically been adding more time to my meditation practice and have noticed that even a small 5-minute change like this has been hugely impactful.

We don’t always have to do a lot to feel a big shift – so I wanted to dive into how we can incorporate more of what gives our soul life and energy into our day. This is why I want to dive into the topic of soulful time blocking.

As achievers, we often make work the priority. We make the to-do’s a priority. Not how we do the to-do’s or our quality of life as we go through life. If you want your life to have an impact – let the first person impacted be yourself. The other day, my daughter asked me at breakfast what I’m most proud of – and while I spent a little time thinking about it, I came back to her and said my coaching work. 

It represented a time when I truly decided how I wanted to spend my time. From feeling like I was swamped with the everyday to-do’s of two kids under 5 years old, working and trying to do everything well – it almost felt impossible to try to make life changes let alone career changes. Yet, from that change, I reconnected with that part of myself – my spirituality – in ways that left me more able to be in life, instead of thinking I needed to escape it. It transformed my relationship with my husband and we both deepened our relationship with ourselves and each other. It’s given me greater health and confidence that I’m actually doing what I am here to do in life. I had more presence, time and money. It has been wild and challenging in figuring it out – but that’s why I want to save you the time and energy it took me to make some of these changes myself.

I want to encourage you to feel life differently and this is why coaching is so life-changing if you let it. You get more time back and you feel so much more at home in your life and body. Can you imagine having more spirituality, your individual connection to what gives you meaning and fulfillment, available to you today? Yes – this can happen.

All of this was available because I made the first decision which was that my spirituality, the part of me that wanted to have an impact with my life – was important. Important enough to spend time with now, before I and those around me pass.

Understanding Soulful Time Blocking

To begin, let’s explore what soulful time blocking is and why it’s such a powerful tool for integrating spirituality into your routine.

Soulful time blocking is a holistic approach to time management that integrates your spiritual practices, personal growth, and well-being into your daily routine. It goes beyond traditional time management by prioritizing not only your tasks and responsibilities but also your inner development and connection to your authentic self. This practice recognizes that the quality of your time is just as important as the quantity of tasks completed.

I didn’t do this at first when I entered the “real world” and started college and working. I looked around and saw that people just worked, worked out, went on trips, and hung out with friends and family. I did the same. Yet, I didn’t want to just do what everyone else did – the trouble was, I didn’t know what was more important to me in terms of how I wanted to spend my time, so I just kept on with the achievement and hedonism game until it stopped working.

It wasn’t until I had several deaths occur in my life that I wanted to add more spirituality back into my life. A rock-bottom for me was seeing that life was truly finite and that I wasn’t doing work that I felt was my calling. I kept edging around the idea of impact, working at companies that would impact the world – but what about my personal impact? What about my day to day experience? I felt like it was fine, but I wasn’t really thriving there. 

This is where spirituality comes in and a more holistic approach to time management. I had edged out of my life, all of the things that actually mattered most. Time spent truly exploring the questions I had and why I wanted what I wanted always had the highest ROI for me. I knew that when I meditated, I actually felt better. I thought more clearly about life. I made more accurate and faster decisions. I also realized that a haphazard approach to moving my body when I had time wasn’t actually working for me. The stress that had built up was also hard to manage. I felt overwhelmed and couldn’t imagine adding more time into a life that felt really full.

How could I have a more holistic life when I was so busy? The key was taking a few of the biggest obstacles and turning them into how I could make it work for me. I made it my schedule – not anyone else’s – and if it worked for me and my clients, this will likely work for you.

If you desire a more holistic approach to time management, here are some of the key considerations for soulful time blocking.

Key Elements of Soulful Time Blocking:

Alignment with Values: Soulful time blocking starts with identifying your core values and spiritual aspirations. It’s about ensuring that your daily schedule reflects what truly matters to you on a soul-deep level. Not sure what you want and why? Pause and ask yourself where you were and what were you doing when you last felt at peace, proud of yourself and alive. Now that’s a start to guide you into remembering what you care about and why.

Intentional Planning: Instead of merely filling time slots with tasks, soulful time blocking involves intentional planning. You allocate specific time blocks for activities that nourish your soul, such as meditation, mindfulness, self-reflection, creative expression, and self-care. When you’re busy, often we stop planning or we leave this to the end of the day. Start your day here if this is the most important thing to get done. This is what I do. It doesn’t take a lot of time – in fact – it only takes me 15 minutes – but it has a lot of return on the time invested. I often am able to clear my mind, solve the biggest problems and set intentions for how I want to experience my day.

Mindful Transitions: This approach encourages mindful transitions between tasks. It’s not about rushing from one thing to the next, but about taking a moment to reset and ground yourself before moving on. This can enhance your overall well-being and mental clarity. It also doesn’t take more time. It uses the time you have and helps you with the quality of the in-between moments. Pro tip: Take 30 seconds to think about how you want to show up for the next meeting or activity and write it down. Then, watch it play out in front of you.

Balanced Prioritization: Soulful time blocking acknowledges that work and other responsibilities are important, but it emphasizes a balanced prioritization that includes your spiritual practices, personal growth, and relationships. I found that if I let myself go wild, I would try to do everything in the morning. I’d have a 5 hour morning routine if I could. I don’t recommend this. Instead, I thought to myself – “what’s the least amount of time I can spend while still getting this in?” and “what’s one thing to focus on first?” I did 5 minutes consistently of meditation, then 10, then 15 then more when it allowed and when I’ve committed more time and space to it. The same thing goes for movement, time with my husband and kids. If I can’t do it consistently, I go even smaller with the time. We can’t do everything well at the same time, so do less and pick a focus area that you’ll 100% feel capable of doing on any given day. When that’s done and it’s just a natural part of your day, add the next area of growth for yourself whether it’s time on your business, with your family or friends, or on your health.

As we wrap up this episode of Own Your Best Life, remember that incorporating spiritual and life-giving practices into your daily routine doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Soulful time blocking allows you to create a harmonious balance between your responsibilities and your spiritual growth. Next week, we’ll dive into how to go beyond traditional time management so you’ll want to subscribe if you haven’t already to not miss the next one.

Thank you for joining me on this journey to discover the beauty of structuring your day around soulful time blocking.

If you’re ready to Own Your Best Life, I want to invite you to watch the free training on how to Stand Out and Lead, using spiritual, high-performance strategies. You can access the training at https://may-empson.mykajabi.com/stand-out-and-lead.

You can then apply to join my Spiritual Achiever® program, where you’re going to create your next chapter with spiritual and high-performance strategies to achieve time and financial freedom using my proven method. It’s risk-free. You either start seeing results within your first month or I give you your money back. Schedule your call HERE. We’ll see you inside.

If you like this blend of both practicality and mindset, you will love coaching. You can schedule a consultation at www.mayempson.com/contact to learn more about working together and joining this community of like-minded, open and curious seekers. It is the powerful group and private coaching hybrid experience for achievers who want to expand their vision of what’s possible. Twelve months of support, individualized guidance, community and retreats. We will help you build your confidence, trust your intuition and make decisions that you love.

That’s it for this week. Have an amazing one and I’ll talk to you next time.