Episode 83: Finish Strong: 5 Tips for Staying Steady in the Busiest Season
ITUNES | SPOTIFY
As the holidays ramp up and the end of the year approaches, it can feel like working mom life turns into an endurance sport. In this short, timely episode, learn five practical “endurance tips” to help you finish the year with energy left in the tank.
Recorded in the middle of snow days, schedule chaos, and all the extra demands that come with December, this episode is designed to meet you where you are—busy, stretched, and doing your best. Instead of focusing on survival, Katelyn invites you to think like an endurance athlete: managing your energy, protecting your bandwidth, and crossing into the new year with a little life left in your battery.
You’ll hear simple, realistic strategies you can start using today, including:
A mindset shift that helps you decide what’s actually worth doing each day
Permission to let some things wait until January (yes, really)
Why sneaking away for a few minutes can completely change your energy
A powerful end-of-day practice to quiet the “never enough” feeling
What to do to calm your nervous system and recharge
Take this episode on a walk, on your commute, or while wrapping gifts or baking cookies and change how you show up during one of the most demanding times of the year for working moms.
links & resources mentioned in this episode:
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You are listening to the Life Coach for Working Moms podcast, the show where we are talking about what it actually takes to make life work as a working mom. I'm your host, Katelyn Denning, a full time working mom of three and a certified life and executive coach. I'm so glad you're here and I hope you enjoy this week's episode. .
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. This is episode 83 and I am taking a short break from my season two series of interviews to bring you a few solo episodes that are very timely as we are in the thick of the holiday season, moving toward the new year.
There are lots of questions and themes that come up around this time of year and I also know that time is limited right now, so the next few episodes will be short and sweet to the point, , episodes that you can take with you on a quick.
Walk on your commute maybe while you're wrapping or prepping some food for whatever you have planned this season, and topics that I think will really help you be intentional with this time. So in this episode today, I was thinking of calling it season survival tips, but
I don't love the word survive. I think it brings up.
At least for me, images of women who are barely hanging on and not living very intentionally, and that is certainly not what we're about here, though I do recognize that this season just stretches you so much. I am recording this today. On our third snow day so far of the month, and before that, my kids were home from school for, let's see, six.
Six school days in a row. I had some combination of kids. So I get it. I am certainly stretched. I have so much that I feel like I could or should be doing and just trying to make it work with all of these unexpected changes. So certainly could go with the word surviving, but I instead thought,
what if we think of these tips as endurance tips? I used that word just last night. I was icing some cutout cookies as I usually do this time of year and I said to my husband. Frosting or icing cutout. Cookies is an endurance sport. You sit down and think, oh, this won't take too long, and hours later you're still at the table. Icing and sprinkling and all of those things. I did get it done, but it, it gave me that word and I thought maybe that is, is applicable here.
In reality, when we look at this time of year, it is not long. It is not a full quarter, it is not a half a year and yet. With as much as we do with as much that is going on, it can feel like an endurance sport. And so I wanna offer to you today five quick tips, five things that I am doing, that I am sharing with my clients for them to implement so that we can
not just survive, but actually have the stamina, the strength, the mental bandwidth, the emotional bandwidth to finish out this season and not feel completely drained, heading into the new year or heading back to work, whatever that date is for you. And winter break is finally over for your family. And so I picture those endurance athletes too.
Run marathons or swim long distances or cycle or cross country ski or whatever sport that you are into. That is about endurance. They know how to manage their energy. They train for these events and. They are not crawling across the finish line. If this is again what they've trained for.
They are crossing the finish line with energy to spare and that is what I desire. I'm sure that is probably what you would also love as well, so. Here are five things that you could experiment with and start implementing today while we're in the thick of it, to again, get into the new year with still some energy left in the tank.
All right, you ready? We're just gonna go through these quickly. So the first one is when you sit down each day and you think about what it is you are going to accomplish, what you want to get done in the day, instead of asking, how much can I get done, ask yourself what would feel really good to get done today?
Sometimes that answer will be crossing off that deadline driven task. Your performance review is due that, board packet needs to be ready, the budget needs to be submitted. Maybe it is ordering that last gift before the shipping cutoff date because it would feel really good to not have to pay for rush or express shipping.
There is so much. Right now, not just with the holidays, but I'm hearing overwhelmingly and remember this also from my corporate days, this rush, this push to get everything done and completed before the break or before the end of the year.
All of that is also happening. Instead of just trying to cram more in focus instead on what would feel really good to have completed today. So I mentioned my kids are home for a snow day, no, guilt here. . They are gonna be in front of screens for a good portion of the day because I have work to do and I have clients to see.
So when I asked myself this question. I came up with two things. Now there's plenty more that I can and probably will do, but my priority for today is to record and finish this podcast so it's ready for you tomorrow morning as it always is on Tuesdays, and to ship a gift that I know if I wait any longer, it won't make it there in time.
I have some optional additional things that I will try to do, but those are the two that, gosh, if I cross those off my list tonight, I will feel so good. So shift the way that you ask yourself that question and decide what it is you have capacity to do today. Number two, remember that there will be life and time after January one.
Again, with this rush to get so much done before the break, it is very easy to get swept away in that and think that everything needs to get done. Now, it is okay to table some things for the new year. You're really only pushing it out two to two and a half weeks. This is not. Y 2K, if you remember that the earth is not going to end.
Time is not going to stop if you don't get it done before December 31st. So for anything that is not a true deadline or mission critical right now, you can and probably should table those things or delay them. I remember a few years ago in my Stressless, this holiday workshop, someone said to the group, remember that not all of these activities have to be done in time for the holidays.
Many of them are winter activities, and it is okay to do them in January or even later. They will still be there. They don't have to be done right now when there's already so many other things to do. So maybe you have a few items on your list that you are trying to get done. Probably, especially with work, give yourself space where you can.
And remember, it's only a couple of weeks. You can pick it up in January when you don't have all of this extra stuff on your plate. Tip number three. For maintaining your endurance through this season is to sneak away. Literally sneak away where you need it. This came up in two coaching sessions last week and then I practiced it myself this weekend and , I think it is worth reminding you of here as well.
There are lots of gatherings, lots of time together during this season, it is okay, and I highly encourage you to sneak away where you can. Yes, I am making like little bunny rabbit paws in front of me. I'm on my tiptoes picture. Sneaking away. If you have guests over to your house, you are hosting, you have family in town.
Anything that is happening, sneak away to your bedroom. Close the door for 10 minutes. Maybe you step outside if it's not too cold where you are. Breathe in some fresh air. Maybe you find a quiet room if you are in someone else's house or you're at a party somewhere, a bathroom stall if you need it somewhere to reset.
Maybe while you're resetting, you scroll. You mentally check out. Maybe you read if you're in your room and you can grab a book. Maybe you play a game on your phone. Maybe you just take some deep breaths or you close your eyes. Maybe you sit on the floor, you lie down on the floor. Oh, that sounds great.
Take a breather where you need it. Like I said, I did this last weekend. We were hosting. My in-laws extended family, quite a lot of people in my house. It was so much fun. I loved it, and I was really overstimulated. I could feel my energy tanking later in the evening, so I snuck away. I went up the back way to my bedroom and I just sat on the floor.
I scrolled Instagram for a few minutes. I watched a couple of reels that made me laugh and chuckle. And then I just closed my eyes for a few minutes. When I came back down, everyone said they thought I'd gone to bed, but I really didn't care. I felt better, I felt more energized. I was ready to finish out the evening.
I needed that time. And so permission, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, if it's been a lot, if it's been a long day, it is okay to sneak away. It is okay to actually walk away and tell everyone, I just need a minute. Huge props to you. If you do that or you're in the type of environment where you can do that, give yourself those micro breaks to reset.
Calm your nervous system. Take some deep breaths. Number four. This one is so hard to do when we're moving fast. I struggle with it as well, but on the days when I've been able to do it, I feel so much better. And that is to celebrate at the end of the day everything that you were able to do. So literally run through the list.
Remind yourself, oh, I finished that item. I sent that email that has been lingering in my inbox for weeks. I crossed off that gift. I mixed up those cookies and I made dinner. I went to work. I folded laundry. I got walk in. I tidied up the house. Whatever it is that you did, remind yourself of all that you did.
It is more important than ever to see and recognize these things because we're in the season where our list is often growing exponentially, more than we could ever actually do, and so it can feel like a losing battle. It can feel like we're constantly behind, and the antidote to that is to instead flip that and celebrate all that you were able to get done.
Maybe you write them down. I used to call this a ta-da list. You've probably heard that before. Like, ta-da. Look at all that I did today. Maybe you say them to yourself. Maybe you just think it, maybe you tell someone, I'm really proud I crossed off this thing that feels so good to have done.
The more that you celebrate, the more that you recognize and acknowledge yourself for the things that you're doing. Like I said, the better you feel and the less you focus on all that you still have to do. My last tip is something that I am leaning really heavily into right now, and that is finding something analog to do with your hands.
Let me explain. If you are on my newsletter list, you saw this in last week's. Working Mom Journal email. If you're not on my newsletter list, highly encourage you to check that out. You can go to themothernurture.com to opt in, but this is an opportunity for you to decompress in a way to make some progress and to have some.
What I would call active meditation. So here are some examples of what I mean when I say analog and something that you can do with your hands. So think maybe crafting. If you're not a crafting girl, hang with me. Got some other ideas for you. But if you like to craft it, maybe you just haven't had the time, this might be a great season to pull something very simple out of your bag.
Maybe you are a sewer or you do cross stitch, or you knit or crochet. Maybe it's just making a paper garland. Those are all the rage right now on social media. Everyone is making paper garlands or ribbon garlands. Maybe you string some popcorn, maybe you dehydrate some oranges and you put those up on string.
Do something that you have maybe been seeing others as crafting this season and you're like, oh, I don't have time for that, or That's pointless, or that's silly. It is not pointless. It is not silly. It's actually a really effective tool or strategy for you right now. If you like puzzling great season to pull out a puzzle, put it on a mat, or better yet, buy just those little mini puzzles.
You know, they make mini ones that are like 50 pieces or something. My friend Brooke, who was on the podcast a couple of episodes back, got me a set of three of those, and they're the perfect thing to just pull out because you could finish it in a day, just visit it here and there. The satisfaction of putting a piece in.
Again, making progress, doing something with your hands, so important. Maybe you like to color, maybe your kids have some coloring books, and you can pull out the crayons or the colored pencils or markers. Coloring is a really great one. Even playing solitaire with cards, not a craft, but it is something analog, and there is a start and a finish to it.
I will throw in baking or cooking. Only if you find it relaxing and it's not like in the rush for getting dinner ready or something like that. You know what I mean? So if it is enjoyable, if it is relaxing, that could be something that you play with here. But it is, again, finding these spaces for you to decompress, to slow down a little bit to.
Calm your nervous system. These are ways for you to
recharge your battery, refill your tank so that you have the energy to continue showing up, to continue doing all of the things. And to ensure that you are not rolling into the new year or back to work at the end of this break. Completely depleted. These are small, these are simple. This is not overhauling anything or creating a new routine or habit.
We've got enough going on. We don't need to add in anything new other than. Maybe grabbing a page from the coloring book, celebrating at the end of the day all that you were able to do, even if it was only one or two things, sneak away. Give yourself those breaks. Remember that there will be time and the life after January one.
So postpone or push out all that you can and ask yourself what would feel really good to get done today. Those are my five tips. That's what I have for you today. I hope you find something in here that's helpful. If there's anything that you would add to the list, I would love to hear from you. You can send me a DM @lovemothernurture, or an email, which you can find on my website at themothernurture.com.
Let's go out and. Continue to enjoy the season, do what we need to do, get it done, and also take care of ourselves and our energy as best we can in these small ways. I'm thinking of you right now and I'll be back next week with another short, helpful solo episode with some tips that you can implement right now in the season of working mom life.
Take care and I'll talk with you soon.
Thank you for listening and as always, for being a part of this working mom community. You can find everything related to this episode in the show notes at themothernurture.com/podcast,
you can also find information about how I support working moms just like you through one-on-one, and group coaching, as well as access a number of resources and articles all on my website at themothernurture.com.
I will see you again next week for another episode of the podcast.
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