Business Built With Strategy

You’re Not Busy, You’re Scattered, Here’s How To Fix It With Monthly Time Blocking

• With Victoria E Strange • Season 2 • Episode 3

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We share a clear way to swap scattered days for focused progress using monthly time blocking and self-first planning. Real talk on grief, setbacks, and how to adjust without guilt while protecting the work that moves your business.

• the trap of multitasking and scattered attention
• acknowledging life pressures alongside business goals
• becoming a slave to the to-do list
• switching from weekly to monthly time blocking
• putting personal anchors on the calendar first
• forecasting conflicts and adjusting early
• focusing on revenue and delivery work that moves the needle
• leaving buffer space and dropping low-value tasks
• replanning after hard days without self-blame
• simple weekly reviews to keep momentum

My DMs are always open. You can email me, get in contact if you have any questions. If you need any help, I'm always here. We can put in a call or do a Zoom or whatever you want, and I can help you with it.


SPEAKER_00:

Hello everyone, it's Victoria here. Welcome back to another episode of A Business Built with Strategy. So I hope you've had a good week. It was the first full week of 2026 last week, and I hope that it was just a good, easy week where you were able to just ease yourself back in to life after the holidays, to to your businesses, to whatever is going on in your life at the moment. I hope that it was just just a calm week for you. So today we are talking about doing everything. Does that ring a bell? How are you feeling at the moment? Do you do you feel like you're doing everything? Do you feel like you know too much is on your plate, too much is on your diary, it's all a little bit too much, there's too many responsibilities. You know, if you're trying to do everything at once right now, business, life, family, admin, oh, the lot really, just everything, then this episode is definitely for you. Because the issue isn't that you're busy. We are all busy. It's that you are scattered. Now, when people say to me, Oh, I'm multitasking, yeah, I'm multitasking, I I actually I actually don't like multitasking because really, multitasking really is just that you're scattered and you're doing too many things. Because the way that I look at it is you're never ever gonna put 100% effort into multitasking. It's just not gonna happen. It's like if you're learning four instruments, for example. You're learning the guitar, the piano, the mouth organs, the drums, for example. Now, if you're learning all of those instruments, how can you possibly put 100% into each one? It's just not gonna happen. It really, really isn't. And it'll be really, really hard work. So the thing is, we have to acknowledge reality, don't we? If we have a business or we're thinking of starting a business, we have everything on top of that. You know, we have life, you know, we have family, we have admin, we have bills, we have this, we have that. You know, I get it. When I uh when I went into business, you know, I was well, I've always been a single mum, you know, from the age of 24. And I, when I had my son, um, I was actually a singer. I used to perform, and that's what that's what put the food on the table. And then when he got a little bit more older and I knew that I just wasn't going to get that record deal that I had been running after for quite a few years, I decided to go into business. But it wasn't just business, it was okay, this, you know, I've I've got my business, I've got my sum that I'm bringing up on my own, I've got the bills, I've got life admin, I've got life, you know. Somewhere in there I'd like to have a social life. And, you know, it was difficult. You know, I I I talk to you on this pod, not from a commenting perspective. I talk to you from live life. I've been there, I've done it. So the thing is we have to acknowledge that reality at the same time, because as much as being scattered isn't great, it does happen. So therefore, we have to have something in place where we can deal with it so that we're not scattered. And so that actually we're not a slave to our to-do lists. You know, I you you've heard me say on here many times before, I love a list. In fact, I think it was on the last deck when I said that there was a point where I got to where I was like, oh my gosh, I I'm I'm a slave to my to-do list. I literally feel like I'm employed by my to-do list because there were so many things on it. So I love a list, but you do have to be careful. So as much as you know, you have to normalise that, you know, you've got life stuff on top of everything else. Um, we're not gonna excuse that because then we're like we get into that territory where it's like, oh well, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't matter. I can be scattered and spinning on my head for my for full and foreseeable, and that's not okay. So I'm gonna give you a simple way to decide what matters today so that you do stop spinning on your head. Because believe me, it doesn't get you very far. It really, really doesn't. It just all that happens is you're jumping through too many loops, too many decisions have to be made before you've even started work. I mean, that can cause mass anxiety, or it does, it would for me, and it has before. Um, and then you feel guilty because you get to the end of the day and you're like, you know, you might have done quite a bit that day, but do you look at what you've done, or do you then look instead at the things that you haven't done? Um, I'm thinking it might be the latter. I've done it myself. I don't, I do now, but I didn't use to kind of pat myself on the back and say, Oh, you know what, you've done this, this, and this. Okay, fair enough you've not done that, but I have done this and I have moved the needle forward in my business. Okay, so it's very simple. Time blocking. Now, I would have thought many of you would have heard of time blocking, but I know that not everyone does it. Now, for me, I get to a Sunday night. This is what I was doing last year, and I would plan my week. But I've changed it up quite a bit this year so far. So last year, as many of you know, I had to step out of my business and step into my dad's company uh because obviously he uh he passed away very suddenly. So it wasn't something that for me it wasn't even it was it was just very, very sudden and a very, very good shock. Um we are coming up to a year, and for me it definitely hasn't got any better. It's I think if anything, it's got worse with losing him. But one thing that I knew, being an entrepreneur, he was an amazing, successful entrepreneur, he would be rooting for me to kind of get on with it. So I stepped back into my business last Monday on the 5th. So have lots of different things coming up that will help you in your businesses. But back to what we were talking about, I digressed slightly there. So time blocking. So last year, I I've gotta be honest, I I time blocked, but I did it not to my benefit. So what I did, and I'm gonna tell you this because I think it's really, really important to be able to tell you the mistakes that I have made and I have rectified so that you don't make those mistakes. So when I was time blocking last year, I was doing it for the week. So on a Sunday, I would sit on a Sunday evening and I would just go through my week and time block everything off. But the way that I would do it is I would put everything else onto my Google Diary. Love the Google Diary because you can access it wherever, and I love that. Um, but I would put everything on there for everyone else first. So all the things that I had to do would go on first for everyone else, and then I would slot myself in where I could. I mean, I mean, I say it to myself now and I hear myself say it. I mean, it was just a massive mistake. It really, really was. So a lot of people do time block for the week, but I thought, right, okay, you know what? I'm not I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna time block for the month. And you know, it really made a difference. So the first thing that I did is I put myself at the front. So I put myself first and I put everything that I needed to do, everything in my business, everything personal, exercise, appointments, everything in my life went on first into the month of January. And it took me quite a while, actually. I was doing it for for quite a while. Um it was quite therapeutic. Um, and then after that, I then slotted in everything else for everyone else where I could. Now, just doing that made me feel so much more better. And it also, by doing it for the month, it also made me foresee things. So there was a particular day where I was like, right, well, that at that time I'm supposed to be swimming. That's not gonna happen because I'm supposed to be a disappointment. Now, has to be honest, if that had happened maybe a couple of days before, or I hadn't noticed until maybe the day, I wouldn't have gone swimming. I mean, don't get me wrong, we're not at that date yet, but I wouldn't go. I would just be like, oh, I'll just give that up for I won't do that today. But I was able to look at it and go, okay, that's fine, I'll go early in the morning. That I'll I'll do that so that I've got my exercise in. So it is definitely, definitely working. Um, that's not to say that on a Sunday evening I don't quickly have a look at the week because I have done that. I looked at it and go, right, okay, is there anything that needs to be moved? And if there is, I move it. I think it also makes you look if you're dry if you're jumping through hoops. So last week, my one of my goals this year was to, or it is, because you've got you're only on the second week, but is to put myself first. Now, how many of you put yourself first? I would probably say not a huge amount of you. It's important. You have to put yourself first. Now, for me, I haven't put myself first in definitely my son's lifetime, 21 years, without a doubt. Just I've always come bottom of the pile. But to quote that, is it an analogy? I don't know. But if you're on a plane and that plane is going down, you put your mask on first so that you can help other people. And you know, we've all heard that. We've all, you know, we've all heard that. But how many of us actually do it? Now, I'm 46 this month, and I think for me, what happened is I always put everyone else first, and then I kind of got into a bit of a habit. It doesn't work because if you are not on point, if you are not the best that you can be for yourself, believe me, you cannot help anyone else. Honestly, it it makes it it makes it so much more difficult. So it's taken me long enough, but I have definitely learned that. I'm by putting myself first, I'm a better mum, much better mum. I think I'm a good mum anyway. But I'm I'm a better mum. I'm able to, even though I I am a massive support to my son, and I do say that, you know, don't oh gosh, I can't get my way that now, I do say that myself. But I'm even I can eat I can be a better support now because I feel better in myself, and that is how it's supposed to work. Um, so that I think that's very, very, very important. So if you are not doing it, start time blocking, start time blocking your time, and also don't put loads onto your day. Just don't do it. Don't time block every hour. And you will see a pattern of what you can cope with and what you can't. And also, you know, obviously, this is a business podcast. If you have a business, which I know most of you do, or if you are thinking of starting a business, do things that are gonna move the needle in your business. Don't spend hours doing a social media post. It's not gonna move anything in your business. Choose wisely, work smart. You don't have to be working every hour. You you really, really don't. You work smart, you work better, you work smart, you do the things that are gonna move the needle that are actually gonna lead to you getting no sales or sales. And I cannot stress that enough. And this does come down to time blocking your time of where is best, where your time is best spent. And if you can get the time blocking right, and you can be really clever with it, strategize it, only put things on there that are gonna serve you and your business, of course, your family as well. But you do need to be strategic 100% so that you are not scattered, so that you are not jumping through hoops, so that you are not spinning on your head and going to bed feeling really stressed. Now, before I finish this app, I just wanna, you know that I'm very extremely authentic. A lot of these apps I don't even edit because I like the I like to just have it very raw. Okay, I mean I might start editing in the future because of background noise, but you know, my my my apps are very, very raw and they're very honest. Now, last week was the first full week of 2026, and I was really excited for that week. I knew that I was going back to my business on the fifth, and I, you know, I was I was quite nervous, I've got to be honest, and it's a very slow comeback. I'm not rushing it because I don't need to. Um, you know, I haven't even got any offers out there, but that's okay because it's not gonna be a rushed job. Some things you just you can't rush. So Monday was it was a really good day. Tuesday I had an appointment, and then I did land up with quite a lot of work from that appointment. And then because I'm still going into my bads company, I was gonna go in on the Wednesday. So I was like, oh goodness, I'm not gonna be able to do that now because I've got quite a lot of work. So that was on my Google Dory. So I loved it, you know, I changed it and I thought, okay, that that's that. So on the Wednesday, there was some really stressful, how can I put it? There's there was just some stuff going on that was really stressful, and it's through my week. Now, because I time locked everything, I was able to change everything up. So I was able to move things, but I didn't do what I wanted to do on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It just didn't happen. In fact, there was a few things that I wanted to do on the Monday and Tuesday, but I was kind of okay, you know, with moving then. But on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I got completely thrown. So what I'm trying to say to you, these days will happen. And if you've time blocked everything, you know what was supposed to be on those blocks, move it, don't put yourself under pressure. Honestly, it's not even worth it. Now, on the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the things that happened, it did make me feel like I had kind of been mentally and physically dragged through a hedge backwards, and it completely knocked me off course. Now, a lot of business pods, you probably wouldn't hear this type of conversation on. But again, I'm I'm honest. So, what I what I want to say and what I want to take from that is if you get to a weep and you think, oh my goodness, I I I need to move stuff, I can't do this, I'm just really struggling right now. Don't mentally beat yourself up for that, okay? Because this is the thing, this is what I was saying at the start. You have to acknowledge reality and life and business and everything else that comes with that. Sometimes it can throw you curbs. So if it does do that, move, move stuff. It's okay to do that. It I mean, it really is okay. And then once you've got yourself together, you've had a cup of tea, then you can move on. And I'm gonna be honest, it's taken me Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, Saturday and Sunday too, to be able to, I've got to be honest, get myself together actually. Um, and you know, life happens, doesn't it? Life happens. So if you do anything today, time block, time block, however you want to do it. You might just want to do it for the day, you might want to do it for a few days, a week or a month. Whatever is gonna work for you, do it so that you're not scattered, so you're not slaves to do your to do list. It's not worth it. I hope you've taken even just a little something from this episode this week. I've loved doing it, and I've also loved being able to be really honest and raw with you. Now, my DMs are always open. You can email me, get in contact if you have any questions. If you need any help, I'm always here. We can put in a call or do a zoom or whatever you want, and I can help you with it. Okay, have a great week. Have a really good week. Remember, don't take on too much, take it in your stride and