Time Stewardship Over Time Management

Your schedule can look “full” on paper and still feel empty in your body. We’re getting honest about why traditional time management often fails women, and why a better path is stewarding time with intention, surrender and wisdom. Time isn’t something we can buy back, so every yes carries a cost and every unplanned commitment can quietly steal peace, presence and health.

We dig into what stewardship actually means, how overcommitment builds a reactive life, and why chronic exhaustion is a warning sign we should take seriously. We talk boundaries as protection rather than punishment, and the mindset shift from trying to control everything to asking, “Lord, what belongs in this season?” You’ll hear practical ways to simplify without perfectionism, including the 4D filter (delete, delegate, delay, do differently), choosing clear priorities for today, and building anchors that create steady rhythms.

We also cover buffers and margin so the unexpected doesn’t wreck your whole day, plus parallel productivity as a smarter way to use the time you already have. The biggest takeaway is simple and challenging: put rest in your calendar first, because sustainable productivity starts with a regulated nervous system and a protected inner life.

If you want extra support, I invite you to join the She’s Organised Hub and keep learning with coaching call replays and resources, plus extra support from me. 

Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s worn out, and leave a review so more women can find a calmer, more intentional way to steward their time.

Transcript

Welcome And Settle In

Mel 0:37

Welcome to Beyond Organised, the podcast that helps you simplify your life and amplify your purpose. I'm Mel Schenker, life coach, speaker, founder of She's Organised, but, more importantly, a wife and mum of four little kids. If you've ever felt overwhelmed, like you're constantly juggling everything but never quite catching up, this is the place for you. Here we go beyond just the tidying up and creating systems. We're talking about real life strategies that bring order to your life, but also we talk about the things beyond the organising, the things that really matter, like your parenting relationships and so much more. So grab your coffee and let's dive in.

Time Stewardship Over Time Management

Mel 1:01

Today I wanted to talk about time. Now you've heard me talk about it in ways that help you with organizing, managing, all of that. I want to come from a little bit more of a deeper angle today and talk about stewarding time. So it's about being intentional with our time so we're not exhausted from it. As women, when we look at our schedule and our days end up chaotic and out of control, no matter how much we try to plan, prioritize, do all the things, are we coming from a place of just trying to manage things and prioritize things in the physical sense? Or are we actually coming at it from an angle of stewarding our time? Now, for those that don't know what stewardship means, at the heart of it, it's the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving. So in this case, it's actually overseeing and protecting time. Now, time is something that is not guaranteed to any of us. It's something that the Lord has blessed us with, and He tells us, you know, today is a day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. It's a bit hard to do that when our nervous system is running high and we are just on overdrive because we are dealing with crisis after crisis, and we're dealing with so many things that don't allow us to properly steward our time. Time is precious because life is precious. Without time, we wouldn't have existence as we know it. So it really is important to be able to not just manage it, but to steward it well.

The Real Cost Of Saying Yes

Mel 3:06

Every yes that you say to something, it costs you. I used to be someone that used to say yes to absolutely everything, but I was afraid of saying no. Boy, that is a long time ago now. I am a different person now. And I can tell you that I learned that if I'm saying yes to everything, it's costing me. Now it might not cost me money, but costing me time is a huge, huge resource that is not worth the price anymore for a lot of the things. Now, money comes and goes, resources come and go. Even friendships come and go. Now, obviously, some great friends I've had through most of my life, and I hope that they're there for the rest of it too. But time is something that cannot be replaced, cannot be bought, cannot be transactioned in any other way, other than having it be passed one way or another. Time will pass, it will continue to tick on. You can have all the money in the world. You can't buy more time. Now, yes, learning to increase your income, all that kind of stuff, can give you some time back that you can use how you like, but you can't necessarily buy time. So it is important to steward and look after what we've got. Now, in saying that, there's been plenty of instances where people have been at the point where their time is up. And through intercessory prayer, the Lord has granted extra time. People that have had years more than what was originally planned for them because of healing, because of avoiding a particular crisis, whatever it is, we can definitely pray into it more and have more time in that sense. But is God going to give you more time if you don't know how to look after the time you've already got? I know I want to have as much time as I possibly can with my kids, my future grandkids, maybe even my great-grandkids. I want as much time as possible. But it's important what I do with that time and how I look after and oversee that time now. Many

Overcommitment And A Surrendered Season

Mel 5:37

women are overcommitted. They never stop to ask, Lord, what actually belongs in this season? What should I be doing in this season? What should I be surrendering in this season? Because it's not just about doing and doing all the things. It's about surrendering and living from a surrendered life. There's many scriptures that can help back us up in being more intentional with our time and studing it well. Psalms 90, verse 12, Ephesians 5, verse 15 to 16, Colossians 4, 5. I won't go through it all, but you can look these up. And it tells us to make the most of every opportunity and be careful with the time that you have got. Does your calendar, does your schedule, does your life reflect the stewardship that the Lord is asking of you with the hours that He's given you? What currently has your attention? Is it something that the Lord has asked you to focus on? Or is it something that's just consuming your energy because you're reacting to that time? So it's important as we go through this that we identify where our time is going, what we're spending it on, and why, the importance of it. Are we prioritizing? Are we just going with the flow? And look, neither is bad, neither is good. It depends on whether you're being intentional with it all with the Lord. So it's important to identify so we can start to steward it well. Now,

Reactive Living And Burnout Warnings

Mel 7:26

then we've got to move into simplifying it all. Because when you are reactively living, it creates exhaustion. I think you know that. I've covered it so many times. I'm sure every other professional and expert and guru out there will say the same thing. When you're living reactively, you will just be exhausted. Your nervous system is on overdrive, it'll shut down, you burn out. And unfortunately, exhaustion has just been normalized, almost like a badge of honor these days. And it's a badge I don't want to wear. And yes, exhaustion can still happen. There can be medical reasons. There can be things that are completely out of your control, and things happen, and you can just be exhausted for a day. But when we're talking long-term exhaustion, I I'm not a scientist, I'm not a doctor, but I'm sure you can know and do some research yourself to know the long-term effects can be catastrophic and can send you to an early grave. Is that stewarding your time well? We live reacting instead of leading intentionally. Many women just feel so emotionally scattered and stretched because there's no buffers, there's no margin in the way that you're spending your time. You're literally waking up as soon as the baby cries, you're falling asleep in a heap on the couch at the end of the day once all the kids are put to bed. You might not even make it that far. From the start of your day through to the end of the day, is any of it being intentional? Are you choosing to spend maybe the first five minutes you wake up with the Lord? Not saying you have to, but maybe that could be one way where you can be intentional and let Him dictate the outcome of this day in a good positive way and not starting from literally running on fumes. Burnout usually begins before a full breakdown. Now, if you're already at the stage where you're feeling burnt out, then I am sorry to hear that. But there are ways out of that. Trust me, there are ways. I've been there a number of times, and it's just it can be hard. It can be a bit of work to get out of in some respects, but it also doesn't need to be when we know and understand from a heart posture what it truly means to live a surrendered life. You know, burnout and breakdowns and all that, it can start from overextending, overcommitting, not understanding the boundaries that you even want to have because you've you've just never said no or you've struggled to say no. Or maybe you're at the point where you're saying no to absolutely everything, even the things that you once enjoyed. You're saying no to catching up with a friend. You're saying no to watching a movie with your husband. You're saying no to all these things that you even once enjoyed simply because you are just surviving. And that that's a really hard place to be in. But also let it motivate you to make a change, to move away from that pain and stepping towards the purposes that God has for you. Burnout is often a boundary problem before it becomes a capacity problem. You need to have boundaries in place, both the positive and for the negative. You need to have those boundaries in place. You need to know why you are saying yes or no to certain things. You need to understand why. Are you just reacting? Are you just saying yes out of being polite, out of fear of man, out of obligation? Are you saying yes because it's a promise you made? It's okay to say yes. But it's also important to understand why. Are you saying yes because it's something you've always done and you don't know any different? What would happen if the next time you were asked to do that particular thing, to be that particular place, to whatever that situation is, the next time you were asked, you said no. What would happen? Now, I understand that sometimes it's not possible to say no, but I challenge you, even when you think it's not possible, I challenge you to think what could happen if you said no, and would the whole world fall apart? There's a particular verse that I've highlighted a lot in my group coaching calls, in my Bible studies, even on the podcast with Matthew 11, 28. Come to me, all you who are wearied and burdened, and I will give you rest. They were Jesus' words. And that is the living word. He's saying that to you now, just as relevant today as it was over 2,000 years ago. It's an important verse and one that's worth pondering on, meditating and actually understanding what it's like to live truly in that rest. Also, a similar verse in Mark 6.31 that's worth looking at too. Protecting your peace, it's not selfish. It's part of the stewardship in how you are managing the life that God has given you. It's wise stewardship. So once you've identified where your time is going, how you're using it, how it's being stewarded, and you start going through and you're simplifying it, you're understanding it, you're breaking it down, going, okay, what can I do about this?

The 4D Filter And Simple Priorities

Mel 13:47

You can use the 4D filter inside the Beltrix method. Delete, where you can remove things, delegate, get other people to help you with things. Delay. So that's maybe putting some things aside to focus on the priorities and do differently. Challenge the way it's always been done. Just like I said, in why have you always said yes? Challenge that. And then you can start to move into the flow of how this is supposed to look in your everyday life. There are some practical ways to steward your time better. And I'm going to cover some of those. Firstly, choose your priorities. Work out your most important tasks, the things that have to get done that day, the people you're supposed to connect with that day. Work out your priorities for the day. Make it simple. You don't even have to do the whole week, the whole month, the whole year, just today. Let God direct your day today. And if you're following in the way that He has for you, all the days ahead will be taken care of anyway. Use the 4D filter, like I said, the delete, the delegate, delay, do differently. Use that to see where you can simplify areas of your life so you can get some of that time back. You want to build anchors into your day. So whether it's spending that first few minutes talking to the Lord, maybe it's the first half an hour. You go into your little prayer room and spend time with the Lord. Maybe it's going for a walk at the end of a long day. Whatever it is, you can have certain anchors in the day that you know once you finish and you get home from work, before you cook dinner, you go for a walk. And that can be anchored in to be some downtime. Maybe go for a walk with the kids, get them on the bikes, go out as a family, do something like that. It doesn't have to be alone. It can be with your family. And you can start enjoying time with them rather than trying to avoid them altogether because they're part of the problem. Don't want to live like that. We didn't have kids just for them to add more problems to our lives. I know that it can be that way sometimes and it can seem that way. But we want to enjoy them. They are a blessing and they are a gift. And it's important to get back to the truth in that. So building anchors into your day, you know that okay, before you even go to work, you pop on a load of washing. It's set habits that are connected with other habits. And if you want to go deeper into it, the book by James Clear, Atomic Habits, that can really help with anchoring and creating those anchors and habits in your day. Next point is stop trying to catch up on life. I feel like every woman I talk to, one way or another, is always trying to play catch up in something, whether it's the household chores, whether it's their schedule, whether it's the fact that they didn't have enough money for their kids to play sports earlier on, but now they've got a bit more money. So they're throwing their kids into every activity and it's overloading them too. Stop trying to play catch up. Start today as your starting point. If you're behind in the washing, you're behind in the dishes, you are now finding your feet financially, whatever it is, let today be the start. Don't try and make up for all the lost time and all the different things. That's not for you to control. That's for the Lord to provide that restoration on your time, on your finances, on anything. Just start from today. That in itself can be really freeing when you actually grasp that. Another practical point you could do is create buffers in your day. And when you add that margin in and you allow for the unexpected to happen, then you're not so rushed and you're not so stretched. When you are literally going from one meeting, one appointment, one activity right after the other with not even enough buffer time to allow for traffic. And it's a very stressful day. And if you're looking at your schedule now, going it's just not possible, then maybe you need to re-evaluate some of the things that you're doing in the day, how you're going about it. If this job is even the right job, if all these activities are what you should be doing in this season or your children should be doing this season, you need to reevaluate and work it out. Now, if it's one day in the week, that's like really jam-packed, but the rest is fine. If you can manage that one day, fine, great. But when you're running every day like that, that's exhausting and you will burn out. So it's important to create those buffers and that margin and allow yourself to have a bit of space and a bit of downtime in between the intense intervals. You know, as much as you don't know what the future holds, what's going to happen potentially 10 minutes from now, let alone 10 years from now, there are certain patterns and there are certain things you can predict as well. And I think it's important to try and prepare as much as possible for the unexpected, but don't be consumed by it either. So part of this intentional stewardship of your time, you can go too far the other way, where you're constantly preparing for the what-ifs and you're not living in the now, that's dangerous too. But it can equally be just as dangerous if you're constantly living in the moment and you're not even thinking about the future. So it's important to have a bit of a balance where you're preparing for things that may potentially happen, but you're not constantly living in that state.

Parallel Productivity And Rest First

Mel 20:03

One point that I've mentioned a number of times throughout, but I haven't really talked about a lot lately is parallel productivity. So that's where you pair a high cognitive function with a low cognitive function. So it's kind of like doing something automatic with something manual. So it could be listening to a podcast while you go for a run. It could be listening to an audiobook while you're folding the laundry. It's pairing different things. So you don't need more time. You are multitasking in a way that's actually efficient. So it's not the traditional multitasking that people talk about that loses efficiency because you're literally doing two of the same type of tasks, like you're trying to help the kids with homework while you're cooking. That can be tricky, particularly if they both require your physical presence to do those tasks. But when you're pairing something that requires perhaps thinking in that sense with something that is doing, and they're two different kinds of tasks that can be done at the same time, then it can save you that time as well. It could be a better use of your time. Instead of just sitting down to watch the TV, you hop on the treadmill while you watch the TV. Doesn't mean you don't get to watch TV at all. But maybe you're getting those steps in that you've been really wanting to do at the same time as just being able to watch your favorite show. So it's just using that time a little bit more wisely. But my last and probably most important point that I will suggest, put rest in your calendar first. I know it almost seems counterproductive, but it's like when I used to work in a call center and you could see the shift for the day, and you could see what time your breaks were scheduled at the start of the shift. So you knew you can try and take your breaks as close to the scheduled time as possible. To then not impact on your targets and all that kind of stuff. So it's sort of similar in your day. When you look at the day and you look at all the things you've got on, go, okay, this can be my downtime. I can have a break here. I can do this then. And you just slow it down and you schedule in those breaks before you even start your day. So then you know when you hit those certain times, all right, I'm gonna take a break now. I'm gonna stop. And even if things are running over, you're being more intentional about it because otherwise you're just gonna keep going and you're gonna just fall into bed in a heap at the end of the day. And you're no good to anyone at that point. So schedule the rest at the start of the day, like you would schedule breaks and have that there at the start of a shift. So be intentional about it so you can be more sustainable in how you work throughout the day. Stewarding your time is not about getting to a place of perfecting your schedule, managing it just seamlessly, any of that. It's being able to protect and oversee the hours, the days, the months, the years that the Lord has given us so you can actually live that peaceful, intentional life that reflects God's wisdom instead of the world's pressure. It's important to be prepared, but don't aim for perfect. I've been stuck in that loop and it's just not worth it. It's important to just take one intentional step at a time. Focus on today. Don't worry about tomorrow. The Bible even tells us don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow has enough troubles of its own. And so if you are finding yourself in this season going, okay, I

Support Inside The She’s Organised Hub

Mel 23:52

get it. I probably need a little bit more help in how to steward my time, then I invite you to come inside the She's Organized Hub. I recently went through this in a coaching call, and I've got a lot more resources and previous coaching calls there ready for you, as well as me being in there to help you through this. I encourage you to come in and join. You can just join month to month. You can join for the whole year, you can stay as long as you like. But I would love to be able to help you with this because a lot of women that I've come across as a coach and in this journey, they are moving from pain. They're in this season where they just want to get away from it. They want to do better and they're moving away from the pain. But I also help you be able to see that it's like I can help you move away from that pain, but to also start to have a vision for the future and moving towards that purpose. So you're not just moving away from something bad, you're moving towards something good. And let me help you with that mindset as well in being able to reshape that and reframe all of that properly. So I'd love to be able to help you inside the She's Organized Hub. And if you've got friends, you can invite them in there too, and you actually get a commission for it as well. So if you've got questions though, anything that you want to reach out about, I'm always available. You can send me an email, you can reach out in my DMs on Instagram, and I will happily, happily help answer some questions to get you started and moving you forward in being able to steward your time intentionally. Today's episode, honestly, it literally just scraped the surface. There is so much depth that goes into this, and I only just touched, just touched on the real minimum basics. And it requires a lot more time than what I could do with this podcast, but it gives you a taste to understand that you don't have to necessarily manage your time the way that all the productivity experts out there say either. That there is a more aligned biblical way of managing your time. The Lord is calling you into and to understand better. So if you've got questions, reach out and we'll be more than happy to help you.

Subscribe And Free Toolkit

Mel 26:22

If you like this episode, don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you want to continue the conversation, you can connect with me on Instagram @shes.organised or for some free resources, head over to beyondorganised.com/toolkit. Remember, organising is a tool to live the purposeful life beyond it. See you next time.time.