Do you have trouble saying "no"? Do you worry about letting others down or missing out on an opportunity because you say "no"? In this episode, Leah discusses saying "no", why it’s important, and how to practice this in your life. When we say yes, we are also saying "no" to other things.

Sometimes situations come into our lives that are simple yeses or easy nos, but other times we may struggle with saying "no". Saying "no" is an important muscle that we need to exercise, not only for our own protection, but for others.

Expressing a direct "no" helps us to feel empowered, and it protects our time and energy while also being kind to the other person. We can use stand-up words like “I won’t” or “I don’t” when we say "no", and we can express our appreciation for the consideration.

Sometimes saying "no" can be difficult if our brains aren’t used to it, so practicing with ourselves or friends can help rewire our pathways and make saying "no" easier when the time comes.

Learning how to say "no" and exercising this muscle is important since it protects and empowers us while showing kindness to those on the other end.

In this episode, Leah reviews some of the things we've learned about finding and setting our priorities. When we don't know what we should be aiming at, life can often feel like a game of Chutes and Ladders. You work so hard only to find yourself sliding back to where you were ten moves ago. That's why it's important that when we set our priorities, we are setting them with a clear understanding of our values and our roles.

It's also important that we are intentional about how we set our priorities and spend our time. If we don't establish priorities (and boundaries) we will often find that we are ruled by the demands of the day, and not the other way around. We can also find ourselves acting upon other people's priorities to the neglect of our own.

Now is a good time to figure out what your priorities are. Set aside a little time with a pencil and paper, follow with Leah as she guides you through the process, and refer back to other episodes as needed.

Life is chaotic. You've got a million things all demanding your attention and you feel like the things you really want or need to get done just never get done. You thought you would have time for them later, but that time has mysteriously disappeared. Where did it go? It may be time for you to do a time audit.

In this episode Leah walks us through the process of time auditing: tracking your time so you can find out how you are actually spending it. She discusses some of the reasons you may want or need to do one yourself. As it turns out, we tend to give ourselves more time for things that don't matter than we should, or more time for things that do matter than we really need.

One of the side benefits of time auditing is that it can reveal other things that affect our effectiveness, like our energy. When am I most energetic at my best? When am I feeling drained? When is the best time for me to do mental work?

Leah suggests that once we've tracked our time we can begin working to budget for the really important things, and let everything else squeeze in where they can.