Time Management: A Conversation With Professional Organizer Marie-Odette Moubayed
EPISODE 16
by Dianne Jimenez
This article takes 26 minutes to read
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Alright! So today’s episode is kind of like a switch-a-roo. So remember I interviewed fellow professional organizer, Stéphanie Galipeau.
So today, I’m sharing with you a conversation I had with another fellow organizer, who’s also become a close friend too. Funny thing is though, we haven’t even known each other that long. She became a member of the Professional Organizers in Canada back in January 2021 and I think our first ever phone conversation ended up being 3-hours long over coffee and giggles over the phone. Like, it was just laughs, shared stories over similar family situations and… our love for food and charcuterie….just a few months after she started.
I don’t know, but … have you ever met someone and it just clicked? Anyway … it was as though we were meant to be friends.
Talking about meeting kindred spirits, there’s a bit of a woo-woo about how THIS conversation, that I’m going to share with you, started. So Marie-Odette Moubayed from Casa Pure, also working here in Montreal, Quebec, called me up one day to do this whole conversation -thing LIVE on Instagram. She’s NEVER gone LIVE before and was really nervous about it. And she said to me, ‘Who better to do this with than with Dianne?!’
And here’s where the woo-woo part comes in. Before she called, I was thinking about her that week… or a few days before about doing some sort of collaboration thing.
Crazy isn’t it?
So in today’s episode, like I mentioned earlier, is something different where I’m sharing the conversation I had with fellow pro organizer, and gal-pal.
We’ll be covering Time Management, how we set up and plan our weekly schedules, how we set up our goals, and also share what works for us when it comes to managing our tasks.
Remember, this WAS a recording from an Instagram Live so the volume or sound might be a little different from what I normally put out each week. And I almost forgot to mention, I’m so glad to be able to share this with you because, like Instagram Live newbies that we are, it was accidentally deleted from her feed just a few minutes after we went LIVE! (laughs)
And now you have it right here, for your listening pleasure any time you want!
So let’s get this whole thing started. Let’s go!
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MO: This is very exciting. Our first LIVE together and I’m happy. I’m actually happy because you know, I have problems with time management and I know you’re pretty much an expert in time management. I have a few questions for you.
D: Ah man! I thought we were just going to have a conversation
MO: Yeah. I’m sure some people will benefit from these tips you’re going to give. I remember the first time we spoke about this, you told me that having time slots, where you can actually put in everything you have to do and then working around that, really helps in not cramming your schedule.
D: Yes, exactly. But let’s first introduce ourselves because you have your people and I have my people… and they don’t know what we do, or who we are!
MO: That’s right. That’s right. Okay. So go first Dianne
D: Okay. So I’m Dianne. My company’s name is one 1 Tidy Place. I’m a professional organizer, just like Madame Marie Odette, here in Montreal, in the west island of Montreal….So a little far from my gal pal here and…
MO: South Shore! South Shore vibes. (laughs)
D: I’m a mom of three. And my specialty basically is helping families get organized and helping parents get organized: their life and their home so that the kids are involved too, because mama can’t do everything by herself. Well, she can, but she could use some help!
So I’m there to get everybody on board because it shouldn’t fall on just us, you know?
MO: Yeah, I definitely know and that’s a very good point. And even you say: ‘we can, we can do it all’ , but I gave up multitasking a long time ago, just cause I can’t, I don’t feel I can give a hundred percent to whatever task I’m doing if I have something else on the back burner or I’m thinking of another task that has to be done.
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Of course you can get something done while a load of laundry is actually cleaning on its own. But knowing that I actually have to help with homework, prepare supper, plan day camps, upcoming day camps, or doctor appointments or whatever.
D: ….And answer all the questions..!
MO: Exactly.
D: ….And then be the referee (laughs)
MO: Exactly. Yes, exactly! So as for myself, I’m also a home organizer. I don’t do as much virtual (work) as my friend Dianne over here, who works very closely with families. I do a lot of in-home decluttering. That’s my niche. I love to help families declutter, find their space back, especially when they’ve lost control of their spaces. That overwhelming mess, that paralyzing mess that just stops us from actually moving forward, leaves us just blocked.
So basically that’s what I like to do. I’m a mom of four. Two generations: big kids, little kids, and a full house. Everybody’s still at home, so there’s always action, there’s always incoming, outgoing, girlfriend’s, friends…, I don’t mind the noise. I don’t mind the laughing, the screaming, the crying. I do need a bit of quiet time though. I’m very strong on quiet-time. And so that’s it!
I started my company about a year ago and I’m just loving it. I’m loving connecting with all these people that need help clearing their space.
So tell me, I know you’re very good at helping moms manage their time. You’re very good at helping moms organize their, not just their living space, but their this over here [shows agenda]. (laughs) Yes!
D: Yes, we should give a shout out to this Montreal company W. Maxwell on St-Henri, Montreal. I’ve been getting their planners for the past four years now.
MO: Yeah, they’re absolutely amazing. And I love how the time slots here are so well-defined. You have enough space to actually write notes, to actually manage your schedule half hour by half hour…
D: So, you can plug in what you have for the month. And then after that, plug it in during the week, and then whatever things that you need to get done during the day too.
MO: So you do both? You do monthly and weekly?
D: Yes
MO: Oh! Interesting.
D: Yeah, I started this… so like just going back to answering your question of how I plan my week.
So it goes even bigger than that. So I’ll go step out and then zone in for what’s to be done on a daily (basis) actually. So I started looking into this, I really put my foot down, I think when school started this year. Everything started getting back on track. And I had to say, ‘Okay, I need to get my business back on track and I want to be on top of that’. So I printed out from my computer, four months worth of calendars. So from September, till December, and then I had plugged in all the things that I wanted to do for my business.
I start basically with the fixed stuff.
So what can not move? And I don’t have control over, but (also) what I want, and that has no flexibility. So I’ll plug those in my calendar on a monthly, and then on a weekly, and then on a daily. And I’ll show you that in a second.
But I’d go out first and then after that I zone in. So I plug in all the things that I want that need to get done, that I want done. So those are my objectives for a quarter. When I get to the quarter, I’m very visual. So I need to see the pictures. I need to see where things land.
And then after that, I’ll break it down in the weeks. And then I’ll have 3 objectives for my business down here of what I want done. And then I’ll plug it in on the days that I have space.
So just going back to being more visual, when I set up my week, every day, because I also work at the school, I supervise lunch. So those, I cannot move. So I will block off the lunch period, including my travel time and I’ll even block out a space for my lunchtime, whether I’m going to decide to take it after or before.
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So those would be really like, I can’t move those. And then, I’d have big chunks in the morning of space. And before, I used to block it out and mark, for example ‘Prepare the kids lunches and get them ready for school’. So I really had a small portion of ‘me’ time before the kids wake up, and right after the kids go to school. And then after that I have to go to work. So I always had that little block of time.
But now that the kids are more organized and they make their own lunches, my mornings are open.
In the afternoon, same thing. I will block it off after four o’clock, I know they’re walking in here and it’s time for me to shut down. And then I will make sure that my spaces that I work before and after lunch are focused on the goals that I had set for this week.
MO: Okay. So just to recapitulate, so you set your fixed content or your fixed objectives, let’s say for the, for the quarter and then once you’ve done that and it’s fixed, you actually give yourself weekly objectives for your business that are going to go in the free time slots, where you are alone, your kids aren’t home. So this is business wise. How do you fit personal time in there?
D: Personal time. Woo. That’s a work in progress. But I started, recently started a pole fitness class. I don’t know if I’ve told you?
MO: That’s so interesting. Really?
D: Yeah. I, this is week two. I did a pole class 10 years ago when my first born was just a baby, he was 9 months. I decided I want to feel like myself again. I want to feel sexy. I want to feel like you know?
MO: How old are your kids now?
D: 11, 9 and 8. So grade 2, grade 4, grade 6.
MO: Wow. Okay. Yeah. So it’s been a while…
D: It’s just that it’s just been a couple of years. But yeah, 10 years ago I tried a pole dancing class and it was really fun. It’s so hard. And yesterday it was, it was great. So I’m around different women. I think they’re younger than me and I don’t think they have kids… but the teachers have kids, you know? So it’s great. But there’s no judgment, you know? And, so I have the pole classes once a week and now soon I’ll be starting my jujitsu classes again.
MO: If I remember correctly, you do as a family?
D: Yes. We were doing jiu-jitsu as a family and especially with COVID we were doing it in the basement on Zoom. So the kids would have their classes, the adults would have their classes and it was great. And then once things started opening up, well, everybody went and I stayed… I stopped completely…. just because I didn’t feel comfortable leaving while the kids are home or, you know, I’m always gone at night. But now they’re talking about opening a ladies classes only for jujitsu; they’re going to be on Sundays and Thursday nights.
MO: So, is your pole dancing during the night as well? Like in the evening?
D: Yes, it’s after the kids go to sleep. It’s 8: 30.
MO: Oh Wow. Okay. All right. Perfect. So during the day you don’t necessarily like in the morning, do you give yourself a bit of coffee time for mommy only or…
D: There’s always time for coffee!
MO: Good point, good point. Alright. So basically your ‘me’ time is after the kids go to bed.
D: I’ve been doing an observation about myself that I only feel comfortable and just almost more creative at night. I’ve always been creative past 9:00 PM. And then I get that surge of energy, I think now, especially because I’m a mom and a wife, when everybody’s taken care of and they’re asleep and safe? And then my mind starts going.
You know, it’s kinda like when you’re in the shower, you have all of these ideas?
MO: Yes, yes totally.
D: Well, that happens when everybody’s snoring. (laughs)
MO: Yeah.
D: (laughs)…and then I can’t help it. Then it’s 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock in the morning and I’m like…[shocked]
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MO: …That I find a bit of a struggle actually, because I’m not much of a morning person, although I will get up a half hour before everybody else for a bit of meditation… I started yoga again now that we’re two years into the pandemic, I gave myself that objective. I said, I’m getting back on that mat even if it’s 10 minutes just to say, ‘I’m starting again’. I really miss it. I miss my hot yoga actually. I don’t know why I can’t seem to take those evenings and just go.
But I find that after the kids go to bed at 9, they go to bed at 8-8:30. But when I actually get to my room at nine or …. 9:30, I’m zonked. I’m gone. I’m, like, finished, I’m exhausted.
I just have a bit of reading time, magazine… whatever. I need a good 9 hours of sleep. So, it’s hard for me to actually say I go to bed at 11, wake up at six, you know, like a lot of normal people do (laughs). I need those extra ZZZs.
So I try to fit personal time in my day just to make sure I get some sort of fulfillment. Because if I’m always doing mommy duty, business duty, home duty, wife duty… I feel that at a certain point, ‘me duty’ is set aside. And then I’m there like, ‘okay, well where, where do I fit this time in?’
I don’t have the energy at 9 o’clock at night to say,’ okay, I’m sitting down and I’m going to plan, or I’m going to do this’, et cetera. So, I’m really trying to find, like a, time in my day.
So far, the only time I found is before they wake up and that’s a struggle for myself, cause I’m not a morning person.
D: I get it.
MO: So do you think, do you think that within my time slots, during the day I can fit in some personal time? Some ‘me’ time?
D: Of course. And I heard in the podcast also because it’s also for your mental health… and your wellbeing… and you define what’s healthy for you mentally. So it could be taking a walk. It could be just, like, hugging your kids and playing with them. Or just quiet or having your coffee, going on your yoga mat and then doing some stretches for like,10 minutes.
So as long as you have something that helps you disconnect from everybody else in a healthy, positive way,… whatever it is, and you decide to do that at a specific time, you know like on a daily routine, or wherever you can plug it in, and that works for you? There’s no recipe, like: oh, you should do this and you should do that. Like yeah, there’s an ideal calendar. There’s an ideal schedule…But especially for mental health, because not every day is the same, we’re not stressed out the same way every day….
So finding those tips and those… outlets to plug in for ourselves at certain times when we need it… I think it’s a balancing act. And I think you’re golden …if you can find that… and find that outlet…. to feel rejuvenated and re-energized and at peace again, so that you can keep going throughout your day.
MO: You see, I’m going to stop you there where you said ’Our days are not all the same’. So do you plan your weeks? Like pretty much ‘Monday I do my content planning. Tuesday I’m going to do, let’s say, my exercises. Wednesday, I’m going to ….’
Like, do you have set days with set schedules?
D: Well, because of the classes and because of my job at the school, those are the set schedules… so those are… immovable. If I decide to add more exercise time, let’s say, that’s on me to plug it in into those open spaces. So that just also means that I have less time to focus on my business, if I have certain objectives that I want to meet…
MO: And I have a question. So let’s say that you actually give yourself a time slot for a task. No matter what the task is, and you tell yourself: ‘Alright, from, let’s say I have to leave home at 12. I give myself from 10 to 11 to do task A. And task B, let’s say from 11 to 12′.
Your task isn’t done from 10 to 11. Do you move on to task B? Do you cut your time short for task B or do you just stop with whatever you’re doing and start task B?
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D: That’s a great question. And I have to backtrack from that because before I get to 10 o’clock Task A, I will have had to organize that task schedule and what I’m doing next week,… the prior week. You know, like Friday night or Thursday,…. like at the end of the week before, you know, before Monday starts. So anytime before Monday, I will plan it out on Sunday if it’s been busy all weekend and it’s been crazy.
But usually on Fridays I can sit down and look at my big plan and say what needs to be done. And then I will go according to that. So as long as you start with a wider objective, and then narrow it down, there’s almost no room for… straying.
And if you know that your content planning is going to take you two hours or three hours to put up like an Instagram reel.. and you want to do that, and that’s part of how you naturally do business, then you have to say, ’okay, Thursday three hours is how much it takes me to do my Instagram reels’.
And that’s part of your routine and you don’t stray from that.
MO: Okay, but my question is, let’s say you gave yourself three hours, you’re three hours in and you realize it’s going to take you four. Do you continue? Or do you just say, okay, I’m stopping at three hours and I’ll continue when I have some extra time?
D: It depends. Sometimes I’ll do that, depending. And then sometimes it’ll eat up into my lunchtime and then part of me is like, you know what? Better ‘Good’, like ‘Done’, is better than ‘not done’. Just get it done and get it out there. And it doesn’t matter because you can always try again the week after and be better, be faster…think quicker.
MO: I also prefer having one task done than two tasks open, but not completely finished. So I totally agree… ’cause then they’re always in the back of your mind.
D: Exactly. But you also have to put your foot down sometimes saying this has to be done by… [clap, clap] if you didn’t finish it Monday between 10 and 11, then what’s your next hard line? Like by Wednesday, this has to be done like, ‘fini!’ Or forget about it and then try again next week. You can’t let it linger…
MO: Do you work under pressure?
D: I think we all do, when time’s a factor? (laughs)
MO: Totally! That timer for me is precious because when I feel that I’m up against the clock that it’s ticking, I think that’s one of my tricks….
Two things. I have to write it down and I have to have a timer ticking and that’s something that’s worked for me a few times, actually that I’ll give myself certain objectives of things that absolutely have to be done. And what I’ll do is that I’ll calculate. And it’s not always fair because some things don’t take the same amount as others. So if I have, let’s say 6 items that have to be done, whether it’s making a phone call, sending out an email, setting a load of laundry, it can be all mixed up in one big melting pot.
And I have, let’s say: two hour, 120 minutes… I have six items I have to do. I divide them by 120 minutes… that’s 20 minutes each thing. I set my timer. I’m on the timer: 20 minutes an item. And then I take them off the list.
When, as they go, it’s almost as if I have no choice. I have to get it done. I have 20 minutes to make that phone call that I set up for 20 minutes, can maybe take only 5, 7, 10 minutes. We’ll it gives me an extra 10 minutes for the next activity or take a break or whatever it is, you know?
D: That’s great! I told you how I worked my schedule. How do you work your schedule for the week?
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MO: Oh boy. My schedule is very… is a work in progress. It’s a constant work in progress because, I’ve always had nine to five jobs, basically. Even when I was working on the road, even when I had my own set schedule, I knew that I would log on at 9 and I would shut off at 5 and you know, it was just that that’s the way my everything worked.
And then when I started my business, I had this sort of free time. So actually filling in those slots and not knowing how to deal or manage that extra time was quite a challenge. So now I’m, I’m working very hard actually, as you say, filling in those slots in more structured way. Which isn’t always easy actually, because sometimes I’ll say ‘oh yeah, Monday, I’m going to content plan and then something comes up and then… ah man, I didn’t even content plan. And then I find myself at 2:00 AM thinking: ‘oh my gosh, what am I going to actually write? And what am I going to do? And what am I going to post?…’
And I’m talking about content planning because everybody’s on, on Instagram, like all businesses, I mean, are, are doing some form of social media or most of them. And it’s part of the reality today, you know?
Like I worked for Yellow Pages 22 years, which is great, but it’s a whole other reality than social media as an entrepreneur. Yeah. So it’s not like I can actually print something in the directory for a year and then just forget about it. You know, it’s something I have to maintain.
I constantly modify my schedule on a day-to-day or on a week to week (basis). So I really try working with your time slot system, which I find brilliant actually, because when you know that it’s stuck there in your calendar, well, you can’t move around it. So if you actually work around what’s left, it’s a lot more feasible and,…’réalisable’.
“.. if you want…okay, well that makes sense. I have this extra time. I have those 3 hours in the morning from 9 to 12, what can I get fit into that schedule?” And so I’ll work around it that way, but I like to like what I’m doing. And that can be tricky because that makes me procrastinate sometimes, which I know a lot of us do… But I’m working on that one too, because very often I’ll procrastinate on something I don’t want to do.
For example, getting documents ready for taxes. So I’m there, like : ‘yeah, I know I have to do it. I have to do it. Yeah. Okay. Monday. Yeah. Okay. Oh wait. No, I can’t Monday, Wednesday. Wednesday! Oh, no. Friday. Friday, Friday….”
I’m actually working on saying “I gotta get it done”. And once I get it done, it’s off my mind. And I don’t want to have that stuff in my mind anymore. That’s where I am right now in my life, that I want to have peace of mind, clarity, and I want to keep moving forward. I don’t want to just stagnate on what has to be. And I get it out of the way.
D: And it’s funny because the things that we put off, for days and days and weeks and weeks, don’t you realize sometimes it’s like, ‘oh my God, it only took 20 minutes..(just get it done!)”
MO: Yep, exactly. Exactly. I also find that there are certain traits of personality or certain people that just need to be ‘okay, I’m ready to do it now’. So I stopped fighting the fact that sometimes I’ll have to do something that I don’t want to do. And I’ll just say, okay, you know what? I know it has to be done. I know I have a timeframe to do it. If I don’t feel like doing it now, it’s fine too.
You know, at a certain point I find we put, on ourselves, so much pressure as moms, as human beings. ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve gotta do this!’ You know? And we’re scared of failure. We’re scared of time. We’re scared of so many things that sometimes we just don’t get things done, or we get them done because, you know, we feel we have to, but we don’t feel like it…. So, it just creates a sort of gray cloud over our heads.
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So I decided to make peace with that and say: ‘okay, there’s my timeframe.
If I don’t feel like doing it now, I’ll do it later. Now I’ll do what I feel like doing, because I still have time to do the other things. And I’ll feel happy about it.
Feeling fulfilled is super important in your day-to-day schedule. And regardless of whether you’re working or you’re having fun or playing with your kids, or it’s okay to say ‘no’ to one of your kids to say, ‘You know what? Mommy can’t play now, she’ll play with you later. But right now mommy wants to… (let’s say)… finish reading her magazine’. I’m just saying, you know? And so I find it sets expectations for everybody around you when you say ‘I can’t handle this now, I can’t do it now because mommy’s busy, I’m busy’… or whatever, and I’ll do it later.
But I find that when I do write things down and they’re part of my to-do list, it’s a lot easier to integrate in my schedule afterwards and get it done.
D: There’s a thing my husband and I have been doing for years and it’s sharing our calendar on our phones and a lot of times “if it’s not there, it doesn’t exist”.
MO: Oh yes, it’s true.
D: Or if the other person doesn’t know about it….like this LIVE, I put it on the calendar. Normally when I would do my own Facebook LIVES , it was almost like,… he wouldn’t even know about it. But because I was doing consistently, on a weekly basis, especially during COVID, I was on my Facebook every single week… I think for 7 months it was almost automatic for him. So I didn’t really need to tell him. But for this one, ‘I’m going LIVE during this time, don’t bother me’ type thing. I didn’t say it, but it’s like, it’s on the schedule so he knows.
Or if I have to drive my mom to the bank, like I did yesterday and I have to do it again next week, I’ll include stuff like that, that has nothing to do with him, but it’s just including the other person in our life and it’s on the schedule.
MO: I think that’s brilliant actually. And I think it’s actually great to bond as a couple since how many quality hours do you have a week with your spouse, you know?
D: I barely saw him this week.. (laughs)
MO: Well, that’s it. So, so just that I feel like sort of keeps you in touch, you know? And I find it hard like I mean, ‘Oh, remember I have this coming up tomorrow night?’ I’m there, ‘I don’t remember’ , you know?
D: It’s too much brain power! You know going back and back ….it’s like you’re searching for your files and it’s a waste of time. Like if it’s on schedule, it’s there. It’s written.
Mo: Absolutely. And I find it’s nice to feel included, you know, as a wife, as a husband or as a partner… So we do that a lot actually. And it’s funny because sometimes we will forget: either he or I, and I’m there: ‘It’s not in the calendar.’ What do you mean? No!’ (laughs)
But I totally agree with you on that. It does get very heavy on the brain when you have to manage your own schedule, the other person’s schedule, but it’s not written. Even the kids’ stuff is written in my schedule.
D: So going back to how we organize our week? I start with fixed stuff. It’s kinda like when you do your budgeting?
MO: Yup! That’s very (inaudible)
D: You start with your fixed and then you plug in what’s left for your variables. So I think I got that from the accounting courses I’ve taken over the years….
So this is the first time we decided to do this: Having a conversation between two professional organizers, moms, business owners, entrepreneurs…
MO: So if you have anything to share with us, something that could help other moms, other people out there that find that time management can sometimes be a struggle, you’re not alone.
I find the best way to learn is by sharing these experiences and just talking about our day-to-day reality.
D: Yeah!
MO: Thanks everybody for joining. Thanks so much Dianne! This was great.
D: Thank you for watching
MO: Thank you! Ciao!
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