What would you do with more time?

I'm pretty sure we've been doing this whole time management thing wrong, y'all.

What if it's not about filling our calendar with calls and projects and activities?

What if it's not about pomodoros and time blocking and all the lifehacks that are supposed to give us time, but make us vaguely panicky instead?

What if it's actually about filling our lives with white space?

?

For the last several years, I have taken the month of July almost entirely off. Same goes for most of October and December as well. I call them Holiday Hours. It's the closest I'll ever get to the mythical 4-hour workweek. Kinda. Not really.

I do podcast recordings, a few regular client calls, maybe teach a class. I'll work 3-5 hours a week, tops.

I travel.

Play with my children.

Read.

Take long naps.

Study.

Grieve deliberately.

Spend time in my garden (or, more accurately, my husband's garden—he does all the work, I just reap the benefits).

Daydream. There's a lot of daydreaming.

Actually use all the craft shit I spend the rest of the year hoarding.

You know.

White space.

Which isn't to say you can't have plans for the white space.

I have BIG PLANS for July.

I begin work on a new hypersigil, which I am very excited about. There's a new notebook, lots of stickers, a brand new brush pen, all the things I need to breathe life into my vision for the future.

I am taking a writing class. I'll be reading Robin Hobb and Neil Gaiman. For the stories. Not to meet a quota, or for personal development, or for anything other than pure pleasure.

We're going camping, at least twice, depending on the weather.

I have visions of fresh trout with herbs from my garden. And lavender lemonade.

I'm still sticking close to home for the most part—a few intimate dinners with friends, possibly some taco hunts, maybe a trip to the zoo.

But my time will be almost entirely my own.

Just so we're clear, a side effect of working with me is that, you too, will have white space. I insist upon it.

I had two clients on vacation last week.

One was an actual vacation.

The other was more of a reinvention, from a stifling work schedule to one that allows room to play. (She pretended it was a vacation, but it was not.)

Still. Everyone involved had more room to breathe.

To think.

To dream.

However, when you're neurodiverse, there's a lot of issues that come up with white space.

First of all, most of us have internalized guilt, based on shame we've received from a fundamentally flawed system that does not now, and will NEVER benefit us. We've been told for years that our way of working is LAZY. UNPRODUCTIVE. BAD FOR SOCIETY.

And so we've been programmed to feel like we don't deserve to demand appropriate accommodations, that we should feel grateful for whatever crumbs we are given, and to never, ever feel as though our time belongs to us.

This problem is compounded by a phenomenon called time blindness.

Time blindness presents differently for all of us, but it frequently causes us to wildly over or underestimate how long something will take us.

It's what leads us to be chronically late, because we're hyperfocused on a project, and we've got time to do "just one more thing." Spoiler alert: it is never just one more thing.

It's also what leads us to be sitting in a waiting room for an appointment an hour early, because WE'RE SO AFRAID TO BE LATE that we can do nothing else the entire day.

When you feel as though your time belongs to other people first, it becomes very difficult to prioritize your own time.

So for the Just Neurodiverse Things July Workshop, we're going to be leaning into the white space.

1?? We'll talk tactics for combating time blindness

2?? Reprogramming our beliefs about laziness and ease

3?? Strategies for building in more white space

What is neurodiversity? It is a term broadly used to encompass autism, ADHD, chronic depression, anxiety, and any other diagnosis where a chronic chemical or hormonal imbalance exists. And when your brain is wired differently, the tools and solutions you use should be different, too.

That's why the Just Neurodiverse Things workshops are designed with you in mind. They all stand alone, with a single topical focus that allows you to really dig into this one part of your personal system. And they all include implementation time, which means you'll have time to really incorporate what you've learned in the first workshop, so that you're asking the right follow-up questions.

The truth is, when you are neurodivergent, you need more time to recharge your brain. It's hard work producing those neurotransmitters under the best of circumstances, and these aren't the best of circumstances.

Set aside the panini press for a minute. Pretend like you're not outraged that cops can be in prison for murder while still receiving their pension. Act like the Catholic Church has about residential schools. Just forget all about it.

Oh. Wait.

You can't?

No.

And you shouldn't fucking have to, either. Wanna have time for activism? Wanna ACTUALLY change the world?

Well my friends, you need white space for that shit, too.

The future needs you now more than ever.

But you gotta start taking care of yourself first.

I'm happy to help you figure out the systems required to make that happen.

If you want me to do it for you, shoot me a message and we'll talk. I have room for one new client in August, and then I'm booked for the 3rd Quarter.

If you want me to do it with you, you can sign up for White Space here.

Early Bird pricing through July 5th, coupon code EARLYBIRD.

It's time to take your life back.