Episode Transcript
TBU30 Our Workstyles
[00:00:00] Rowena: You are listening to Two Booked Up I'm Rowena Mabbott here with Shelley Tonkin Smith, and today we're continuing the conversation about the book Workstyle, A Revolution for Wellbeing, productivity, and Society by Lizzie Penny and Alex Hirst. We're going to be bringing the concept a little closer to home and sharing more about our own work styles. Are you ready for this, Shelly?
[00:00:25] Shelley: Am I ever, so one of the important tenets of the book is that you need to set project and respect the work style. So that means. That you need to think about what your work style actually looks like. That's the set part. Then you have to tell the people you work with and even your family about your work style.
So that's the project part. And then you need to respect other people's work styles. And if this revolution gains the traction it needs, then other people will respect your work style too.
[00:00:59] Rowena: So we are gonna be projecting our work style in this episode, and we hope that that will give you some inspiration to set. Your own work style.
[00:01:08] Shelley: And that'll hopefully lay the foundation for us all to respect each other's work styles. Let's dive in.
This is The Two Booked Up Podcast, where we talk about books.
[00:01:20] Rowena: The books that are challenging us to live more intentional lives
[00:01:24] Shelley: The books.
that are equipping us on our business and professional
journeys.
[00:01:27] Rowena: and the books that delight and bring us joy.
[00:01:30] Shelley: So if you want to live life with more intention, and if you want to be doing work that brings you
joy, then come and join the bookish conversation with me, Shelly Tonkin. Smith.
[00:01:41] Rowena: And me Rowena Mabbott here on Two Booked Up.
[00:01:46] Shelley: All right, so as we kick things off today, I'll just give you a bit of, a, recap from last episode. But please go and have a listen to that episode on our overview about work style. But the word work style comes from the word lifestyle, and it's this idea that just like how we can define our lifestyle and how we choose to live our lives, we too can choose our work style and the way we work, specifically where, when, and how we work.
And I feel like in some ways, as we embrace the individualization of work, We're also embracing the fullness of who we are in life and perhaps making more space for life to flourish during our 4,000 weeks, as Oliver Birkman puts it in his book that we featured a few episodes back.
So, As I mentioned, we are gonna set project and respect the work style, and today we're gonna be helping you with that. So work style is the freedom to choose when and where you work. And then I'll add also how you work to, and also what kind of work you do. So there's a lot of individualization going on here, and I also just think if we take a helicopter view in the bigger picture, What does work mean for you within the bigger context of your life?
[00:03:14] Rowena: Yes. So Shelly, I think that's a really important point. Because it helps us realize that work style changes as you change and as your circumstances change. So when we think about the bigger picture, we have to think about work in the context of our whole life, which can impact the season we are in, the time of life, our other demands.
So what we are gonna be talking about here is how we structure our work to suit our life. And as you might have guessed, how our work styles have evolved, which is part of that evolution and revolution. So, for example, my work style was pretty much nonexistent in my corporate days, but don't worry, it did change once I became a parent and then once I was a consultant, and then it evolved again now that I run my own business.
[00:04:07] Shelley: Okay, cool. So Ro, you talk about seasons of life. So in this season of life, you are a career and life confidence coach. You're a writer. You're a parent. Um, but I happen to know those like kind of, um, biographical details. Just scratch the surface. You also volunteer for roles in your community at your kid's school.
Uh, and of course nevermind being a dog mom as well. Um, you're a good friend to many people. You're also a multi-passionate individual and, and as we all know as well, you're also an avid reader, so, If I kind of sum Rowena up as all of that, where does like work fit into that big picture for you? What does work mean to you in both this season now and in your bigger picture of life?
[00:04:58] Rowena: Yeah, it's such a great question, Shelley, and I think that's, Really gets to the heart of what work style is about the book, because when we think about what does work mean for us right now, and for me personally, my work style is designed to support my health and wellbeing, which means that my work style right now prioritizes the things that are probably not paid work.
So for example, allowing me to be a parent to my children and running the household. And as part of that I prioritize daily exercise, walking the dog. Yes. Cuz he's quite demanding. And I also build in plenty of spaciousness for catch ups with friends, reading, and of course my creative pursuits. Plus there's a bit of volunteering as you mentioned, because I do have set times.
In this current season, I have set times for working with clients and I really try to stick to those because that's part of how my work looks like. I say, this is when suits me and they're my boundaries around how and when I'll do paid work. Um, and that includes time that when we do podcast preparation and recording like we are doing now, and of course time for writing every day.
So how about you, Shelly? You are a homeschooling, multi-passionate, creative, Mompreneur and copywriter. So what does work mean for you? Where does work fit into your big picture?
[00:06:17] Shelley: Yeah, so homeschooling is a big part of my life and, um, it almost all starts with homeschooling. As part of that, I, I host some homeschool events. I do some community stuff. And then you have the Parenting Beyond homeschooling, I kind of. Does like all mix into one. But I also,
um, I have cats, so I have much less care required of cats.
I would highly recommend cats
[00:06:45] Rowena: no. no, no. We are dog people. Dog people.
[00:06:48] Shelley: Hi, this is Shelley from the future interjecting at this point. And we recorded this episode about three weeks prior to when you are listening to it. In that time we went on holiday and as a family, we decided we were going to get a puppy. So we have a puppy coming to join our family in the next three weeks. And I am sure that my work cell is going to have to change as a result or wish me luck.
But I also, I love learning and I love reading just for fun. And then within all of that of like who is Shelley and like who I am, I then have my creative work projects. So I have projects that sometimes aren't paid for, like this podcast is a good example of where I just wanna do it for the fun of doing it and for hanging out with you and having this creative time. And yes, there's a bit of marketing involved in it, but I just wanna do it for the creativity.
in a, in amongst all of that is paying the bills. So that's my client work particularly is where that fits into my work style. And also this year I've really, uh, prioritized creating digital products so that I can earn that, you know, inverted commas, passive income, and have digital products out there that can help people in a quick way . So that's my sort of big picture of how my work has to fit into my life. And of course, I'm also a wife and a mother, so yeah, I've got a, a few things that I'm juggling and work fits into all of that.
[00:08:23] Rowena: And I think we should just, can we also just mention Shelly, that both of us are not just actively involved with our communities with volunteering, but we also take our responsibility as a sister and as a daughter pretty seriously as well, as well as our daughter-in-law responsibilities. So whilst they may not make the top five items every day, there's always that little.
There's always flexibility in our work styles to be able to be present and help with things like taking siblings somewhere or helping out a friend, or helping out parents or parents-in-law. So I think that allowing for that kind of spaciousness in our work styles is important to acknowledge as well.
[00:09:01] Shelley: That is, that is a very important one to acknowledge cuz I, I think that those kinds of, um, family commitments come up and it is so great to be able to go. Yeah. Cool. I'll, I'll step in, I'll help. Um, we've had. Some health issues in our extended family over the last couple of months and it's, it's been great to step up and support, um, and also be supported, you know, so I think that all comes into this bigger picture of where work fits into the richness of life.
So yeah, let's now go a little bit more practical and like a little bit more, down to the brass tax. So tell us, Rowena, when do you work? Can you give us a bit of a general idea of your typical week?
[00:09:43] Rowena: Okay. So my current work style week is Mondays. I would do a couple of hours generally around lunchtime. Um, then when I say when I do this work, it's when I will sit down at my computer to do things that might be related to paid work. So client work, or maybe I've got some current creative projects that I'm working on that are, as Shelley said, they're for fun, but they're things I really wanna work on.
So I will do a little bit of that on Monday. I might also use that time for the learning. So if there are courses that I'm doing. Then I work Tuesdays. And when I say work, I'm available for my clients, or I'm creating content for my clients from around 9:30 AM But in winter it can make it more like 10 because it's a bit cold.
And it depends what time of the dog's been agreeable to go for a walk. And then I finish around three o'clock so that I'm all done before the kids get home from school. Wednesdays I do similar, so at 10:00 AM until around 2 30, 3 o'clock. And then I work Friday mornings, but they are variable. I just do it when I feel like it because I like to keep Friday clear for personal things like creative fun things for myself or catching up with friends.
I also keep Thursday clear so I can attend choir practice, so that's one of my non-negotiables. Thursday needs to stay clear so I can attend choir practice. Now I do work some evenings for podcast recording and occasionally client work as well. So my aim, so my preference given my, uh, you know, ideal work style is to work only one evening per week, but this sometimes stretches to two or three, depending on volunteer requirements as well as podcast recording and client work.
[00:11:22] Shelley: Sorry, Ro, like for all of us here that are in different time zones to you, you're, you're way ahead of us there in Australia. So we thank
[00:11:30] Rowena: Yes, it, it does make it, it does make it a little tricky. But also, for example, in my current season right now, so when we are recording this, I am currently busy three evenings a week, which is a lot more than my preference would be. But I know that, you know, in a couple of months that'll all ease up again.
So it's, it's a, it's a seasonal thing. So I say, well, for this season, And literally it's for this season, the calendar season. That's what I'm doing
[00:11:58] Shelley: Can I also just add in a little, um, piece there of also that we, we need to do some synchronous work together. We need to like record this podcast together, but part of work style is that we try and prep as much as we can. So when we get together, we hit record and we. You know, record and do the synchronous work in as short as time, as as possible.
So just a little
tip
[00:12:18] Rowena: yes.
Now, um, the other thing I know you asked me, Shelley was about like the big picture work style. And this is where I wanna share something that I really liked and I think we mentioned it in our last episode about the energy and about momentum.
And so this is where I think the work style is a real gift because I, for a number of years now have planned for a work break of at least a month. In winter and again in summer. So I have joked, I think previously on a podcast episode as well, that I really just work spring and autumn. Um, and it's not completely true, but it's also not completely false.
Um, it's basically taken me quite a few years to realize that school holidays are not actually holidays for me. They are very busy times because my kids are home. All respect to Shelly and Garren for homeschooling their kids. I could not do that. When my kids are home, they want a lot of attention and everything, all the routine is out the window.
So by adjusting my own work style and work commitments at these times, I manage to retain my focus on family and wellbeing, which is in really important to me. So I think that that's kind of why I have a break in winter and in summer. And specifically why those two times for summer? Because it's our long holidays.
Our kids are on holidays for sort of six, seven weeks. It's Christmas because we're in the southern hemisphere. It's downtime. Um, and so it's very much an energy about going away and spending time at the beach and seeing family. So it's not, there's not a lot of, desire for doing a bunch of client work.
And interestingly, most of my Southern Hemisphere clients don't wanna be doing sessions then anyway. And then in winter, this one's been harder to realize, but it's finally, I finally worked it out. My energy just basically goes into hibernation mode. My momentum is lost. And so what I have learned the hard way is that if I push through, which we talked about in our previous episode, that idea about pushing through, when I have done that in July, I lose the rest of the year.
Not completely, but it feels like a hard slog. Whereas for me, if I take a decent break pretty much in July, the rest of the year then is much easier. So Shelly. That's kind of my big picture view on how my work style operates right now and some of my learnings about how I have incorporated work style into my life.
[00:14:42] Shelley: Yeah. Well, I think that is awesome. I, I love the, the contrast between the kind of day-to-day stuff and then looking at your work style over a year and. Going, okay, well I'm intentionally going to plan a break and I don't have to work for 12 months of the year. And I love that you've preempted that and that then you actually end up with quite a lot of space because I think you also, you've in your week by week kind of schedule. I love how you've created that spaciousness in your schedule. And the other day you said to me, I found myself with some time, I was like, oh, I'm so jealous. But I think it's because you set up your work style to have those pockets of space where suddenly, yay, not everything is scheduled and not every ounce of time is, accounted for.
So I think that's a wonderful thing to discover when you have extra time that you didn't plan on.
[00:15:35] Rowena: Thank you for that, Shelly, cuz you're right. But I would like to know, and I'm sure our listeners would like to know, how do you incorporate work style? What does your work style look like?
[00:15:45] Shelley: Okay, so. I think you talk about having your break in winter as being very important then setting you up for the rest of the year. For me, we start slow each morning and that is what sets me up for a very good day. So that's one of the benefits of homeschooling. We get to just start slow. We don't have a particular start time, although we do end up starting roughly around half past eight.
So having that kind of slow morning sets me up quite nicely. And then my mornings are typically around homeschool activities, uh, like what everyone would think of, looks like school. We sit down at a desk and we do Reading and language arts and we do maths. And then there's also a scattering of other activities like Pilates for garen and I, uh, karate and yoga for the boys and a few standing arrangements that we have with other homeschoolers throughout the week.
This is not all in one day, by the way. Then three afternoons in the week, the boys go and visit their grandparents, and that is when I do a lot of my client work. So that's the time that I've set aside for doing client work. So that's wonderful that I've got that support. And then we also take like a midday rest time, sort of independent work time.
It used to be when the little one used to nap, but that's of course ended. And so now it's like independent time and the boys would listen to audio books, but I can use that time to do a bit of my shallow work. So, uh, like check in emails or, um, things that I really don't have to like, be totally into, because I do get
interrupted during that time with people who can't think of something to do.
[00:17:28] Rowena: Hmm. Yes. Familiar with that one?
[00:17:31] Shelley: Uh, yeah, you, you know what I'm talking about. So then Fridays, I'm trying out what is called a loop schedule in homeschooling, and I love this because it's like an example of how home life mixes with and influencers business life. So essentially on a Friday after a short session of like book learning, my kids typically, typically go to my mom for the whole rest of the day.
And so on that magical Friday where I've got like, I feel like I've got the whole day to work, um, I'm looping. The following different activities into that time. So one Friday I do my one day work party offer, where I will work exclusively with one client for the day. Then I do my own digital product marketing on another Friday. And then on another Friday I'll leave open for my retainer based work that I do for clients. And then one of the Fridays I host a homeschool nature journaling session. So I do that for the morning. Then, so I kind of loop that around and those Fridays kind of vary across the month. So that, and then the weekends, I also, I do try and keep free.
But I do find I often have to do, especially like podcast prep and some of my creative work, um, projects on the weekends have really tried to not do my client based work on the weekends. I do my fun based work stuff on the weekends and because of the way my week is structured, um, In the season, I'm, I'm okay with working on the weekends, but I do obviously want to make time for, doing a few more family activities and, not feel like I'm on the clock at all and doing work that really sort of lights me up.
[00:19:15] Rowena: I completely hear you. I think the weekend thing is quite challenging when we first start looking at work style because we feel each of us, and I say this for myself as well, that without a strict deadline of when or a strict timeframe around when we need to be doing things because we are working asynchronously. It can be easy for our work, paid or otherwise, or our own creative work to slip into time that otherwise might have been kind of family time.
But I do love Shelley that your focus on wellbeing and how you've incorporated the activities for yourself, Garren and the boys throughout the week, because I think that gives such a lovely balance.
And I am quite jealous about your middle of the day rest time or quiet, independent time. It is such a gift for everyone, and I love that you're experimenting with your loop schedule as well, because I think for many of our listeners, the idea of a loop schedule where you're not locked into something, but you've got kind of a rotation, rotating option of what you can do, gives a lot of flexibility but, and freedom, but also a little bit of variety to keep things interesting. So it does sound like the perfect solution for a rebel like yourself. Um, so that does lead me to a question, which is how has your work style changed and evolved over the years? Because I know the loop schedule is pretty new, so also how are you structuring your work style now to fit the season you are in?
[00:20:42] Shelley: So yeah, if I go back to, uh, I'll, I'll go back to kind of, when I was working for a fast growing company. I was working full-time and I, I worked a lot of overtime in that job. I was never compensated for it. Like it wasn't expected, but it was sort of, you know, I don't know, maybe it was.
Was sort of expected. Um, and I really, had a terrible work ethic in that I consistently overworked myself, and I'm not quite sure how I didn't burn out during that time. I think it was only because I genuinely enjoyed the work that I was doing. And this was way before I had kids or any real major adulting type responsibilities.
So that wasn't a good example of work style. And then I started my own business and I. Yeah, in the, in the early days, I kept the typical business hours. Um, but I'd always had this example of my mom who had started her own business back in the eighties and she still has her own business today. And I had seen this mix in of work and life, and I was starting to embrace this idea of work style, even though I didn't know the word.
Um, there was nothing. I loved more than like going to the shops on some random Tuesday. And then when Garen started his own business, We got for lunch or even a movie, like in the middle of the week, it was like, yeah, this is work style. And then when I had my first child, I had to change again.
Of course everything changes when you have a child, and this little human needed my care 24 7. But my work style allowed me to, to ease back to work on my own terms. Um, I will say I had the financial supports of my husband and we'd also built a training product that I. That was bringing in some income that effectively supported a bit of a maternity leave for me.
So that was like an example of sort of setting up your business to support your own work style. And then fast forward, I had another baby and there were all kinds of shifts and iterations to the schedule as the kids got older. At one point they were both in school of some sort and I had all my mornings free and I felt so time rich. But honestly I was still rushing off to fetch them at 1230 because I had got so deep into my work. So then of course, my next major work style shift was when we decided to homeschool.
And my work had to shift Also, we did it during lockdown, so I didn't have the option of backup care for the kids like I do now. And yeah, look, you know, you say, I, Do a hard job homeschooling my kids. And I mean, there's certainly challenges, but in many ways this homeschooling and work style really works together because you get to make your own rules to some extent for both work and the way you do education.
So, yeah, I think, homeschooling it's compatible with the idea of, of work style. And I think there is this constant iteration and of evolution, but now your kids are older, Ro. So I think you've had even more evolutions during their stages of life and you've had those evolutions to your work style.
So tell us how your work style has changed over the years.
[00:23:56] Rowena: Uh, yes. Thank you, Shelly. My kids are a bit older. I think though, if I think about where I started, it was not that dissimilar from you. In fact, I'd suggest that maybe even some of our, our listeners can empathize with the early years of work. When we tend to burn the candle at both ends without adequate or even any compensation.
Um, and on a side note, I'm sure that's part of the big business model for why big companies are love to recruit young, fresh faced graduates. Because that was definitely me cuz when I was in my corporate days, which I have to say was all the years until I had children, I had no work style.
It was just work. There was no real lifestyle. It was pretty much just work. At one point I was working 14 hour days, five days a week, and then at least one weekend afternoon, two unpaid. Of course, it was just expected as my contract said, and I quote, work the hours required to get the work done. But it was kind of expected and it's what we all did.
My friends were doing similar, maybe not quite as many hours, so there wasn't any really a sense that this was unreasonable, but it was unsustainable because I certainly did get to a point where I would get sick or I'd get really run down.
But like you, Shelly, once my kids arrived, everything changed. So I spent some time on maternity leave, I had a few different complications in our personal life, and as I think we've shared, if not here, then I've shared on the Playful Mompreneur.
We had a stillborn baby and that changed the circumstances a bit too, where I might have returned to work instead, I had, I didn't have the baby with me, but I had been on, I'd been pregnant and I would've been on maternity leave. So that changed things a bit. And then I was pretty focused on having another child.
So once my third child, my who is my youngest child, came along, I felt ready to, uh, return to the workplace. And I did so as a consultant. And as a consultant, I worked a lot less, many, many fewer hours because my kids were very young. And interestingly, my most productive hours were when my youngest child was in care and my older boy was at school.
But I did need to work in the evenings, but this was not my preferred work style. Now, I've shared this with you, Shelly. I know in episode four of your other podcast, the Playful, Mompreneur, when I talked about, I started with just five hours a week split across two days.
Now that is ideal work style, right for a working mom whose youngest child is only, you know, not is one. So still needs a lot of mom time. Um, and slowly that increased to 15 hours and I worked Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM and that meant that I was available for school pickups and drop-offs every day, and I could take my kids to their various extracurricular activities in the afternoon.
Plus it allowed me plenty of space for my other life priorities.
So then when I moved into business for myself, one of the major attractions was being able to carve out my own preferred work style. But now this two has changed because originally I worked four, five hour days in my business. Whereas now I work more like maybe two and a half days, partly because I'm way more efficient.
Again, remember, work style improves your productivity, but also because the nature of how I work has changed. I have different non-work priorities, and that means there's been a shift in my work to slot around my life. So whereas when I first started working for myself, I had to be honest, I was still pretty wedded to the idea that the bulk of my work should be undertaken during standard business hours.
Because at that time I believed my clients needed me to be available when they were available during business hours. But that's changed. So over the years I've realized that actually the bulk of my work is creative or knowledge based, and thus needs to be completed when I have the inspiration and motivation, but also when my clients are available.
Which pretty much can mean after standard hours, particularly for clients because if they're in full-time work, they're not available to chat to me for a coaching session, so they need me to be available after hours. The other thing I've found is that my creative inspiration and motivation can come at pretty random times, sometimes on the weekend or very early in the morning.
Or of course when I'm walking the dog, I think I've shared a few times that walking the dog, is when I have some great ideas and I will dictate things into my phone. So that's really good for creative work or um, drafting emails or blog posts. So we've talked about this, about when we work, but work style, this is the thing I love about it, it's the freedom of where you work.
And as I mentioned, sometimes I'm working. And I use that term loosely because it doesn't feel like work, but I'm working from the park as I'm walking the dog. So I don't have a laptop. I'm not sitting there in a traditional work mode, but I'm dictating into my phone, um, cuz I haven't had amazing idea and I wanna capture it.
Some of them are great and some of them I just simply delete when I get home because I look at them and think. Oh no, that's not a good idea after all. But I love that flexibility and that's very much where, to my earlier point, I've changed how I work and that's why now maybe I only work two and a half days because I'm far more efficient.
Remembering that work style improves your productivity. So now Shelly, tell us a little bit more about where you work from.
[00:29:22] Shelley: Well, Ro, I have to say that I prepared part of this episode at the hairdresser, which I think is very work style and very appropriate. Um, but honestly, I'm not typically the one to work from a coffee shop or like from the beach. Also because we don't have a beach in Joburg.
[00:29:36] Rowena: That's a good detail.
[00:29:38] Shelley: It kind of precludes me from working from the beach and, and when I go on holiday, I will say I don't want to take my work with me. Like I'm quite strict about that part of my work style. When I'm on holiday, I'm on holiday, I'm not working. Um, but yes, generally I work from my home office. I've got a lovely little home office here and.
Really part of my work style has been to prioritize that home office and like make sure that I've got a good chair and a good desk. And actually one of my clients, Phumla Motsa at Remote Ergonomics, she has helped me to. Set myself up for, for good health and good posture and all of that. So shout out to Phumla and South Africans can go and have a look at her Chair, Matchmaker offer.
I'm gonna leave a link to that in the show notes. Because I think it's so important to create a happy space to work. And yeah, I've just got myself set up here. I've got my mic and my speakers and my headphones set up for podcast recording. Now in winter, I've got. A quilt that my mom-in-law has made for me ready in my basket to wrap around me when it's cold, which is, is today.
Um, and just to beautify the space a bit. So I've got my plants and recently I brought my bookshelf into my office. So those kinds of personal touches are quite important to me. I find it grounds me and yeah, the arrangement's not perfect. Uh, Rowena and I have actually just had to do a re-recording because we had an electricity trip and we had people making noises outside my office and I get noise from the kids and interruptions, but it works and the environment is so important when it comes to making my work style work and this they deal with in, chapter 18 in Work Style. All on setting up your environment to match and to support your work style.
[00:31:30] Rowena: Absolutely. I agree. The right environment is key. So for me, for example, working or maybe learning in. The park while I walk the dog. It's not really ideal from a noise perspective, but the walking, that kind of movement encourages my creative ideas. So I persevere. But like you Shelley, my home office is also really important for me.
In my house, they call it the Ro Room, everybody else takes every other space and this is my space. So I ensure that it has a really lovely energy. So I keep it pretty clear. I have frequently do a little bit more decluttering in here, and I make the space my own. So unlike the rest of my house, this is, a more feminine kind of space.
It's not pink, that's not kind of my style. But I do have some candles and maybe some rugs. And I do have my own version of a quilt just like Shelly does. And I have some nice things to look at. So I've got some beautiful images that are inspiring to me.
So the other time that I've done some work, and I haven't, I don't do this so much now because my boys are a bit older, but for many years I did.
It was waiting for my kids at their extracurricular activities. And I found that was a really good time to get a bit of work done. So I found it was great for reading and some professional development, but I also used to do responding and scheduling of social media at that time because it didn't involve a huge amount of brain power.
And it was very easy to do from my phone. So it was another way I kind of like hacked how do my work style fit so I can still get work done, but when otherwise I would've just been sitting around waiting at swimming lessons, for example. So now Shelly, before we wrap up, I wanna take things back up to that mindset and big picture aspect that we started with.
Work style is a very practical thing, but it also gets down to who you are as a person. So that's part of that whole part two wellbeing. And there's also chapter on purpose, which I think is chapter nine. So for me, my work absolutely has to connect to my values and my purpose.
So when I'm thinking about my business and my plans for the future, I'm really trying to factor all of that into my work style. And part of that of, of course, being a coach is tying in with any longer term goals that I personally have too. So how about you, Shelly?
[00:33:44] Shelley: Yeah, thinking beyond the practicalities of when and where you work, like that's an very important part of work style. But yeah, thinking about yourself as an individual, like where do your strengths lie?
And this is also something you've taught me of, of work to your strengths. And I know you coach people to identify their top five strengths and. Discover those strengths and then leverage those strengths in the workplace. And I think this can be a very important part of work style too. So often we sit and we and unhappy with our work.
And the reason is is because we are not playing to our strengths and it's just feeling hard all the time. So I think if we bring our values and who we are as a person into our work style, and I think this is the beautiful part of. The inclusivity of work style is that we don't have to go, oh, oh. Like I'm, I'm gonna have to tell a liar because I have to fetch my kids from a practice.
Or, oh, because my kids are making a noise outside my meeting, you know, I feel embarrassed, or I wanna hide that away or hide the fact that I have, uh, maybe some kind of chronic illness or something like that. Um, you don't have to do that with work style. Now we can just show up as we are as individuals and embrace.
Our strengths, our challenges, our different work styles. It's part of the respect, part of respecting each other's work styles and projecting your own work style so that people can respect yours back. Um, so yeah, so much more we could talk about, about work style. But for now, if you're wondering what to do next, you are listening to this podcast and you're going, okay.
Rowena and Shelly have talked about their work styles. What do I do now? So I think I'd encourage you to take a minute and think about what work means to you, that big picture, at this point in your life. And, and then think about how your work style has changed over the years and maybe where it needs to change.
And then you can start thinking those practicalities, when do you work, can map out a typical schedule. Where do you work? Um, could you make some changes to make your working environment better? Um, and then don't forget to think about how the work you do fits in with who you are as a person, those strengths and, and also perhaps your quirks and like your idiosyncrasies, embrace those.
Uh, we all have a few, so I really hope that by us sharing our own work styles and what the idea of work style looks like. I hope that's inspired you to get excited about work style and go and make and create and project your own work style, which leads us to our next episode in two weeks time.
We have a super excited announcement to make because in our next episode we will be talking with Lizzie Penny and Alex Hurst, authors of work style.
[00:36:36] Rowena: It's so exciting.
[00:36:37] Shelley: The authors of work style will be here chatting about how the book is really just the first stage of the work style revolution they've got planned and we are gonna be asking them about their plans for spreading the work style revolution within their home base of the uk.
Uh, but as well as globally for us here in the Southern Hemisphere and all of us around the world, and how we can each play our part. And we'll also just ask them about the supports and resources that they can offer to all of us as we all you know, jump on this bandwagon and join this revolution and change the world of work for those who come after us.
Are you excited,
[00:37:19] Rowena: Oh my gosh, I can't wait. Our first author interview on the Two Booked Up Podcast, and we have not won, but two authors perfect for our two Booked up vibe. You know, with the two thing. I hope you're getting what I did there.
[00:37:32] Shelley: Oh yeah, yeah, we get you.
[00:37:33] Rowena: Now before we wrap up, Shelly, you know, it's that time we need to know how's the Procrastination Pro audio course coming along?
Have you been procrastinating or have you proven that your method works?
[00:37:46] Shelley: Well, I can happily say that the sales page is up, and that's where you can sign up for the v i p wait list for this Procrastination Pro audio course. That's at procrastination.shelleytonkinsmith.Com. Links in the show notes and yeah, this course I'm so excited about. It's gonna be audio lessons similar to the format of this podcast, but just a private feed.
And then you'll also get like these inspiration prompts in between those lessons. So you can either journal your answers to those prompts or just take a minute to think about your answers. And then ideally make some form of notes to remember your amazing ideas. Um, but the course is designed to fit into your life and to get you to procrastinate.
Yes, you heard me right, but procrastinate better and procrastinate the non-important things and get the important stuff done.
[00:38:40] Rowena: I cannot wait for the course, Shelly, because you know I've already signed up, but I also do love a practical approach to getting things done that always wins me over. But for now, we hope that by sharing our work styles, we've inspired you to think differently about how and when you work and what your work style is.
[00:38:59] Shelley: And maybe you are inspired to read the book Workstyle. If you do, it's a perfect book to include in the 23 for 2023 Reading Challenge, you can download your free copy of the 2023 Reading Challenge checklist at two Booked up.com, where you can find the show notes, a transcript of this episode, and of course the page to sign up and receive that free reading challenge checklist.
[00:39:24] Rowena: And yes, let us know what you think about work style. Do you love it? What questions do you have? Do you wanna ask Alex and Lizzie some questions? Do you have comments about our work style? Please share your thoughts. You can find me @rowenamabbott on Instagram, and if you'd like to learn how I can support you as a career and life confidence coach, like for example, if you wanna explore your strengths or you wanna download my free book, the A to Z of career and Life Confidence, or read any of my blog posts, then head on over to my online home at RowenaMabbott.Com.
And where can listeners find you, Shelly?
[00:40:00] Shelley: You can find me on Twitter, ShelleyTSmith or sign up for my newsletter ShelleyTonkinSmith.Com. And if you'd like to learn more about my copywriting services, that's at ShelleySmithCreative.com. Thanks so much for listening to Two Booked Up today. It has been a blast, Rowena and I will be back with another new episode in a couple of weeks time
[00:40:21] Rowena: You've been listening to Two Booked Up with me, Rowena Mabbott.
[00:40:34] Shelley: and me Shelley Tonkin Smith. Please subscribe or follow two books up in your podcast player, and if you've enjoyed this episode, we'd love it if you'd leave a positive review.
