18: You Have More Time Than You Think

Hey, it’s Megan. Grab your coffee and let’s have a convo.

The Reframe: It’s Not a Time Problem

What if I told you that “I don’t have time” isn’t a time problem — it’s a priority problem? And that you probably have more time than you think — you just don’t know where it’s going yet? That’s what we’re getting into today. And yes, we are absolutely going to talk about your bedtime.

Time is our most valuable resource, and most of us feel like we don’t have enough. It’s one of the biggest challenges I hear from clients. And here’s the thing — there was never a class on this. Not in high school, not in college, not even in my master’s program. We were expected to figure it out on our own.

I learned the hard way early in my career as a freelance stylist. I took work seven days a week, I was tired all the time, burnt out, and mentally spent. When I started my second career in nutrition, I was determined not to go through that cycle again. But it was actually grad school — after my divorce, right before the pandemic — where I really figured this out.

I was working freelance as a stylist, averaging 3–4 days a week of work. I was going to grad school. I managed to work out 6 days a week, see friends 2–3 evenings or days during the week, date, go to museums or concerts most weeks, sleep 8 hours every night, and manage the emotional baggage of going through a divorce. And I know exactly how I did it — I was ruthlessly clear about my priorities. I needed to pay the rent, I needed to make the most of my investment in grad school, I needed to take care of my mental and emotional health because I had let that slack and was going through a divorce, and I needed to spend time with my friends. That might seem like a lot of priorities, but if the activity didn’t fit into those categories, it probably wasn’t happening. I slotted my mornings ahead of time based on the days of work I had, the workout classes I was taking, and the school work I had to do. I planned concerts and friend dates weeks in advance and they were locked into my calendar. It’s amazing how much you can get done with a deadline and a fixed amount of time. I got the most school work done when I had a 1.5 hour time slot before going to set. I could blow through so much. But if I had an entire Saturday with no plans, I wasn’t nearly as productive.

That’s the insight. Clarity plus constraint equals momentum. And that’s exactly what we’re building today.

A Note on Overwhelm

I don’t have time = It’s not a priority. Time is a choice. Now — before I go any further, I want to acknowledge something. Some of you are in a season of life where overwhelm isn’t a mindset, it’s a reality. Caregiving, illness, a job that’s underwater, kids who need more than you have. This framework is a tool, not a judgment. There are moments when most of what we’re talking about today won’t be fully doable — and that’s okay. But there are usually a few small things we can do to find breathing room we didn’t know we had.

The 168-Hour Framework

I really like Laura Vanderkam — New York Times bestselling author, time management expert, and mother of 5 — and her approach to making the most of your time rather than trying to create more time. She breaks the week down like this:

168 hours in a week. 24 times 7.

40 hours of work.

56 hours of sleep — 8 hours a night.

That leaves 72 hours. Seventy-two hours.

Some of you may work more than 40 hours a week — I hope not much more, because at a certain point there are diminishing returns, which is a whole different conversation — but even if you worked 50 hours a week, there are still 62 hours left after getting 8 hours of sleep every night. That is a solid chunk of time.

Thinking about your time in weekly chunks — rather than just surviving each day — also makes it much easier to build consistent habits. And for women in perimenopause, consistency is everything. Erratic schedules keep cortisol elevated, disrupt blood sugar regulation, and make every symptom you’re already dealing with harder to manage. Your calendar is not just a productivity tool. It’s a hormonal health tool.

Now let me share some of Laura Vanderkam’s top strategies — and layer in what I know from working with women in perimenopause specifically, because some of these hit differently when your hormones are in flux.

Hey — real quick. If that 168-hour breakdown just made you think of someone in your life who is always saying she has no time, send her this episode right now. Not later. Right now while it’s top of mind. The women in our lives are exhausted and they deserve to know there might be more breathing room in their week than they think. Okay — back to it.

Strategy 1: Track Your Time

Track your time for a week. It will absolutely blow your mind where you are spending your time. And then you might be a little annoyed and angry. In Laura Vanderkam’s research, most people are very poor at guessing where they spend their time. I am not advocating for an ongoing time tracking habit — if that brings you joy, no judgment — but for most people that is an unnecessary activity long term. This is just a simple check-in to see where you are. If we don’t have a starting point, it’s very challenging to make adjustments and know if they are helpful or not. When I did this a few years ago I was blown away by the social media time sink — your phone will tell you down to the minute how much screen time you have and how much of that time is spent on each application. Only you can decide how you want to spend your time, but most people are not time-poor because they are spending quality time with people they love, working out, taking care of their mental health, or cooking meals at home.

In the Perimenopause Matrix, this is a Recharge pillar audit. You can’t recharge what you don’t protect — and you can’t protect time you haven’t actually accounted for.

Strategy 2: Set a Bedtime

I talk about this one constantly, and I make no apologies for it: setting a bedtime. I want you to do it for all of the health benefits of sleep and a consistent schedule — lower cortisol, better immune health, better blood sugar management, lower stress levels, better recovery, better focus and productivity. For women in perimenopause specifically, a consistent bedtime is one of the highest-leverage tools you have. Inconsistent sleep elevates cortisol, which disrupts estrogen metabolism and amplifies the symptoms you’re already working hard to manage. Your bedtime is hormone support you don’t need a prescription for.

But Laura talks about it as an end to a day — because your never-ending to-do list is not going to get done tonight, and your body will feel better and you will have more time if you are on a regular schedule. An activity that takes an hour on 8 hours of sleep can take 2 hours on 4 hours of sleep. And to be clear — your weekly sleep total does not count as 8 hours a night if you reach 56 hours by getting 4 hours one night and 10 hours on two additional nights. That works for some things, but sleep cannot be banked that way. 7 nights of 8 hours is not the same as 3 nights of 4 hours and 4 nights of 11 hours, from either an energy or a hormonal health perspective.

When you set a bedtime you also have an end point to plan with. I get home at 5pm, my bedtime is 10pm, which means I have 4 hours to do things before I start my wind down for bed. That is very usable, plan-able information, versus procrastinating and doing late-night chores until you pass out. Recharge pillar. Non-negotiable.

Strategy 3: The Friday Planning Method

This is one of my favorite suggestions from Laura Vanderkam: plan on Fridays for 3 categories in your life — career, relationship, self. The goal is to pick 2–3 priorities in each category — this works because our brains don’t like incomplete plans. This means you can slot your priorities on your calendar like a meeting with a co-worker, a dinner with a bestie or partner, and something for you — like a class you want to take or a museum exhibit you want to see. There can be overlap — your thing for yourself could be an exhibit you are dying to see and you could bring along someone you want to prioritize — but you shouldn’t always make your self things also relationship things. Or if you have a lot of friends who are also co-workers, you don’t want to always let those things overlap either. Then everything else gets slotted in around your priorities.

If you’ve spent any time with the Perimenopause Matrix, you’ll recognize this framework immediately. Connect is one of our six pillars — not because connection is nice to have, but because social isolation is one of the most underappreciated drivers of perimenopausal symptoms. Planning your relationships in advance isn’t soft. It’s clinical.

When I first started hanging out with someone who is now one of my closest friends, she told me up front: I do not cancel unless I am dying. Once you are in my calendar, you are locked in. If you give up your spot, I may not see you for a few weeks until there is another opening. I thought she was joking. She was not. She had one of the most active social lives — impressive and slightly exhausting in retrospect — but it was really nice knowing that time with my friend was going to happen, and I could look forward to it rather than wondering if something better would come up for her.

You can do this planning any time that works for you, but Friday afternoon is usually low productivity. I know after 3:00 on Friday, not much meaningful work is happening for me anyway. This also gives you time if you need to make calls or schedule appointments for the following week. Then you can enjoy your weekend because you already know what needs to get done Monday. Think about your week before you are in it.

Strategy 4: Move Before 3pm

We talk a lot about the 3:00pm crash. It’s very common. It is also extremely common in perimenopause — and it’s not just about blood sugar. It’s a cortisol and estrogen story. As estrogen declines, so does its buffering effect on your stress response, which means that afternoon dip hits harder. Beyond the blood sugar tips we’ve talked about, you can use exercise snacks to pick up your energy levels. An exercise snack is 1–5 minutes, and the level of intensity is related to the amount of energy you will get. This is one way to boost your mood and productivity — something that usually takes 2 hours when you are tired and dragging can take 20 minutes when you are fully energized. It can also count toward your movement for the week. A minute of air squats, 2 minutes of pushups, 3 minutes sprinting up stairs, 4 minutes of jumping jacks. Or a 10-minute walk, which will boost your mood, help with blood sugar regulation and cognition — it won’t energize you quite as much as something more vigorous, but sometimes you just need a nudge rather than a big boost.

A recent meta-analysis found that exercise snacks completed 2–5 times per day, spaced 30–60 minutes apart, produced results comparable to — and in some measures better than — 30 minutes of continuous exercise. The evidence base is still building, but the findings are promising enough that I’m already recommending them. That means the 30-minute steady-state cardio session you are always trying to slot and can never get in could be replaced with movement snacks throughout your day. This is the Move pillar at its most accessible — no gym required, no block of time required, no perfect conditions required.

Laura Vanderkam also talks about what she calls “rain dates” for priority things that sometimes get pushed because of life. If you want to work out 3 days a week, slot in 4. That way, when life happens — a meeting pops up, your kid gets sick, your toilet overflows — there is already a backup day planned. And if you get to the 4th day and you already hit your other 3, that chunk of time is yours to do whatever you want with.

Strategy 5: Plan Something for Yourself

The last tip gets the most pushback. From my clients. From Laura’s readers. Apparently this is universally controversial, which tells me it’s important. Plan something for yourself. Ideally out of the house, more ideally something repeated that involves other people. Yes — a hobby. I know some of you are rolling your eyes at me. If you have littles, this is probably not a hobby moment, but it could be a 5–10 minute “me time” moment scheduled into your day.

At the beginning I mentioned the time tracking activity — this is where those two things meet. Once you track your time you get to decide: is it more important for your mental health to leave the house to do something you enjoy with other humans, or to watch 8 hours of Netflix? Could you use 2 of those 8 hours to do something for you? That still gives you 6 hours to watch Bridgerton during the week. Of course this does not mean dropping responsibilities or leaving your family high and dry. It means having a conversation with the people you live with about making space for this. Making sure there is someone to watch the kids, or if you have older family members living with you. It means planning. But once the setup is complete, you have time for yourself that can bring you joy and real space to recharge. It gives you something to look forward to every week and room to expand your circle.

If this season of your life makes a hobby genuinely not possible right now, how can we slot 5–10 minutes for you during the day? If you make your breakfast and lunch ahead of time — maybe while you’re already making dinner — does that open a few minutes in your morning to journal, meditate, read a book? Could you trade a school pickup with a friend or neighbor to give each other a few extra minutes in the afternoon? Can your partner take over one small task so you have a window to actually exhale?

This is the Recharge and Connect pillars working together. You are not a machine. You are a person who needs input, not just output. And for women in perimenopause, chronic depletion is not just an energy problem — it’s a hormonal one. Rest and joy are part of the protocol.

Closing

Before I let you go — if this episode made you think of someone in your life who is always saying she doesn’t have enough time, please share it with her. Text it to her right now. Post it in a group chat. Send it to the friend who you know is running on empty. The women in our lives are exhausted, and sometimes the most useful thing we can do for them is hand them something that might help. I would be so grateful, and so would she.

The big takeaway I want you to remember today: there is more time for what you love than you think, and you don’t need to do more to enjoy what you have. You can find bits of time for joy — meditation, breath work, reading a good book, listening to music you love — in the hours you already have. You deserve that.

Life can be challenging, and you can feel overwhelmed. But you are not alone and you are doing better than you think. Until next time, find a moment to be kind to yourself.

If this was helpful, share it with one person who might need to hear it today. Our bodies didn’t come with a user manual and this perimenopause thing can feel confusing and lonely – but you’re not alone, you’re not crazy, and you’re definitely not broken. Maybe someone in your life needs that reminder too. Let’s spread the word and be kind to each other and ourselves.

Legal note: I’m a nutritionist, but I’m not your nutritionist. This podcast is for information and education only. No client relationship was formed. Always seek medical advice when necessary.