this email is the third in a series pulling apart productivity, habit-making, and schedules. it’s also inviting you into the autumn reflection and reset workshop I made, $22, use for many seasons to come.

you’ve used all the things to get all the things you want to get done, done:

• timeblocking
• batch creating
• the prioritization matrix
• the Get Things Done method
• the just-schedule-it-in advice
• the just-be-consistent advice
• the just-have-more-discipline advice

what else could you add to this list?

I’m not saying any of these things that the productivity industry sells are impractical. we all need a schedule. we all need to use the clock at some point for something. writing down the work we actually desire to do is not bad advice.

it often lacks nuance.

and often, too, the scheduling and time management advice on the internet streets is given by men or boss babes without children or an immediate community to tend to, or who come from privilege and can hire nannies or people to tend for them (no shame here, just naming).

and also often, it neglects the many mental & fluctuating energy barriers that come with being highly sensitive, neurodivergent, and being conditioned as a woman/femme or non-binary person of color living under the colonial, capitalist patriarchy.

it neglects the spaciousness that people who are tapped into and guided by their creativity need.

so much of this scheduling advice calls for ignoring some simple truths that people like us come to live with:

🌘 each season, each week, each day, each hour and moment feels different

🌘 sometimes, we just don’t feel like it

🌘 sometimes, scheduling hurts lol. we might schedule something in cuz we so deeply desire to create or to practice that new habit/new way of being, but when the hour we’ve scheduled in comes around, we freeze up, we tense, we dread. for many reasons.

I’ll be the first to raise my hand at creating a fantasy schedule and then berating/shaming my self for not fulfilling it. for not finding the energy to. for being lazy. (whose voice is that?)

as creators, as caretakers of children, elders, other humans, plant & animal relatives, as people who care deeply about the state of the world, and also play many roles and hold many responsibilities, here’s the thing:

you don’t need another planner or to schedule another thing into your already packed day.

you need to honor your own natural rhythms and ways of doing things.

maybe that calls for time-blocking your schedule, hour by hour, from the time you wake to the time you sleep, to ensure you’re getting everything, or at least the most important things, in.

and maybe it doesn’t.

okay and maybe it may call you to order that shiny, new planner or download that project management tool, who knows lol. by all means, let’s use the tools we have!

however, honoring your own natural rhythm requires more honesty with your self, with your capacity, with navigating your values & shifting your priorities, and, therefore, how & when you use your energy.
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honoring your own natural rhythm may take some trial and error.

it is an opportunity for you to get to know your self better, deeper, wider. to cozy up with the way your body wants to move & be nourished, the way your mind works & thrives, the way you are deeply interconnected with that which is around and within you.

this is creating in kapwa, feeling the pulse of being alive, of being connected with the your own inner knowing, the people around you, the land, source, your creativity.

^^^idk what to call this haha. suggestions?!
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this is a WIP that arrived on a walk to the playground with my baby and partner: a cute venn diagram of the intersections of the 4 different kinds of rhythms we work with in our everyday, 2025 lives.
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this also includes “ancestral rhythms” (should this a fifth circle? lolol), ones that are directly tied to our lineages, the habits/ways of being our ancestors practiced, the ones that ripple through our DNA and awaken our epigenetics.

within each of the little crossovers areas, I added some examples of what the crossover might look like in our everyday.

these are rhythms that are woven together, played in tandem like left and right hands on the piano, ones that you can play with, leaning and pull away based on the day, the moment.

a little exercise for you:

when we have a lot we care about and a lot of tasks to move through within the container of a day or week, instead of asking ourselves how can I fit this all in? we ask what’s needed in this moment?

and you do a bit of a internal weather check.

this was an exercise I used to do with the kids in the morning and after lunch when I worked full-time in the classroom, having them check in with themselves and their inner landscape. some would share aloud, some would write in their journals, some would use the two-word prompt.

“tired and hungry” were a lot of their responses, lol, 7th graders.

➡️ what comes up when you check in with your self through the day? with your body & mind? what comes to the surface?

➡️ begin to record, observe, find the patterns within the tapestry of your hours.

➡️ when do you feel most alive? when do you need rest and food and sex and play? when do you naturally feel the urge to create?

eventually, you’ll be able to read your own patterns and begin to anticipate your own needs, much like you would everyone else’s…

cuz lezbihonest, as femmes this is how we’re conditioned. now is the time to serve your self with this kind of devotion.

for me, I’ve come to realize that my tomorrow translates as next month in gregorian speak.

my now translates into this week.

my “morning routines” are now choreographed sequences I move through that I know in my body give me energy, aliveness, patience - to be the mother, the creator, the person I want to be today - without an actual time stamp attached to them.

if you’ve read this far through the series, THANK YOU.

and I’d like to GIFT YOU both reflection & reset AND an offer I am revamping/revising:

in find your flow, we are going to populate and implement a flow map for the creative project and/or set of life habits/patterns of being you’d like to embody this season.

you’ll go from having the desire to write or paint or start on the next idea for your business and saying “when I have the time” to your first steps taken, flowing with life, creativity, and practical tools that can support you in finding flow state more often.

read more here: find your flow​

this gift exchange is for the first two people who book, after the first two folks, it will be $95. for this round, I'm asking for feedback and an honest testimonial if the work resonates and moves you in some way.
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​may you find the courage to take action on the things that inspire & excite you. may you find rhythms of living that allow you, your work, your beloveds & communities, your lineage to thrive. may you find your flow in your own way, in your own time.​
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agyamanak for reading this far.
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in gratitude & kapwa,
teresa

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I live, work, and mother as a settler on kānaka maoli land, the island of O'ahu. In support of landback initiatives and the community here, I want to amplify the work of Oʻahu Water Protectors, The Hawai'i People's Fund, and The Hawai'i Community Bail Fund. Our support of these organizations is to support the kānaka community in defending their land and waters.

If you ever feel the need to unsubscribe, I respect that. The button is below. Thank you for reading this far.

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