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16. Realistic Time Management Strategies for Dancers
100 Plays2 months ago
One question I get a lot from dancers is “How do I manage my time more effectively?”.
What they’re really asking is “How can I get more done?“.
Here’s the thing: most dancers I know don’t have a time management problem. They have an overscheduling problem.
Tune in to this solo episode to learn the sneaky ways you might be overscheduling yourself without even realizing it. You’ll walk away with tangible strategies that will allow you to prioritize your time more effectively so you can reach your goals this dance season without burning out.
Links and Resources:
BLOG POST: thebrainyballerina.com/blog/realistic-time-management-strategies-for-dancers
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Transcript
Introduction and Host Background
00:00:04
Speaker
I'm Caitlin, a former professional ballerina turned dance educator and career mentor. And this is the brand new ballerina podcast. I am here for the aspiring professional ballerina who wants to learn what it really takes to build a smart and sustainable career in the dance industry. I'm peeling back the curtain of professional dance world with open and honest conversations about the realities of becoming a professional dancer. Come along to gain the knowledge and inspiration you need to succeed in a dance career on your turns.
00:00:38
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Brainy Valorina podcast.
The Over-scheduling Dilemma for Dancers
00:00:41
Speaker
I'm your host, Caitlin Sloan, and today we are talking about time management for dancers. One question I get asked all the time from dancers is, how do I manage my time more effectively? But what they're really asking me is, how can I get more done in my day?
00:01:00
Speaker
And here's my take on this. I don't think that most dancers have a time management problem. Dancers are really incredible at time management. Our training and our careers demand a really high level of discipline, structure, organization. We are really excellent at finding ways to get it all done. So I don't think dancers have a time management problem. I think that we have an over scheduling problem.
00:01:27
Speaker
To excel in dance, we constantly feel this pressure to keep adding things to our schedule. More private lessons, another competition, an extra audition, more classes, whatever it is, we feel like we need to keep adding more and more things.
00:01:42
Speaker
but there comes a time when more isn't better. It's just more. What I want you to ask yourself right now is, am I really struggling to manage my time? Or am I just trying to squeeze more activities into 24 hours than is humanly possible?
00:02:01
Speaker
So let's take a look at what a daily schedule might look like for you as a dancer if you're in high school. And I just published a blog post on the same topic. So if you are a visual learner like me and you want to see this really visually, nicely laid out as a calendar, I'm going to include that blog post in the show notes too. So you can take a look at that
The Vital Role of Sleep in Dance
00:02:20
Speaker
as well. But say you're a dancer in high school. So just for reference, friends maybe you have school, if it's a weekday, you have school from eight to three.
00:02:30
Speaker
And then you have ballet class, four to six, rehearsal, six to eight. If this is what your schedule looks like and this is what you're putting down on your calendar, you're missing out on a lot of things you have to do. And what I find is if I don't have them written down, I really underestimate how much time these things are going to take. So you might have like those big things you have to do, school, class, rehearsal on your calendar, and then another to-do list of a million things you have to get done.
00:02:59
Speaker
And to-do lists are really tricky because they never really end. And a lot of times they don't really prioritize what you need to do, and they're not putting it at a specific time to get it done. So you just have this endless to-do list that you're never gonna finish, and it makes you feel really overwhelmed. And every time you look at it, you're just like, what do I do first? I don't know what to prioritize. I'm overwhelmed. There's too much. Okay, so that's one thing. I also wanna talk about All of the things that are not probably on your calendar that I really think you should be putting on your calendar, at least for a while until you get used to the idea of how much time these things take. So on any given weekday, you probably have, you know, some combination of school, dance class rehearsal, but you're not accounting for a lot of other things. The most important number one thing that I don't think dancers are accounting for in their schedule that I want you to put on your schedule
00:03:56
Speaker
before almost anything else is sleep. And I know that sounds kind of crazy to be like, you need to put sleep on your calendar. But listen, if you don't schedule it in and really proactively put eight to 10 hours of sleep on your calendar, it's going to be the thing that you
Essential Scheduling Tips for Dancers
00:04:15
Speaker
start cutting into. And it's going to really affect you. I cannot overstate the importance of sleep as an athlete, especially as a young dancer.
00:04:25
Speaker
You need eight to 10 hours of sleep every single night. Every person is different about how much you need. You might be an eight hour a night person. You might be a 10 hour a night person.
00:04:38
Speaker
I personally need nine hours of sleep a night. I know that about myself. If I get eight, I can be fine. That's okay. If I get nine, that's ideal. I'm at my peak for the whole day. I feel really, really good. If I get less than that, I am groggy. I am cranky. I am irritable. I can't really function at my highest level.
00:05:02
Speaker
As a young dancer, this was my baseline. I was never getting enough sleep. I remember distinctively when I was in high school, I had one class, I think it was maybe like third period. It was my English class and I fell asleep in that class every single day.
00:05:20
Speaker
like I would get to that period and I couldn't keep my eyes open for one more second. I would put my head down on the desk and I would fall fast asleep to the point that I would sometimes sleep into the next period. The bell would ring, classes would change, and I would not wake up. And my teacher, bless her heart, was so sweet. She would tell my friends.
00:05:41
Speaker
just like Caitlin's sleep. She looks so tired. I'll send her to her next class when she wakes up. Like she was really worried about me. But honestly, I don't know why no one was like, what's going on that you're not getting enough sleep that you have to take a nap at like 10 a.m. every single day. That's a problem.
00:05:58
Speaker
So that wasnt that probably should have been looked into, but to me, I didn't really question it because I was like, I have to stay up late to do my homework, but then I'm sleeping through school. What good is that doing me? I will also say that most of the time I had an injury. I had a lot of sprained ankles in high school. Most of the time it was because I was tired. I had not got enough sleep. I wasn't paying attention. My body was tired. My brain was tired and I would just land from a jump run. I would take a weird step down a flight of stairs and I would spray my ankle.
00:06:28
Speaker
And then I'd be out for a long time. Sleep is essential. It's essential for muscle recovery, cognitive function, emotional wellbeing. I'm sure you notice if you don't get enough sleep, you're not just sc groggy and just forgetting things. You're also weepy. You're also having a hard time coping in a healthy way. And also your muscles are not recovering. When you sleep, your body is amazing. It helps your muscles recover. So if you don't do that,
00:06:54
Speaker
You're never getting back to a good level. You're never recovering from all of the hard work that you are doing. Adequate sleep also reduces the risk of injury and it supports the strong immune system. So if you're getting injured a lot, you're getting sick a lot. If you're just overall not feeling your best, you probably need more sleep. If you want to be able to dance at your highest level, you need to prioritize this. And I know it's annoying to say because I feel like when I was young, I was like, I don't really need sleep. I'll be fine.
00:07:22
Speaker
You really, really, really do need it. I promise you, you do. If I could ask one thing of every dancer, I would say prioritize your sleep. If you cannot get eight to 10 hours of sleep or the number that you need to function at your best every single night, something on your schedule needs to change. You cannot keep adding more things and cutting into your sleep and expect your body to be able to cope.
00:07:48
Speaker
So look at your schedule and when you are putting down all of your activities, school, dance, classes, put sleep really high on your priority list before you start adding other things. It is one of the most productive things you can do. And I know as dancers, we want to always be productive. I'm telling you, sleep is incredibly productive for your body. It is not lazy. You're not missing out on anything else. You are doing the best thing you can. OK, so stepping off of that soapbox, the next thing that I want you to put on your calendar is you're getting ready time and your travel time.
00:08:25
Speaker
If you're always feeling rushed, you might not be accurately accounting for the amount of time it really takes for you to get ready and travel to each activity. So getting ready for me, that's...
00:08:37
Speaker
waking up, having my coffee, taking my shower, hair, makeup, breakfast, getting my bag packed, all those things that I need to do to be ready to go out the door. And then travel time, obviously, how long it's taking you to get from place to place. So for a week, maybe try timing yourself to see how long it actually takes you to get ready to eat your meals, your snacks, to do your travel.
00:09:02
Speaker
because I promise you, you're probably underestimating it. I used to think I'd get ready in 10 minutes. I can't. I really can't. Not if I want to feel calm and cool and collected. For me, I have to make sure that I wake up one hour before I need to leave the house.
00:09:19
Speaker
That's how much time I know that I need. I'd love to have more time than that, but if it's an early morning, one hour is good for me. And then, as far as travel time goes, I've started writing in my calendar, not always what time my activity starts, but what time I need to leave the house. Because sometimes I'll look at that time when the activity starts and I'll say, oh, I have to teach at five. And in my brain, I have five, five. That's the time I'm thinking of.
00:09:45
Speaker
And then I'm rushing out the door because I just been thinking I need to be there at five and I'm not really ready to leave when I need to. So I started writing on my calendar. I teach at five every Monday. My family calendar says 4 15 Kaitlyn teach because that's the time I need to leave the house. So everyone in my house knows my husband, my kids know that that's my need to walk out the door. It helps them. It helps me. If you are having this feeling of always being late and not quite being able to get places without feeling really, really rushed,
00:10:15
Speaker
Maybe try actually write on your calendar what time you need to like start getting ready and what time you need to leave the house. You'll realize that this blank space you thought you had in your calendar, you don't really have. There are things you need to be doing during this time. So you actually have less free time than you thought you did. and Another thing you need to be putting on your calendar is homework. If you're still in school.
00:10:38
Speaker
chances are you have homework most days. And for me as a student, I used to be putting homework down on my to-do list. You know, I need to study for this test. I need to do this worksheet.
00:10:50
Speaker
But what happened was, again, I had this endless to-do list of homework and I didn't have a time schedule to do it. So when I sat down to do homework, I didn't always even know what was most important for me to be tackling. And I was almost triaging it, just doing the thing that was the most urgent, not always the thing that was the most important.
00:11:09
Speaker
And everything always felt really rushed. I was always cramming for tests. I was always writing papers the night before they were due. And to be quite honest, I'm the kind of person that can do that. I do thrive on a little bit of that adrenaline of the last minute, but it didn't make me feel good. Even though I could do it, I shouldn't to do it. And I'm sure you probably shouldn't either.
00:11:30
Speaker
So what I would say is at the beginning of each month, take a look at all of your classes, take a look at the assignments, the tests you have coming up. You know, the big things you have, right? Like maybe each day you might get a worksheet that you can do in like 15 minutes, half an hour, but I'm confident your teachers are telling you.
00:11:47
Speaker
You have a test to this day. You have a big paper due this day. Don't just wait until the week those things are due to do start thinking about them. Put it on your calendar earlier. Literally schedule a block of time on your calendar to start working on these big assignments or studying. Again, if it's just on your to-do list, it's easy to just keep pushing it off.
00:12:07
Speaker
actually have a time and place that you're going to do this. If you're not in school anymore, this can be for so many other things. For my clients I work with who are doing audition season, we do a same kind
Personal Experience and Avoiding Burnout
00:12:18
Speaker
of process where it's like, okay, what are the things that we need to do? And we start this in September or October so that they're not feeling so rushed.
00:12:26
Speaker
and trying to cram everything together. So we really make sure that they can get all of their tasks completed before the holidays. That's always our goal. So they can actually have a relaxing holiday with their family and not be just running around trying to get audition stuff together. So we'll start from the very beginning, like in September. Okay, let's make our list of companies. Let's start researching.
00:12:48
Speaker
Let's look at the things you need to update your resume, your photos, your videos. And we actually make a schedule for the next like three or four months of what tasks are going to get done every single week, what their action items are. And then we even say, okay, put this on your calendar. You need two hours this week.
00:13:04
Speaker
to submit auditions. When are you going to do that? Okay. It's on your calendar. You are committed to it. Instead of just saying, I need to get this done. I need to get this done. And then you're always feeling rushed until the last minute. You are planning ahead. This is one of the best things you can do for yourself as a dancer is switch from this idea of a to-do list into really concrete times.
00:13:23
Speaker
and that you're putting something on your calendar when it needs to be done. And if it doesn't need to be done this week, you're putting it on your calendar for a month out and you know it's there. And now it's not stressful anymore because you're like, I know when I'm going to get to that. It's not just on your mind, wearing you down, making you feel like that thing is really nagging me. No, you know, you have a time to do it. It's going to happen. And you can just let that go and focus on what you're doing at the present moment. The last thing I want you to think about putting on your calendar,
00:13:53
Speaker
is fun, which sounds kind of wacky like scheduling fun, but with schedules as demanding as ours, you have to make time for fun. Put it on your calendar. Remember that everyone's definition of fun is different. For you, it might be spending the day at the zoo. For another person, it might be laying in bed, watching Netflix all day. Whatever you need to recharge,
00:14:17
Speaker
Make time for it. Make sure that you are actually putting that in your calendar and you stick to it. Because if you don't actually give yourself time to relax, to have fun, to do things that are outside of the realm of dance or school, you're gonna start to feel burnt out. And I feel like this time of year, going into a new year, I am always really super motivated. I love a new year. I love fall, back to school, back to dance.
00:14:43
Speaker
I just really love this time of year. It's for sure my favorite time of year. I always loved going school shopping. and I love new school supplies, all of it. And with that, for me always comes this big first of motivation. And when I have that motivation, I'm like, okay, let's do all these things you've been putting off. I get very gung-ho and I get very excited. And I just go really, really intense for a few weeks and then I'm exhausted. And I can't maintain that.
00:15:11
Speaker
So I feel like that's really common for a lot of us. We get really excited. We have all these big goals, all these things we want to do, and we decide that we're going to do them all at once, which obviously nobody can maintain. And then we're burnt out and then we get to nutcracker season and we're exhausted. So that's why I really like thinking about our calendar with all of these things included with prioritizing sleep, with prioritizing just the time it takes for you to get ready to eat your meals, to drive somewhere.
00:15:40
Speaker
If you look at this blog post that I shared, I'm showing you how your calendar might look once you add all these things in. And you might think to yourself, that feels really overwhelming because now every minute is accounted for versus before it was like only the things that were maybe really important or that you had committed to were scheduled.
00:16:01
Speaker
But honestly, all that time that was blank was really already accounted for. You just couldn't see it visually. So in your mind, you're thinking you have more time than you really do. And you might think, I could schedule another private lesson in here. I could add something else. But you really can't. When it's all laid out, you realize this isn't actually free time. This is accounted for. This is time you need to get to places, to eat your meals, to get your sleep. And when it's all laid out,
00:16:29
Speaker
you realize you can't keep adding more things. And you might do this exercise that we've been talking about and realize that there's no way you're going to be able to do all the activities that you have scheduled and still maintain your sanity. But how do you choose what to give up? It all feels so important. Everyone keeps telling us we need to do all of these things. How can you decide what to give up if it is too much? You need to go back to your goals.
00:16:58
Speaker
What are your goals for this year? What do you really want to accomplish? And then prioritize the activities that are going to move the needle on your goals. Let go of the ones that are not moving you forward right now. You can always come back to them later. They are not gone forever, but you have to be realistic about what you can actually get done so that you do not burn yourself out. When I was a junior in high school, I was doing way, way, way too much.
00:17:27
Speaker
Like I was doing everything. I was in the ballet company. I was on the competition team. I was in key club. I was trying to do literally every single thing that I could think of. Every second of my day was accounted for with an activity. I didn't have any time for sleep. I didn't have any time to eat a meal. It was all scheduled with an activity. And eventually I got really sick. I got mono and I was out of school for a full month and out of dance for longer than that.
00:17:57
Speaker
I literally couldn't set foot inside of my high school for a whole month. So then going into my senior year, I had to really reevaluate what I was doing. And I ended up dropping down to the bare minimum of classes. I remember thinking, oh my gosh, I'm being so lazy. I'm only taking six ballet classes a week.
00:18:16
Speaker
Like I was still doing so much, but I just dropped all the extra classes. I dropped all my extra like jazz, lyrical, contemporary classes, which I really loved and I knew I would come back to, but I just couldn't do it all anymore. And I knew my goal was to be in a classical ballet company.
00:18:35
Speaker
And yes, it is 100% sure that you need to have the other styles of dance to be in a company. Every single company does contemporary works. That's a fact. I'm not saying to not do other styles of dance. But what I am saying is that in that moment in time for me, I could not do it all anymore. I had been doing it all for many years.
00:18:53
Speaker
And I had to think about what was going to be the most important for me in this moment to be able to keep going. Because at this point, it was honestly like either just give it all up or pare down. I couldn't
Aligning Activities with Dance Career Goals
00:19:05
Speaker
keep going to the level I was going at. So I ended up not doing competition team, not doing all of my other extracurriculars. I just focused on my senior year of high school. I focused on ballet and that's what I did.
00:19:19
Speaker
and it really worked well for me. And then when I got into college, of course I added back in all the other classes, the modern classes, the jazz classes, partnering, all of that, because now in college, my school was dance. So I wasn't trying to do both. I was able to do that, but I needed that little bit of time. So if you feel like, okay, I need to pull back a little bit,
00:19:42
Speaker
That's okay. You're not going to fall behind. You're not going to ruin your chances at a career. If anything, you're going to make it better because you'll be able to have longevity. You're not going to burn out. You'll be able to keep going. And that's what we're in it for. Longevity. Okay. This career, I say it all the time. This career is a marathon, not a sprint. You cannot blast so fast that you burn out. You have to take it slow. It's a slow burn.
00:20:11
Speaker
Really be realistic about what you can actually accomplish without driving yourself into the ground, without being exhausted and getting injured. I also say this all the time, but your body is going to take a break. Your body needs a break. And if you don't give it time to rest, it's going to choose the time for you. And it's not going to be a time that's convenient. It's not going to be a time that you want.
00:20:38
Speaker
You're going to have to miss something really cool that you wanted to do because you kept trying to plow forward and you didn't give yourself time to rest. Time management isn't about finding more time in your day. That is not possible. The time we have is finite. There's only so many hours in a day. You cannot change that. It is about being realistic with the time you have and prioritizing it effectively. So your action items for this podcast episode.
00:21:08
Speaker
I want you to look at your goals. If you haven't set your goals yet, start there. Go back to episode seven with Dr. Chelsea Pratty. We talk a lot about goal setting based on your values and how to set really good goals that are within your control. If you are having trouble with goal setting, start there and then start putting things into your calendar.
00:21:30
Speaker
Put all the things we talked about, sleep, getting ready time, travel time, homework, or other activities that have to be done, your to-do list, essentially, and fun. Put them all on your calendar and then be real with yourself. Be very, very real and ask yourself, is this practical? Can I do this realistically? And if not, then look at your calendar. Look at what you can let go of for now. Talk to your teachers about it.
00:21:59
Speaker
Be really transparent, but do what's best for you. Ultimately, you're the one who knows what's best for you. You're not being lazy. You're not falling behind. You are being smart about your time and about your energy and your resources and where you're putting it. I hope this episode has been helpful for you into shifting the idea of trying to squeeze more things into a day into, okay, what are the realistic ways I can manage my time to make sure that I can maintain a level of sanity and honestly a level of happiness because we started dancing because we love it because it's fun. If it's starting to feel overwhelming, if you're starting to feel like this is too much, I'm not enjoying it anymore. I'm always tired. I'm always grumpy. Something needs to change and here's where you can start.
00:22:54
Speaker
Thank
Episode Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:22:55
Speaker
you for tuning into the Brainy Ballerina podcast. If you found this episode insightful, entertaining, or maybe a bit of both, I would so appreciate you taking a moment to leave a rating and hit subscribe. By subscribing, you'll never miss an episode. And you'll join our community of dancers passionate about building a smart and sustainable career in the dance industry. Plus, your ratings help others discover the show too.
00:23:20
Speaker
I'll be back with a new episode next week. In the meantime, be sure to follow along on Instagram at The Brainy Valorina for your daily dose of dance career guidance.