Raising children whilst managing a career, running a house and trying to enjoy life means that most working mums are caught in a time trap.

We’re either fighting time because there’s never enough of it!   Running out of time, trying to find more time, or feeling guilty if we take any downtime.  Our relationship with time can be one of the most difficult relationships we’ll ever have!

If, like me, over your career you’ve probably read every time management book out there, been on a few productivity and time management training courses and tried numerous planning and diary management tools.  Many of these approaches just give us a different way to write our to-do list and some give us another stick to beat ourselves up with for not being good enough at managing our time.

Here at Wisdom For Working Mums we’re all about revolutionising how we approach motherhood, work and our lives so we can do it more sustainably and without losing our sanity.  And today’s guest does just that and I’m really excited to share her and her work with you.

Catherine Blyth is a journalist, writer, editor and mother.  In her latest book ‘Enjoy Time’ she combines cutting-edge science and psychology to show why time seems to run away from us and then provides us with the tools to get it back!

Catherine has written for publications including The Times, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Spectator, Elle, Glamour and Daily Mail, and appeared on a variety of shows for radio and television.

She has put her love of the English language to incredible use for us working mums by writing this book on how we can enjoy time, stop rushing and get more done.

In her book she explains thanks to technology our relationship with time has altered profoundly.  And that we need to take better care of the quality of our time, particularly as working mums.  She argues that enjoying time is not a simple question of being more productive or seeking ways to escape its pressures.  During this conversation she shares with us how we can transform our experience of time and refine the rhythm of our lives.

In this episode Catherine shares:

• How as a busy working mum the most urgent and pressing question of all “How do I use my time well?” inspired her to write this book [6:10]
• That we now have more time than ever but we’re not necessarily translating that into a more meaningful life.  [7:36]
• That we’re living in a rushagenic world and how small tweaks to our environment can do away with pointless rushing [9:42]
• How we can feel virtuous wearing our badge of busyness [12:20]
• The idea of time thieves, identifying them and putting them in quarantine to take away the power of distractions [15:35] 
• The neuroscience of distraction and the impact it has on our everyday life [18:45]
• How multitasking makes us hugely unproductive and more likely to make mistakes [20:21]
• The concept of entrainment and how easily we’re unconsciously manipulated by our environment [22:45]
• The most useful thing she’s done with her own time as a result of writing this book [28:35]
• How cultivating pauses in our life is important for inspiration and creativity   [31:02] 
• Her key message for working mums to help us to enjoy time [35:10]