EP #47 | Protecting your Creative Energy with Carly Teigeler
Welcome to the Designers Oasis podcast. I'm your host, Kate Bendewald, interior designer, mama and CEO of a thriving interior design business, built on authentic word of mouth referrals. It wasn't that long ago that I stepped away from my corporate architecture job to build my own dream, one that would allow me more time with the people that I love, the ability to serve my clients at the highest level, and to make a great living. It wasn't always easy, and I've made my share of mistakes along the way. Fast forward to today, and I've learned a thing or two. This podcast is for you - the inspired, creative, ambitious, and let's admit it, occasionally overwhelmed interior designer who shares this dream of transforming lives by transforming homes. Join me and my guests each week as we walk through practical ways to build an interior design business you love, and help you transform your clients' lives. You can do this.
Kate Bendewald
Hello, and welcome back to the show. Today, I'm joined by Carly Tegeler to talk about protecting your creative energy. As a graphic designer and web designer Carly understands what it's like to have your brain and your energy pulled in so many different directions, from engaging with clients working on proposals and managing the business financials to doing the actual work of developing your clients designs. That really juicy and fun creative work that involves playing with color and pattern and texture, form and scale and so much more. Carly recognized that as an introverted neurodivergent creative professional, she had to be super protective of her social energy. If she overextended herself too much. By interacting with others, she found it hard to tune in to her own creativity and produce her best work. I think we can all relate to that. But what's really fascinating about Carly is her approach to understanding what her natural rhythms were and then designing a business to work with that natural flow. So she wasn't draining her creative energy at the beginning of the week, before she ever got started. There's so much wisdom that Carly shares along with practical strategies that can help you to develop your own natural rhythm to your workweek. So you're set up for the best possible results without draining your creative energy. This isn't just self care. This is good business advice. I know you're going to love hearing from Carly and what she has to share today. Please welcome Carly to the show. Hi, good morning, Carly. Welcome to the show. How are you? Welcome back to the show, I should say.
Carly Teigeler
I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me. How are you today?
Kate Bendewald
I'm excellent. I've got a quiet house. Everyone's finally gone. We had a slew of sick kids home and now my husband's traveling. They're all back in school. It's a quiet rainy day. And it's lovely here. So I'm just enjoying kind of the the Zen household that we have back again. It's good for you. Yeah, thank you. It's a I think, given today's topic, I think you can appreciate that. Especially as a fellow. I'm not an introvert I would consider myself an ambivert but I am one of those people who my creative energy needs to be protected as well. I think everybody's does and that's what we're here to talk about today. So thank you so much. So my guest today is Carly Chandler. She is a graphic designer and web designer. Her business is schematic design, CO or do you call it company do you call it CO or company?
Carly Teigeler
usually call it co
Kate Bendewald
I like that I like that. Um, definitely check her stuff out because she does absolutely beautiful and amazing work today. But I brought Carly in today to talk about protecting your creative energy and this was inspired by an Instagram post that you did a while back that we have I took note of and said, This is really fascinating, and we want to talk more about it. So thank you so much for joining us in and talking about this topic specifically.
Carly Teigeler
Absolutely. I'm super excited to get into it. Yeah. So
Kate Bendewald
what I wanted to learn more about was you, you shared that as a as an introverted, neurodivergent creative professional, that you found that you really needed to protect your creative energy, and your social energy. And today, you're gonna share with us a little bit about how you arrived at understanding this and some of the really cool, in my opinion, nerdy data driven decisions that you made, and then some of the strategies that you now employ. But first, before we get into some of those, I want you to share with us a little bit about what were you experiencing? What did that feel like for you, when you started to recognize there's a problem here? I'm not doing my best work, something's got to change. Well, what was can you kind of describe what was happening for you?
Carly Teigeler
Yeah, so I found that the more experience I got as a designer, and the better I got at sort of empathizing with my clients and getting into their headspace more, I found it harder and harder to disconnect from that headspace when that container was over. And the more that started to happen, it started to feel like a real weakness at first, you know, I felt like I should be able to hop back and forth effortlessly between sort of having those strategic conversations and really, you know, as designers of any sort part of our job is to, you know, we're not mind reader's, but we are a little bit, you know, yeah, absolutely get in there, and we dig it out. And we translate it. And I felt like I should be able to hop back and forth between doing that, and producing creative work of a consistent quality for which I needed to be in my own head. Very much so and I, I just couldn't, it felt like two conflicting mental processes to me. And I felt a lot of guilt about it. And I started to realize that it was becoming a real issue of trying to force myself to do that, and being available to my clients, whenever they wanted, the interact. And I just, my, my work started to suffer because of it, you know, I figured as my business grows, I need to be more and more available. And, and it worked for a little while. And then I realized that, you know, as I was working through my design process, I was hearing for different clients feedback in my head as I went, which just like was not working out. So yeah, so I started to feel guilt, I started to feel like I wasn't doing my job. Well, I wasn't doing any of my clients to service. And I felt like I was just constantly being hounded by other people's voices to a degree that sounds a little dramatic. But you know, you gotta have those internal dialogues. And a
Kate Bendewald
lawyer. Absolutely, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I'm just, I'm gonna, I think I'm thinking about interior designers, our work is very similar in the way that you are expected to listen, absorb, translate through the creative process, what your clients have told you. and problem solve. And I know, for myself, and I would assume most designers, when you're in that creative process, even before you've presented anything, you're already thinking, what are they going to say, what are they going to think of this or that and that, if you're not conscientious of that, it can be a creative journey. And so interesting, too, that you and I think this is probably true for a lot of women, that you would that you would feel guilt around that I I just I don't I don't not judging it at all. I just find it interesting that that's how we respond. And I don't know if it's a woman or man thing, but so tell them okay, so go on. So what So you were, you were feeling guilty, because you're having to go back and forth between this sort of left side of your brain strategy, thinking about data, thinking about problem solving. And then also the visuals, the color, the flow. And those are really working two different sides of your brain and transitioning, plus communicating with your clients or that verbal side of of our brain that is functioning when you're interacting with others. So for you, it was really hard to kind of go back and forth between them, which makes so much sense to me.
Carly Teigeler
Yeah, yeah, it was a whole thing and coming to that realization. You know, I fall into the fallacy a lot where I'm like, Okay, if I can identify the problem identifying it will be enough and I'll naturally Stop or I'll naturally find ways to work around that issue. And that did not happen with this. I think I gave it about a year before I reached out to someone for some support around it. And it got To the point where it really started to impact my confidence and my ability to, you know, run a business. And it started to feel like running a business, by default had to be hard for me. And I just wasn't someone who could have a business that felt natural and flowy. And I was like, okay, that's not for me. And the moment I realized that that was the inner narrative, I remember the exact day that I, I was like, journaling and thinking and thinking, why is, why is this so hard? And why does it feel so hard to break out of this pattern? And like, the, the thing that came up was like, Well, you're not someone who gets to be easy for? And I was like, I gotta bring someone in. To snap me out of it.
Kate Bendewald
Good for you. Yeah. Good for you for recognizing No, that's bullshit. Why not me, I have a gift. I have something that the world needs. I have something to offer here. This is not something that can, you know, is going to derail me. I remember feeling this way at moments in my career, where you know, from the burnout, it's like, I don't know, if I'm cut out for this. I just don't, yeah, but good for you for getting support. Because support of you know, you can't be expected to do it all or figure it out. And that's definitely been the thing in the past, that's helped pull me out of those moments. Okay, so you found some support? Do you? Would you work with a coach?
Carly Teigeler
I did, I worked with a like a business slash mindset coach, she kind of spans both a little bit. Yeah. And so working with her was transformative, because it was the first time I had ever you know, I've worked with mentors and coaches before in group containers, and just never on a one on one, you know, basis. And it was always the the idea was always like, here's what worked for me, here's how you can replicate it. And in this scenario, it was more like, how does your brain naturally work? And how can we make your business work with that, instead of trying to retrain your brain to fit these
Kate Bendewald
processes? However, rushing?
Carly Teigeler
Yeah, we felt so good.
Kate Bendewald
Like, wait a second, you're not gonna prescribe a checklist of things for me to do, we're gonna actually, like study this. And okay, so what did she have you do?
Carly Teigeler
So she sort of helped me break down the way, the way I would like to work, and actually got me to admit the way that I would like to work with people, which I hadn't fully allowed myself to think about. Because I didn't really think I had the option. But in so we identified that there was a bit of a boundary issue and that I wanted to work with my natural flow of energy and sort of, instead of sort of forcing it into a corporate like structure, which is sort of what I was trying to do, but I wasn't sure where to start with setting firmer boundaries with my clients. And I didn't want to just start creating random rules that cause extra stress for them or me, just out of thin air. So you know, we started thinking, brainstorming, you know, how can we, we love data? How can we get some data to inform these decisions? And so the first, the first thing that I thought to do was to start, you know, I knew that communication was a big issue, and that having meetings every day was a big issue. But I didn't want to just say like, alright, it's Tuesdays that we have meetings, you know, I wanted to be a little more intentional about it. And so I started just recording, at the end of every day, whether I felt like being social that day or not, and it was not fancy. I literally just added a note in my calendar every day, if I was feeling social, not social, or social ish, meaning, like, I felt like socializing with close friends, but wasn't necessarily excited to take meetings that day. And I did it for a few months. And it was really interesting. Oh, my gosh,
Kate Bendewald
this is fascinating. Okay, so that you, I love the simplicity of it. Because if it becomes another task, that's difficult, why bother? Right? So you're simply is this like your Google Calendar, your paper calendar? Or did you? Like how did you do it specifically?
Carly Teigeler
Yeah, so I use like Apple calendar app, just like the layout and I created, you know, you can create color coded calendars or sub calendars, I created a new color for that specifically, and just on their each day, I would add, like an all day event, so it was right at the top that that said, Whether I felt like being social that day, just naturally, you know,
Kate Bendewald
okay, and so you created three categories, social, meaning, I felt like engaging with clients or with friends or people in general, social ish, which was maybe I don't feel like engaging with clients, but a close friend, I would be willing to like go have coffee or dinner with and then not social, those three different categories. So simple. Okay, so you did that and you did it for a few months. And can you share with us some of the insights that you walked away with after recording this data?
Carly Teigeler
Yeah, it was really interesting. I didn't expect there to be such a dramatic preference for like in terms of days of the week, but I found that I only wanted to be social on about 15% of Mondays. That makes sense. That makes sense. But on like Fridays and Thursdays it was, there's a surprise, I should say it's between like 70 to 80%. So there are a few outliers and, you know, the occasional Thursday and Friday that I didn't feel like it. But in general, I was like really jazzed to take meetings and to have a full day of meetings on those days. And so I started, why do you think around that?
Kate Bendewald
Why do you think that was that you found towards the end of the week, you had that energy for you?
Carly Teigeler
I think because coming into my week, I would come into the week with you know that to do list of all the things I wanted to get accomplished that week, a lot of it being creative work. And I think having meetings front loaded during the week made it so that I started out that flow, if we think of the creative flow as being a week long, I started out that flow from a place of responsiveness and reaction to what I was taking in from other people instead of, you know, just allowing my brain to sort of like work through its processes of more naturally. So I was I was just immediately, you know, in that response mode. So and I think towards the end of the week, you know, after a couple of days of being in my own head, I'm ready to talk to people for sure. But I also a lot of that stress has been taken off and I just have more space for for whatever might come through those conversations.
Kate Bendewald
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I've talked to a lot here on the podcast and a blog post about context switching, and batching your days. And so this really will, we'll find some of those past episodes and blog posts, and we'll be sure to link to them in the show notes. But I have intuitively done this for myself, I would be curious that I think it's sort of shifted a little bit, it might be time for me to kind of revisit that. But it makes a lot of sense. I definitely like Tuesdays and Wednesday, Wednesdays are my deep dive for creativity. And other than, like podcast, I will record. But I typically don't take client meetings and I like to have Wednesdays blocked off. Because I do spend the first part of my week sort of getting, I do my team meeting on Monday and just getting myself organized in my head. And Tuesday's a lot of like checking boxes, getting some of that stuff out of the way some, my pattern is a little different than yours. But it feels like for me, I have a hard time getting into that creative space, if I feel like there's a bunch of stuff lingering that I'm ignoring. So if I can get some of that stuff off of my plate, then by the time I have that space to get into the creative zone, and much more poised to do it. So I think anybody listening, it would be worth doing this exercise, if you're not already, if you don't have an intuition already about what would work best for you, I think the idea of capturing that data for a little while to see where you fall, it would be a really good idea. And then for me, you know, Thursdays are I do all of my engaging with my members on Thursdays through our guest experts and through our live Q and A's and any trainings that we do. And then Fridays are really kind of off the table for meetings as well. So when you that's your weeks, then you avoid context switching. And I don't I don't have numbers. I don't have data on this. But I know that the data and research shows that context switching between different types of activities. There's a there's a loss in time because your brain has a difficult time switching between, say writing, or drafting or talking with other folks. You know, not everybody's like this though, like my husband. And so funny I walked he has such a one track mind like he is such a focused person, I am add, I have to have like, all my, my my area and my space has to be all kind of tidied and I have to be when my mom used to call it circling the wagon before you'd get in like I have to get myself set up before I could sit down and start doing work right? Or my husband, he could just sit down and just like get going. The other day I started to leave the house. I forgot something and I came back in. And my husband is sitting there on his laptop in the living room working away. Both of my kids are I don't know what they ate for breakfast, but they were bouncing off the wall singing dancing. They were having fun, right? They were jumping on the couch. They're not allowed to do the dogs. They're playing with the dogs, the dogs were chasing and the music was blasting and he was just like, I don't know what he was doing. But he was in a zone and I was like, I wish I could take a picture of this right now because I don't know. Like you're typing you're writing words. How are you doing this right now? It is total chaos. It's so you know, that is just a different kind of human being. So yeah, okay. All right. So let's get back to you. You recorded this data, you figured out that you had like this natural ebb and flow. And so what did you do from a practical standpoint, to set your week up with clients and engage in engaging with them so that you could, could respond to what you had had learned?
Carly Teigeler
Right. So I made a hard and fast rule, no meetings on Mondays, that was an easy one to implement. And just Yeah, had it out. And I started offering more availability towards like, the second half of the week, I do still have the occasional Tuesday open just because for some clients, that's, you know, some of my clients still have day jobs and are still trying to coordinate childcare around this business, they're building and it's, you know, we have to have, I have to have some flexibility. And it feels good to have some flexibility. But ultimately, I do try to, you know, backload those meetings, and lately, at the, at least a minimum, I try to have at least two days a week where I have, you know, no meetings, I don't push myself to create social media content on those days. No, no outgoing interactions. Really, I call them my potato days.
Kate Bendewald
Ooh, tell me about this potato days habit. What does this mean?
Carly Teigeler
It just means I can I don't have to get dressed, I don't have to do anything that I don't you know, want to do to make myself feel presentable. I can just I can just be a potato and put on my my background, you know, hyper fixation playlist on Spotify, and just zoned into whatever work feels good that day. Which is usually like the more creative work but I just call it a potato, because I'm like, I just be in my PJs. I'm a potato.
Kate Bendewald
Yes. Oh, my gosh, this is so cute. I love it even had a name for it. Go back because this is something new that I have discovered. You call it hyper fixation playlist on Spotify. Can you tell our audience what that is? And how that works? We'll sidenote.
Carly Teigeler
Yeah, so yes, I have ADHD, myself. And I, I do mix up my sort of background noises. But I typically do well with some amount of background noise while I'm trying to really focus. And there's specific types of music. Some people call it like Lo Fi, or binaural music, which are two different things. But it's supposed to be really good for helping you sort of like focus and giving you just enough sort of stimulation to help you sort of zone in. So there is an ADHD hyper fixation playlist on Spotify. I can't remember if Spotify made it or if it's from someone, but if you look it up, there's like one that pops up at the top. That's very good.
Kate Bendewald
Yeah, well, I don't know that I've come across that one yet. But we'll find it. We'll link to it in the show notes. Yes, I too. Have an it's often done best with headphones. And because it's that bilateral stimulation that sort of helps with the left and right brain integration. It's really fascinating science, if anybody wants to do a deep dive into that. But yeah, I mean, I used to listen to like, classical or whatever. And I sent him as well. But sometimes I find that that makes me a bit more sleepy. And so this has a bit more stimulation. And of course, no words, because then I can't think about what I'm writing. I'm saying the words in my head. So yeah, those those playlists have been really, really helpful for me as well. Okay, so you figured out a schedule, you changed your availability, you protected those days that you wanted to be a potato, which I love. I think I think after today, I might be a potato.
Kate Bendewald
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Kate Bendewald
You talked to in this in this post about cycle related trends. That surprised you because you you shared that you also recognized that you had PPD, can you talk a little bit about what you learned around this and what is PPD? And how is that affecting you?
Carly Teigeler
Yeah. My doctor calls it PMDD. I'm not sure if there's another,
Kate Bendewald
I will probably saying it wrong. No, no. Okay.
Carly Teigeler
Well, yeah, so I was diagnosed with it when I was a teenager, and back then my doctors focused on, you know, the more physical ramifications, like, severe nausea, severe pain, that kind of thing, and a little bit of the, you know, mental health stuff, but not so much. And then, you know,
Kate Bendewald
just kind of pause real quick. So this is like severe PMS.
Carly Teigeler
Essentially, yeah, but with a much heavier like a much heavier dose of anxiety and depressive episodes, and that sort of
Kate Bendewald
thing. no fun at all. Okay, yeah.
Carly Teigeler
So they put me on the pill when I was like 14, or 15. And then I was on it for most, you know, most of my adult life today. And it wasn't an issue. And I went off of it a couple of years ago, cold turkey, which apparently, you're not really supposed to do, but probably for this reason. And it started to become really, really apparent, about nine months afterwards, that I had some really, really different mental and emotional weather happening around the end of my cycle. And it really impacted my sort of day to day experience. And so I started tracking that really closely as well. And that has continued to shift a bit over the last, you know, couple of years, which I suppose isn't surprising. But there were some trends there too, that I definitely plan around these days.
Kate Bendewald
Yeah. So if you kind of can anticipate, you know, towards the end of your cycle that you might not be feeling 100% Maybe your what is it? Like maybe you're not presenting to a client or finishing a project or holding as many meetings? Is that kind of the, what your response has been?
Carly Teigeler
Yeah, kind of, yeah, I do try to minimize, you know, meetings and that sort of thing towards the end of my cycle. But it's, it's less that I don't want to interact with people. And it's more that if I have any less than stellar interactions, I tend to dwell on them really heavily. So I, yeah, so I tried to use more passive forms of communication around that time, like, instead of scheduling a meeting, to go over something with a client, I'll record a loom video explaining what I want to talk to them about, and then send it to them. And, you know, just ask them to send me written feedback, because it just minimizes the risk of a weird interaction or something, you know, it's, it's not like it happens often, but we can't share it as business owners that happens every now and then.
Kate Bendewald
I love that you, I think what's so important for people listening is to, I think, early on in your business career, there can be this tendency to try to be all to all people all the time. And I think that with experience, there's this wisdom that comes that you recognize that, A, that's unsustainable, but be like, I've recognized that clients actually appreciate that they are given clear expectations of when I'm available, and when they can communicate in it. And they recognize me as a professional. And so it actually is super beneficial for you to set your business up in a way where you're calling the shots, right, you're setting the schedule, and there's nothing wrong with it, and that you gave yourself permission to just be like, I'm not doing it phone call. I'm just not and that's okay. And I don't need permission from anybody to not do it this way. And it's just the way it's going to be, and we're all going to be better for it. And everybody's going to be okay, and the client is gonna get their information, and it's all going to be okay. And so letting loose of those reins a little bit, I think is just really wise. And I'm, and I'm so inspired that you gave yourself that permission. Okay. So there's something else that you shared, that I think is really important, and I think that there's gonna be a lot of head nodding from the listeners on this one. But you say that aside from managing your social tank, that your creative energy is also heavily impacted by decision fatigue. It makes a lot of sense as a graphic designer as interior designers, especially with when we're in that phase of design where we're sourcing for clients, you know, on a on a large project, we've got 1000s of selections that We're making for a client. And for every single specification, you're going through things like you're looking at, is this a right fit from, you know, style, perspective, size, dimensions, availability, cost? materiality is the is the materiality of it appropriate for this application? For one single specification, you're having to ask yourself all these questions. And then you're doing that over and over and over again, for 1000s of items for a client. Right? So decision fatigue is a very real thing for interior designers, and I can see how that can be a drain on your creativity. So can you talk about what that looks like for you? And what did you do to kind of address that aspect of protecting your creative energy?
Carly Teigeler
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, you're 100%. Right. And I have to say, I just have to say, because I have some background in architecture, my first few jobs, were an architecture firms that had in house, you know, interior designers, and oh, my gosh, the amount of decision making, you will have to make is is just wild. I feel like I can't complain by comparison, but
Kate Bendewald
no complaint away, I get it, I get it. You I mean, you to every little, I mean, just from a brand. All the work you do the branding design, the graphic design, the the website design, there's a bajillion decisions, too. So don't underestimate the amount of decisions you're making, too. So tell me, tell me about what you did to kind of work with that.
Carly Teigeler
Yeah. So I found that trying to reduce decision fatigue in my business, I still haven't found out a great way to do that, and still maintain the kind of creative discovery I want to have. But I have some tools that I've implemented in my personal life, just sort of offset that a bit. And my favorite one is what I call, I call it my self care menu, I actually have designed it to look like a real restaurant menu at one point. But essentially, I just have
Kate Bendewald
as a graphic designer
Speaker 3
would write. But yeah, I have a list of my phone in my notes app, it's
Carly Teigeler
a quick reference that lists different pick me ups that I know will feel restorative and replenishing for me. And it's organized by the amount of time they take. So if I only have five minutes, if I recognize I'm doing a task, I recognize I need something for myself, I only have five minutes, there's an easy list right there of just little simple things that will that I know will help. But I don't then have to spend the energy to dig up those ideas. And also, I feel like having it written out, makes it feel a little bit like someone else is recommending it to me. And therefore when I'm really tired, and it's hard to take self direction. I can I can say like, oh, here's this external entity that's saying this isn't okay thing to do right now. Which sounds a little silly, but again, just like working with my my brain when it's tired. So there's you know, a list for if I have five minutes, there's a list if I have 30 or an hour or, you know, three hours or a whole day, and just having quick references like that, for simple things. It does reduce the amount of micro decisions I have to make in order to get back to a better creative space.
Kate Bendewald
It's really simple to have what, what would what are some of examples of if you have five minutes what you might do that feels restorative?
Carly Teigeler
Yeah, if I have five minutes, making like a cup of tea, but like a nice cup of tea, like loose leaf tea, a little more effort than I might otherwise spend cuddling with my cat, just like stepping outside and spending five minutes in the sun. sticking my hands in some dirt. There's some
Kate Bendewald
I love that. Yeah.
Carly Teigeler
Yeah, taking a cold, a quick cold shower, that sort of thing. Just simple things. Nothing complicated. Nothing that would take me you know, too far out of my typical physical space that I need to be in to get back to that task. Because if it's just five minutes, I know I need to get back to it. But um, but yeah, simple
Kate Bendewald
stuff. I love that. And can you give us a couple of examples if you have 30 minutes, but you might do?
Carly Teigeler
Yeah, if it's 30 minutes, I might like take a walk around the block. I might again I feel like I might report a plant because my plants always are getting root bound. Yo,
Kate Bendewald
is your mama apparently.
Carly Teigeler
I'm not somehow they keep dying. But anyway, um, yeah, I my to be part of a book. Do a quick yoga session. I am a big fan of YouTube, yoga and pilates. Yeah, anything.
Kate Bendewald
I love that. Yeah, Yoga with Adriene is one of my favorite go twos. She's also a fellow Austin. I will link to all of these. I love that you've got this quick reference list that you can just peek at and then you're not having to like I think about what to do, you're like, here's a list, do one of these. It's so interesting that you mentioned there's research around putting your hands in dirt as it's gardening season for me, I'm a big I love to garden, and I was gardening on Sunday. And I started out with my gloves on because I've got, you know, my nails are manicured. And after a little while, I was like, Screw this, I'm getting my hands in the dirt. And it just felt so much better. And I didn't care. I was like, Oh, this, I feel like I could actually just work better. But there is something very like primal about putting your hands in the dirt. So I am doing a lot of that lately, and it feels really good. Specifically for designers, and I'm thinking about the ways that we reduce decision fatigue i There's a there's a couple of things. And that I just want to mention, you know, I'm I've always, always, always talked about everything needs an SOP, right? Because if anything that is repeatable process. Or if you do it more than once a month, like it needs an SOP. Because I know for me, like when it's time to build clients for the month. If I have to sit and think about where's the website? What's the URL login, like? What are the steps, and some of it is even though I know what to do, pulling up that list just eliminates the need to think about it. So SOPs are super important way for you to have information documented so that you can just bang it out without having to think about it. Budgeting templates. And we offer all these kinds of things in designers always this but budgeting tools, your scripts for phone calls, all of those tools are things that are going to help you eliminate decision fatigue, putting together a proposal, right having tools available that help you not have to recreate the wheel every single time. There's so much even though so the creative process itself of like getting into the mind of the client and the needs of the project. That's where the real creative juices flow. And you really want to save your energy for that. But there's so much of what we do that is repetitive and doesn't necessarily require a ton of creativity. And those are the things that you can truly build out a set of tools within your business to help you eliminate having to make a bunch of decisions because you're going to have to make decisions in the creative process. Let's save that energy for that. And so I think tools and templates are really important aspect of of running, running your business, any business really but so that's that's an important piece to it was that I was at a restaurant the other day. And the server asked me like, I don't know, I just ordered like a salad or something. And they're like, do you want this or that? Like grilled chicken? Or breaded chicken this dressing or that jazzy? Do you want to toss it or not? I don't care. Just bring me the frickin salad. And I don't care. I just thought making was clearly a day that I didn't like those done making decisions. Don't ask me to make any more decisions. So the decision fatigue is so so real. Okay, there's one last thing that you mentioned, and I am super interested in learning about this, you use the shortcuts app on your phone, that you say runs you through a set of prompts to see what kind of support you need in that moment, and then suggest ideas that worked for you. Can you elaborate a little bit on that I have an iPhone. So I have the shortcuts app, but I do not currently use it because I don't know how it works.
Carly Teigeler
It's actually a lot more simple than it seems. So in the shortcuts app, you can create like automated scripts to run and you can set them up to do whatever you want them to do, really, but But yeah, so I have a couple on my phone that are go twos for me that, like I said runs me through some prompts. So one of them is for if I am working on again, these are kind of like ADHD a little bit ADHD specific, but if I'm working on a task and starting to like lose interest or get disengaged, and I want to click back in, it'll ask me, you know, what kind of distracted? Are you like, Are you are you visually distracted? Like your eyes want to see more interesting things right now? Are you orally distracted and that you can't stop? You know, focusing on a sound you're hearing is it just, you know, kind of a monotonous task like folding laundry or something like that. And depending on which one I choose, it'll suggest something that's like an add on to the task I'm currently doing that sort of satisfies that itch. So sometimes I get like a little fidgety and I can find myself like touching I face a lot are pulling in my hair and it keeps my hands away from what I want to be doing and it actually can get kind of distracting. So then the solutions might be like, get yourself a snack or a drink to hold our pickup on occasion or get your little like fidget toy or something like that. Or if I'm orally distracted, it might say, you know, do you want to and it gives me options. So it says, Do you want to listen to this playlist on Spotify? Do you want to listen to this type of YouTube video? And then when I click yes, on one of those things, either opens up the app or playlist that I am referencing, or if it's something like going getting a snack, it'll set a 10 minute timer for me. So that if I start to get too over fixated on what that snack should be, and I get totally distracted, an alarm will go off in 10 minutes saying like, Okay, make a decision. And get back.
Kate Bendewald
Oh, my gosh, that's fascinating. Oh, I Okay, I I already know what I'm gonna be doing this weekend, I'm gonna be nerding out on like, How can I utilize the shortcuts app? Right off the bat, I'm thinking about right now I'm in a season where I'm doing a lot of writing for my business. And I love to write, but sometimes the monotony of it and you just said something like, visually bored, like, I am visually stimulated, like, I would much rather be working on creating a presentation in Canva, than looking at a Google Doc and writing that then, like, if I had a choice, I would always be doing that or like creating a new tool for designers. Any of those, like that is my happy place. Yet I do like writing. But now right now, because I'm in a season of doing a lot of writing, I found myself just yesterday, like it's just like, pummeling. And I was, I was so done. And so. But the when I was done, I was like, Okay, I'm going to the grocery store, because I need just like a visual change. And it was, it's apparent now listening to you that that's what I was craving in the moment. But it could be helpful for me to have something like that set up so that anybody listening really, that you know, if there's something that you have to do, right that you have to get accomplished that you're maybe procrastinating on or you're not. Or like super plugged in super, like giving it your all like you're feeling like you're half assing it like there may be some things that you can do to help you reengage. There's this interesting idea that procrastination is a symptom or is a sign of wisdom and that there's something there that's keeping you from doing it. And I was I've been intrigued by that idea. But I'm like, Yeah, but more often than not, it's something that has to be done. And it's just something I don't want. Knowing the wisdom is knowing whether this is something that can be pushed back a little bit and come back to it. But sometimes you just need to do right. Sometimes you're just like, oh, yeah, I just don't have the energy to do this right now. I'm gonna push it to another day tomorrow morning, right? My creative energy flows best in the morning, right? And I'm much better like hammering out some emails in the afternoon. So I think it's okay to to give yourself permission to say, you know, this just isn't working right now. And I'm not going to push it.
Carly Teigeler
Absolutely, yeah, there's definitely a time when that is what you need to do or you have a need that needs needs to be met or like you said, like, the flow just isn't there and you can afford just to take a break that makes total sense and it's so important. I think tools like this for me are specifically when I know that what I'm working on will serve future me in a way that is going to be you know, really important and make the rest of my day a lot easier. But my inner child is just stomping their foot being like I'm bored
Kate Bendewald
Yeah, yeah. Thinking of children listening to you talk about that I had one of the ideas that I had for how to use this. This is very off topic but I'm just going to share it anyway. of ways to use this would be I could set this up for my kids so my my oldest right now if anybody has young children you may know of this game called Roblox and so my oldest is really into this game Roblox I'm not mad at if she wants to play a video game, I'm fine with it, whatever. But my little one doesn't she started to play it too. And she doesn't quite have the maturity to she's I can tell that she's starting to get like addicted to it. I don't want kids who are addicted to screens in games and very important that they have a variety of activities that keep them occupied. So I was just thinking like, Oh, if I'm not going to let them play video game right now, I could open up the shortcuts app and then go through a series let them go through a series of prompts like, do you want to do like something? What do they call expansive like outside, you know, like play playing with balls or up Like your kite or whatever? Or do you want to do something like, I wouldn't use these words with them, but there's like expansive and rich, can contract contracted. I forgot they call it in the kids child's play. But there's like this big physical activities and in their small activities that are more like playing with Legos, right? So they could pick between those two, like big activities or little activities. And then between those, give them a list of like, do you want to do something crafty or something scientific, and then it can run them through a list. It's gamification is what it is. And we're learning that gamification is a very effective way to get people to do things. So that could be fun. Yes, I'm definitely gonna nerd out on the shortcuts app. But this way, they're not having to stomp their feet that they can't play Roblox there, all of a sudden, faced with a different decision of Okay, what else am I going to do? And I have options, and I'm in control of what those options are. Mom's not going to tell me go fly a kite. I say those because we actually literally just got like, really fancy kites that are super fun. But yeah, I know. Kites are so like, so classic and fun. I love it. So Okay.
Carly Teigeler
Nice. Yes. Yesterday, day before.
Kate Bendewald
And you live near the beach, right?
Carly Teigeler
Yeah, yeah, I live in Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks.
Kate Bendewald
I get that. Okay. I was gonna say, I bet that's a great place for flying a kite. Yeah, it was like eight. We stayed up too late last night, but it was like eight o'clock, and my daughter's like, um, the wind is blowing. Let's go flake. Like go to bed. That's what you're gonna do. Oh, my gosh. Oh, this is so fascinating. Okay, so here's what I've learned today. First of all, I've learned so much. One is, it's okay. To give yourself permission to work with the natural rhythms of your body and your mind and your heart that if you're feeling like you're not in alignment with those natural rhythms, that a good place to start would be to collect some data Track, track how you're feeling? And for you, you were tracking whether or not you felt like being social or not. For others, it might be, you know, Was I feeling focused? Or was I feeling creative? Like what? Maybe yours isn't the social aspect, maybe it's something else that you need to track. But finding just a super simple way to track that over a period of time, probably a month, at least, I would say. And then to look back and look for trends and see what you discover. And then from from that really coming up with a list of not only like daily things that you can do to support yourself, but also how can you rearrange your business, so that you're working more in alignment and with the natural rhythms of your, your body? And your mind? What would you add to that?
Carly Teigeler
Yeah, I think setting up tools for yourself that feel easy to access, because, again, I think it's important to note, you know, a lot of these tools are focused around productivity, and how can we get the most out of our time and energy. And sometimes, you know, like, productivity isn't the most important thing. But there can be times when, whether it's just a hustle season, or just life, or maybe you have some element of neuro divergence that makes it hard for you to do the things that you know, are best for you. It can make it hard for you to sort of take agency and at times, you know, when you get really busy, you can feel paralyzed from taking any action to support yourself. And I think these tools can be really helpful in those scenarios, and making them as simple as possible so that they're not hard to maintain or access, you know, like, have that note right on your phone where you're already going to be if you're feeling distracted, or looking to dissociate, you know, make it easy on yourself. Yeah. Because you deserve it, you know, you deserve that kind of support.
Kate Bendewald
Well, yeah, you do. And you know what, you're going to be a better designer for it, right? Because I would much rather if I if I had somebody working for me that I knew is doing creative work. I would much rather No, it's gonna take them a little longer, but the results are gonna be so much better because they had the creative space and time to do that work. So from a client's perspective, and was I just talking about this with I forget, I was like, was that on a podcast episode? Anyway, it's, it's just good business practice to so you can let go of that shame and guilt around feeling a certain way and just realize, no, I'm human. And there's so many people that feel this way and experience this. There's nothing wrong with me. I'm just being human. And this is what I need in order to be creatively fulfilled and to be able to do to do my best work and so giving us have permission instead of just letting go of that shame and guilt that might be associated associated with it. I know a lot of my tools that I've developed and I, one of these days, I'll probably talk more specifically about this in a podcast episode. But I went through a season where so I add, I started taking medicine when I was in the seventh grade. And when I got pregnant, I couldn't take the medication that I had relied on for 20 years to help me get through my day, right. And so I had to come up with a lot of tools to help me focus. Without that. You can call it a crutch if you want, but that that had been my tool, right? The medicine was my goal. And I was working in a corporate environment in an open office environment with really rigorous deadlines and high level of quality expectations. And meanwhile, my body is rowing a human and so there's room naturally a lot of distractions from speaking of distractions, and Bunny just bounced by my windows. If you saw me looking off, that's why for those of you watching on YouTube, anyway, so it's it was this period of time, and I felt so I was embarrassed, you know, that I was my supervisor would come to me and like, why is this not done yet? You know, I'm like, well, because I can't frickin think straight. That's why. So, for me, for me, that was a period of coming up with a lot of tools. And, and the reality was, at that time in my life, I wasn't mature enough to recognize that I needed to advocate for myself that I probably needed to move my desk. But I probably needed to do a lot of other things within my physical environment there that would have set me up for success. So I didn't advocate for myself. And it was it was really challenging. But the Time Timer is one of my big go to tools that helps keep me focused, that visual timer so that I am staying on track, turning off my, the I use Gmail, so I can use the pause feature, and it pauses my inbox so that I can reference my email, I can go back because you're I'm always referencing things back in emails, but I'm not going to get distracted by new emails that are coming in. That's a huge one. Obviously, lighting, for me is huge sound having, you know, the right sort of sounds and having like, water at my desk, like enough water to refill my water cup. Because if I have to get up and go to the kitchen to get more water while I'm in the zone, while I'm focused, it can be really difficult to come back and like get back on the train. So there's all sorts of tips and tricks and hacks that you can, if you're mindful about it, that you can figure out that can work for you to help you really protect that creative energy and stay focused when you're in it. So this is so much fun to chat with you about this. And I just I think there's a lot of people that are gonna feel seen. First of all, they're gonna feel seen when they hear this like, Okay, this makes a lot of sense. And I think really some new ideas for ways to to take care of yourself in these moments. So really appreciate your time, and coming and sharing all of this with us. Carly, where can our audience find you online if they want to follow along?
Carly Teigeler
Yeah, I'm on Instagram a lot. My handle is schematic design.co which is also my website schematic. design.co I'm on Facebook, just a hair but not a lot these days. But if you want to say hi, or keep up with my day to day or see new stuff behind the scenes, all that good stuff. I'm mostly on Instagram, so come hang out with me there. You have the best
Kate Bendewald
Instagram post and this whole podcast episode is a case in point but I love seeing whenever you post like this is what I was working on this month or your beach days hanging out with Judy's like they are so good and so fun to watch. So definitely go follow her on Instagram. All right, Carly. Well, this has been fun. I think I'm gonna go be a potato for the rest of the day. I appreciate you.
Carly Teigeler
Go live your best potato life.
Unknown Speaker
This is fine. I'll talk to you soon. Okay, bye. Bye.
Kate Bendewald
Thank you so much for letting me spend part of this day with you. If you're loving this podcast, please share it with a friend who you think might also love it. Or perhaps you can take just 30 seconds to open your podcast app and leave us a five star rating. And if you have just an extra minute, go ahead and leave a review. This helps me so much and it helps other designers like you to find the podcast. It also adds fuel to my motivation to keep making great episodes just for you however you choose to help, please No, I appreciate you so very much. Thank you, my friend. Have a wonderful rest of your day and I'll see you next time.
