Work Life Balance for Speech Pathologists: Mindful Time Management Tips for Therapists, Clinicians, & Private Practice Owners

101. Build a (Summer) Schedule That Actually Works for You

• Theresa Harp

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In today's episode, I’m diving into how you can prep your schedule for summer—or any seasonal shift—without losing your mind (or your boundaries).

Whether you're juggling camp pickups, new client requests, or shifting work hours, this episode will help you design a schedule that works for you first, not just everyone else.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Why mindset—not logistics—is often the biggest block to a balanced schedule
  • How to identify your real priorities (and put them on the calendar first)
  • Practical ways to set boundaries that feel good and stick
  • Gentle scripts to use with clients when protecting your time
  • Why saying “yes” without boundaries leads to burnout

Mentioned in This Episode:




To find out how I can help you improve your work-life balance, click here.

Come join the SLP Support Group on Facebook for more tips and tricks!

Follow me on Instagram! @theresamharp

Learn more about Theresa Harp Coaching here.

[00:00:00] Welcome to Work-Life Balance for Speech pathologists. I'm Theresa Harp, an SLP and Productivity Coach, and this podcast is all about how to build a successful career as an SLP and still have time for yourself and the people and things you love. So if you're ready to ditch stress and burnout for a more balanced and fulfilling life than you are in the right place.Let's dive in. 

Hello podcast listeners. Welcome back to the show. This is episode 101. I'm gonna be talking about prepping for the summer, summer schedules, all that stuff. And if you happen to be listening to this, and it is not. Summertime don't turn me off yet because a lot of what I'm gonna talk you through here in this episode can be applied to any time when you are setting or shifting your [00:01:00] schedule.

So, although this is inspired by the time of year where I'm recording this episode, it's definitely useful all year round. Okay. So, hi. I am, I'm out of breath because I've been chasing after the dogs. I'm batch recording episodes today. I've got no kids in the house, which is really helpful for podcast recording.

However, my puppy and then the old man dog that I've got are. You know, they're picking up the slack for where the kids would typically drive me nuts. So I had to sort of get them all settled, get the both of them settled and try and get everybody happy and quiet so that I could come down here and record this episode.

But I digress. So let's talk. Okay. If you also, one other thing before I talk about [00:02:00] schedule changes, if. On the off chance that you are listening to this episode on the day that it is released, which I believe is going to be May 27th, 2025, you still have time to enter to win a free 60 minute productivity.

Power Hour with me, an audit where we go through your schedule and we come up with solutions to your biggest time management scheduling challenges. And that is something that I'm offering now through, let's see, Wednesday, May 28th is when I'm gonna pull the winner. I'm gonna announce the winner live in the SLP support group at noon Eastern on Wednesday the 28th.

So if you haven't entered. To win. Make sure you get into the SLP Support Group if it's not too late and find the pin post in the group. Share a key takeaway from [00:03:00] episode 100 and then you'll have a chance to win the free productivity power hour. And if you are listening to this at a different time of year and you're not in the SLP support group.

Make sure you join. The link is always in the show notes, so that way you'll be in the loop for other giveaways, resources, trainings they all have there in the SLP support group. Alright, so let's talk scheduling. This is top of mind for me right now, mostly because. My clients that I'm working with, my coaching clients are bringing this up in coaching sessions.

It is the time of year where we tend, for those of us who work year round, we often have to shift our therapy schedule from the school year to summertime. Right. And that with it can bring a lot of challenges. So I had a coaching call [00:04:00] recently and my client was talking about how she really wanted some support with figuring out how to structure her schedule for the summer, and we dug into it and I wanted to share some of the highlights and some of the key points that came up in that coaching call so that you all.

Can incorporate some of what I shared with her into your own scheduling into uh, yeah, your scheduling for the summer. Okay. So let's say it is around summertime and you are probably being. Bombarded with different schedules and updates and timeframes for lots of different things. If you're a parent, then you're probably, you probably got camp schedules for your kids.

That are coming up, you are probably as an SLP or a PT or ot, you [00:05:00] might be getting requests for evaluations or assessments you might be having. If you're in a private practice, you might have new clients that are potential, you know, potential clients reaching out, looking for services. And of course those who work in the private practice setting year round are probably hearing from your clients about, Hey, what's the schedule gonna be like for the summer?

I, you know, this won't work for me. This, this day and time that we've been doing all year is not gonna work. Okay? So not only are you juggling your own schedule, summer schedule challenges, but you're also seemingly judging. Judging. That was a fian slip, juggling all of your clients' schedule. Craziness, right?

And all the while you're trying to find days and times that work for your clients and also for you. [00:06:00] And you're probably wondering, just like my client was, am I being too accommodating? Am I just saying yes to everything and then winding up with a schedule that really isn't gonna work for me or. Is this just the way that it is?

Maybe I just have to be this accommodating. Maybe I have to say yes to the days and times that people want. And that's my role as a provider, as a, you know, service provider. And. You may have lots of other thoughts in between there, right? But they get in the way of creating a summer schedule that's going to work for you.

So if the thought of blacking out your calendar with these bold boundaries that you are, where you are saying, no, I'm not seeing clients after these days, or after these times, or on these days, if that makes you anxious. If that kind of makes your shoulders tense up, your throat tighten, you're not alone, okay?

You're not alone. [00:07:00] Let's talk about building a schedule that reflects your needs and your values, not just everyone else's needs and everyone else's values. And if you're thinking that's not possible, let me stop you right there it is. Trust me. Ask me how I know. Okay, so a big piece of this, number one is mindset.

Okay? We're gonna talk about strategic approaches to this, but I want to really illustrate how the mindset comes. Into play here, right? It's not just as simple as sitting down, looking at the calendar and you know, taking the different clients and their availability and plugging them into the calendar, right?

That's not the issue. It's a permission issue. It's a [00:08:00] mindset issue because you've been taught, or it's been modeled that our job as service providers is to be flexible and accommodating. And that by being flexible, you're more professional. You're a better SLP, right? And probably in the past, in times when you have been accommodating to other people's scheduled needs, you've gotten praised for it.

And that's not wrong. I'm not saying that's wrong at all, however. It sort of reinforces this pattern of, okay, we have to go and bend over backwards to provide openings that are gonna work for everybody else. And all the while it's leaving you resentful. It's leaving you exhausted, leaving you overwhelmed.

It costs you your peace. [00:09:00] So. The client that I was talking with earlier that I was talking about earlier had shared that she wanted to set up a schedule that was going to allow her to. Be able to tell her kids who was picking them up from camp on what days. So it didn't necessarily always have to be her that was picking, doing the pickup, but she wanted to at least have some sort of schedule in place where she could tell her daughter with pretty fair reliability who was gonna be doing pickup that day and.

That would help kind of create a sense of ease and a sense of balance within the family unit. And so I'm mentioning this because that came up when I asked her, what is the biggest priority for you when you think about your summer schedule, setting up your summer [00:10:00] schedule. That was what came up, was that that's really what she wanted to create, was a schedule that was gonna allow her to do that for her daughter.

And so on the surface level, it's like, oh, okay, yeah, this is easy. So let's just figure out what days and times she has to get picked up from camp. And then we're gonna go and we're gonna schedule all your sessions around that time and. It's not that simple, right? It's really not that simple because that's where the mindset comes in.

That's where those awkward conversations come up, where the maybe potential disappointing people, the potential for disappointing people or letting people down or upsetting somebody that is all, like all of that comes up as well. And so. In coaching, that's what we work through is, okay, you know what you wanna do, you know what schedule you wanna create, but how are you going to set those boundaries?

What is it gonna require you to say or do? How are you going to be able to do that [00:11:00] without feeling like you are letting someone down, failing as a provider, so on and so forth. Right? And for, for. For me and for her for this scenario, that question, like what is the biggest priority? That's a question that I would encourage you to ask yourself as you are creating your schedule and at any time of year, right?

So this could be summer schedule, this could be your regular year round schedule or school year schedule. You know how many times as providers as. Um, SLPs and PTs and OTs, you know, how many times our schedule changes? This is, I always would say it's like the hardest part of the job. It always felt like the worst part about the job was trying to do the schedule so you can apply this information and these strategies to any time of year when you're working through your schedule.

But I would always begin with what is your biggest priority? [00:12:00] And ask yourself that every time because the answer will be different. Almost every time, and that's okay. So we figured out where she wanted to start, and then what I encouraged her to do, and this is what I would encourage you to do, is to start with that, plug that in into your calendar first, and then plan your sessions around those things so that you are basically planning your life first.

And then your sessions next, not the other way around. What is most important to you? Start with that. Start there. Even just simply putting that sort of, taking that step first and putting that down on paper first signals to you, to your brain. Okay, [00:13:00] this is my. Priority. This is the way that I want to lead when it comes to work life balance.

And for so many of us, it sounds so simple, right? But for so many of us, we do it in the opposite order. We plan our sessions first. We put those sessions on the calendar first, and then we figure out how we're going to fit our needs and our family's needs around that. And that's not necessarily a problem.

Unless you're unhappy with how that's feeling and how that's working for you. In a lot of cases, it causes problems. It's not just a problem though at face value, it really depends upon how it's feeling for you. Okay. I. If you're listening to this podcast though, I'm betting that that approach isn't really working.

So start with your life first [00:14:00] and then work after. Okay? So block those things out on paper, and this is just what I encourage her to do is take a blank calendar and block out those personal non-negotiables as I call them. I call them non-negotiables. It's the things that you need to do. And if you can't do them, you need to find somebody else to do them for you.

So it could be drop offs, pickups, it could be, um, non-negotiables can also be things like your downtime or your self care. I'm. I know that that might sound more of a luxury than a reality, but the only one that can make it a reality is you and I encourage my coaching clients. I've talked about this on the podcast before, to block out on your calendar time for you, time for yourself.

Okay? So. That's my challenge for you is to start there. Okay. And you're identifying and deciding what [00:15:00] flexibility is going to look like for you. So maybe flexibility is, for example, I might not be able to do drop off or pick up on this week, but. If I can't, I have backups. I have, you know, resources that I can call on to help me, and that builds in some flexibility.

Okay. Maybe flexibility for you looks like more buffer time in between your sessions. Whatever you want that to look like. Write it down. It doesn't necessarily mean that's how it has to be and that's what you're gonna do, but write it down because if it, if it's coming up for you. It's important. It, it's, it matters.

So write that down and see how you can fit that in and work that into your schedule. Okay? So you've got your non-negotiables in there first, and then you're planning your sessions around it. Okay? [00:16:00] Now, when you are doing this, you need to identify the type of schedule that you want. Assuming that you are able to do this on your own, and if you can't, if you have a position, if you're in a position where your schedule is set for you, what wiggle room do you have there?

How is that working for you? Is there a conversation that you need to have with your supervisor, with your boss? You know, if that is not something that you can change and you're not willing to change it, then. We need to work on how you're thinking about your schedule so that it can feel smoother, can feel more manageable for you.

But if you are able to. Determine what type of schedule you want. See how you can build that into your summer schedule. Right. I remember when I was working in private practice in my [00:17:00] cf, I was full-time, I was five, you know, five eight hour days, and I really wanted to go down to four days a week and was willing and able to do four tens.

Instead of five eights. But I thought my boss would never go for it. I just didn't think it was an option. And so for a while I never brought it up. I never asked until finally I was like, you know what? And I, in fact, I think it was around the summertime when I said, the only way I'll know is if I actually ask.

So I did. And ultimately we were able to set that up where I was able to do four tens. So. My point is sometimes you don't know until you ask and you have to be willing to ask. So keep that in mind as well. But you also want to identify what boundaries you wanna set for your schedule. So does this look like I am not gonna take [00:18:00] clients after 4:00 PM Does this mean in the summer I want Fridays off?

Does this mean. At this time or during the summer or whatever you're scheduling, I am not gonna start treating until 9:00 AM right? So think about what you want those boundaries to look like and work them into your schedule. Okay, so once you have that bla, you have that blank slate. You've put on your non-negotiables, you've identified what kind of schedule you want, and you've looked at what kind of flexibility you want and need.

Now is the time to have those difficult conversations into fill in the sessions around those pieces. And that is the part where some of the coaching comes in. Okay. Because there are some of you that might be listening that are like, no, I just, I say when I can see [00:19:00] clients, and that's that. And that's amazing.

If that is you, if you are listening, well done. That's not easy to do. And hats off because you have set boundaries and you've communicated those boundaries. For the most of us though, most of you that are listening probably struggle with this. A bit more than that, right? So let's talk about how you can set those boundaries and communicate them without the guilt.

All right? So some of this comes into, brings into mindset, okay? Some of this will bring up, bring up mindset, and one thing that I often say is that saying yes to one thing means saying no to something else. And I share that with clients. I've talked about that on the podcast before, and it's so true. If you say yes to something, it means you're gonna have to say no to something else.

Whether that's saying no to time with your family, saying no to picking [00:20:00] up your kids, and now you have to have someone else do it. Maybe it's saying no to, um, your own time, time that you had spent or had designated to spend on yourself or just free time, but. Anytime you're saying yes to something, it means you have to say no to something else.

It means you're saying no to something else. And similarly, every yes that you give without a boundary is something that you will resent later. Almost always, it's not, you know, rocket science or it's not. Um. What's the word? Uh, it's not a hundred. It's not a hundred percent. I'm blanking on words right now.

Oh my gosh. But for the most part, when you say yes without a boundary or you say yes with to something that compromises a boundary that bends or breaks a boundary, it's a [00:21:00] recipe for resentment. Okay. And. That's not fair to anybody. That's not fair to yourself, that's not fair to your clients, that's not fair to your family.

And it over time builds up and leads to stress, anxiety, overwhelm, burnout. And that's not the SLP that you wanna show up as. That's not the mom that you wanna show up as, right? That's the whole point of this podcast. So being able to communicate those boundaries. And recognize that if you don't communicate them or if you don't hold them, then that is breeding ground for resentment and overworking.

So let's talk about how you can sort of communicate these boundaries without feeling a ton of guilt Now. You might feel guilty to certain [00:22:00] degrees when you, when you give a boundary, and one of the things that we work on in coaching is, okay, even if the guilt comes up, let's coach through that. Like how can you work through that faster and just recognize that, oh, okay, this is just a human response.

This is me feeling guilty. But wait, I can rationalize with my brain and this is why I. Feel good about my decision, not feel guilty about my decision. A lot of that goes into coaching, but for the purposes of this episode, here are some examples of things that you can say that will hopefully limit or alleviate some of that guilt.

Okay. One kind of line that you, you could use is, I would love to make that work, but my schedule is full during that time. Here are some openings that I do have. Okay. Or you could say something like, during the summer, my schedule is set up to support family logistics because my kids are home, or my kids are, you know, not in their normal routines.[00:23:00] 

And so I have limited availability to, you know, I have limited availability, but I'll do what I can to find something that's going to meet your needs. Or I'll do my best. Right. Thanks for your understanding. So a lot of these sort of, I hear you like you know, comments of like, I hear you, I acknowledge what you are saying.

However, I cannot and will not do this, do X, Y, Z. Right. So talking about how you can say that, how you can show up and say that and. What I will offer is that if you are saying it from a place of second guessing doubt, um, insecurity, all of that's gonna shine through in your communication and your clients or [00:24:00] whoever's on the receiving end will likely pick up on that and may or may not take advantage of that, whether it's.

You know, consciously or subconsciously on their part. So if you're saying something like, oh, I would love to make that work, but unfortunately these are my hours for the summer. Okay, that's clear. That's firm. There's really no opening there for. Um, you know, a crossing of abound of the boundary. But if you said something instead, like, well, I was planning on being done with work by three so that I could get my kids, but.

I don't know. Let me see. Maybe there's a way that I could do it, or let me, let me just, let me see what I can do and get back to you. Right. That's a totally different message. That's a totally different message. Even if you said something closer to the first example that I gave you, but a little bit wishy-washy, [00:25:00] like, oh, I'd love to make that work.

Um, my schedule's full during that time. Um. Right, and then you just sort of leave it there. You can hear the, the lack of conviction, the lack of certainty, the opening there, and then when people speak up. And say, oh, okay, yeah, if you could make that work, you know, if there is something that you could do, that would be amazing.

And then next thing you know, you're saying yes to something that you wanted to be saying no to. But in those cases, the responsibility is on you. The onus is on you As the communicator, as the SLP, as the pt, as the ot, we have to clearly communicate those boundaries or else accept that those boundaries are going to be broken.

Okay. And in order to do that, I want you to remember that it's okay. To prioritize your own needs, it's [00:26:00] okay to prioritize your family and think about how doing so might actually make you better as an SLP might make you serve your clients at a higher level. Might make you show up as your best professional self rather than showing up with resentment and anger and frustration and exhaustion.

Right. That's what's possible for you. When you set these boundaries and you communicate them, it is possible for you to create a schedule that you love, a schedule that works for you, and a schedule that works for your family and helps you feel fulfilled, happy to go to work, and happy to be at home, right?

Gives you that work life balance that you want. Okay. All right, so if this conversation, if this sort of podcast episode monologue, right, if it's [00:27:00] hitting home for you, don't go out and buy another planner. You don't need to go out and buy a new planner for the summer. That's not, that's not the solution here.

What you need is space and permission. You need space and permission to clarify your values and build a schedule that honors them. And if you want help doing that, I'm happy to help you. Let's do it together, book a consult, and I'll help you create a summer schedule or any sort of schedule for any time of year that actually supports your life, not just your work.

The link to book a consult is always in the show notes. All right? So remember, you are absolutely allowed to protect your time. You are absolutely allowed to protect your energy. You are absolutely allowed to protect your peace. In fact, you are really the only one who can do those things, [00:28:00] and it is your responsibility to do those things.

So start with a boundary and I'll help you hold it. Book a consult, pop in the SLP support group. I am always here to help. All right, that's it for today's episode. Make sure you're back here next week. I'm starting a five part series on burnout and you don't wanna miss it. I'll talk to you all then.