Today I'm talking with my friend, Paige Brunton, who is a website expert; specifically in Squarespace. She teaches others to design their own Squarespace websites and she also teaches others how to become professional Squarespace web designers which is pretty cool. She has totally ditched social media, but has an amazing online business and a very engaged Youtube following. She now lives in Switzerland with her husband, which is amazing. I know you're going to love her and whether or not you have a Squarespace website, you're going to be so encouraged to know the most important thing that you need to do with your website after listening today.

Every once in a while us moms find ourselves in a very perplexing situation: We have an unexpected hour of time and we have no idea what to do with ourselves. Today, we're gonna get a game plan.

I'm back. It's 2024. I'm so excited to be here for my beloved State of the Podcast episode. I hope you enjoy listening to Work and Play with Nancy Ray episode 221.

So this year I'm doing something a little different. I decided early in November that I am not thinking about or planning for next year until next year in January. I am all in for 2023. I want to be present and finish this year strong. My eyes are on my kids, my husband, Christmas, and New Year's, and I just, for whatever reason, feel so strongly in my spirit that I need to not take time and energy in this month to plan and look at it. This is so different for me. Okay. I am a planner. I am a forward thinker. But there's just been some different life circumstances that have led me to this, so this episode is all about some end-of-year rhythms for reflecting on your year and how you can finish this year strong.

One thing I have realized recently is that all of us in one way or another are seeking wisdom from God in our work. Whether that is working in our home and serving our kids and raising them, or whether it is running a business, managing a team, developing a new product, just maintaining something that we've had for years. As we get older, we need more wisdom. Life continues to get more complicated and more challenging, and especially in our work. And today's episode is gonna be simple. It's gonna be about three promises that we can find in scripture regarding wisdom in our work.

Okay, confession. I am a major time management junkie and I love it. I love planning. I love buying my new calendar for the year and getting my favorite pens and highlighters and making a plan and writing an appointments and making lists. I love managing stuff. I love managing my time. And today I'm gonna share with you five of my favorite time management tools that have really helped me through the years because we all have 24 hours in a day, but it all comes down to how we manage our time.

Today, I am gonna be telling you all about how I create a strategy for my life. And I know that sounds very broad and possibly overwhelming, but hang with me because I feel like I have been given some amazing tools to help me in four main areas of my life: my faith, my home, my work, and my legacy or my life overall.

So that's what we're gonna talk about today, how to create a strategy for your life. If you're feeling like you need some clarity, then this episode is for you.

Today, I am so excited to share with you one of my very favorite things to do. I know this is really nerdy of me, but I love writing out my ideal week. This is something that I do at least twice a year, sometimes three times a year, because there are different times in my year that just look different. An ideal week looks different, and today I'm gonna walk you through my process of how to create an ideal week so that you can be living the life that you want in and week out with a lot of joy.

Welcome to May is for Mamas, where I dedicate every episode in the month of May to the Mamas listening. We are kicking it off with a beautiful, encouraging conversation with Ashlee Gadd on why it's so important to keep creating in the margins of motherhood. Ashlee is the author of Create Anyway, which is a beautiful book. It just came out and I could not get my hands on it fast enough.

Y'all. It's so good. Listen, Ashlee is a wife, a mom of three, a follower of Jesus, a writer, a photographer, and she founded Coffee and Crumbs, which is a beautiful online space that brings mothers together through storytelling. Ashlee is just the kind of person who has a beautiful heart, and I'm so grateful I got to spend time with her today.

Also, side note, Coffee and Crumbs has a podcast and it's one of the very few podcasts I actually listen to regularly, and what a gift it was to just to get to know Ashlee, to get to know her heart. I know you're gonna love our conversation on creating in motherhood.

My top eight work hacks or tips or advice, or, I had the hardest time naming this episode, but these are just random things that I have pieced together after my 16 years of experience of being an entrepreneur.

Some of them I've created, some of them I have learned from books, some of them are systems, some of them are habits, but they're the things I keep coming back to again and again. Now, you might be surprised at some of them, but here's the deal: I know I struggled the most in my work and in my business when I have a lack of clarity and when I feel really overwhelmed with all that I have to do.

So this list of eight things are things that I've brainstormed based on my years of being an entrepreneur. They're the things that have worked when I've worked by myself and they've worked when I've had a team working with me. They helped me not only in my work but in my life and being more present with my family as well, and just being more fulfilled. They helped me stay inspired and passionate about my work and I'm so excited to share them with you today.

I currently work one day a week with the occasional help of maybe one to two evenings a month. This episode is all about how I maximize my very limited work hours!

There is never a shortage of decisions to be made in regards to your work.

What should I be doing for my career? Should I stop working when I have children? Do I go back to work? And if I do, when should I go back to work? How much should I be working? Should I close down my work? Should I start something new? Should I hire someone? Do I need to fire someone? How do I spend my time this year? How do I spend my time today? The decisions go on and on.

In today's episode, I'm going to encourage you with some tools that you can use when making a big decision in regards to your work. And I'm just gonna be here to remind you that God's got you and He's got your business from beginning to end.

Alright, it's time for the Nancy Ray Book Club 2023 edition, and in these episodes I'm gonna share my three biggest takeaways from the books that I'm reading. Today I'm gonna be giving an honest review of Four thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mere Mortals, by Oliver Burkeman.

At the end of every year, I plan time to do three simple things to plan for the year ahead. I take time to look back, reviewing the previous year. I set aside time to celebrate the previous year in God's faithfulness, and I take time to look ahead and set goals for the year to come. This episode's gonna give you more of a behind the scenes look at what that actually looks like for me.

Have you ever heard of having theme days? It's this idea that you choose different themes to focus on for different days and it helps you batch things or just simply not switch back and forth mentally between tasks so much.

Today, I had the absolute privilege of talking to my friend Graham Cochrane. He is the author of How To Get Paid For What You Know, and we talk all about his book! I've read the whole thing cover to cover and it's so good.

Listen, this episode is so good. I say that because I get to sit down and talk with three of my good friends, women who I adore and admire, who run businesses, who are moms. They are so special to me, and you get to hear the inside scoop about their lives and their businesses, but all throughout the conversations, we're going to be talking about this thing called The Blueprint Model.

Well, I'm back from taking a month off of the podcast! This episode is going to be a little bit of a catch-up of what I've been up to, what's coming in August, a little bit of a change of plans with the podcast, but as all good. And I'm going to break down at my favorite weekly rhythm for you, which is my Sunday plan.

Hello and happy June! Today is a full and exciting episode because I have some updates for you for the Summer and it's a book club episode, which are always my favorites. This book kind of has a funny story with it—which I'll get to.

We are out of school, we're getting used to new rhythms with all the kids home and I've got some fun Summer episodes coming up. Lots to talk about today, but today's book is called The 4 Disciplines of Execution and it was a doozy of a business book. There was a lot in there, but I'm really excited to simplify it and kind of translate it to how we can apply it to our work and our homes. It's going to be good.