There is Nothing Wrong with You
Making progress through the ebbs and flows of your humanity
You can listen to an audio version of this newsletter above. Please note that this is unedited and I’m recording in my home office.
I’m currently accepting new 1-on-1 coaching clients for biweekly and weekly calls (10% discount for paid tending subscribers). If you’re curious, reach out via email (Kate@KateHenry.com) or schedule yourself in for a free 30-minute chat with me.
Over the years as a researcher and writer, I’ve developed my personalized productivity toolkit. I know that while folks often treat goal-setting and time management tools as one-size-fits-all, we’re much more effective when we design our practices to honor our capacity.
As I know from lived experience, chronic illness can make reaching our goals uniquely difficult. Between navigating flare-ups, a bottomless to-do list, and varying energy levels, progressing on projects for work and scholarship can feel daunting, to say the least. Even if you don’t live with a chronic health condition, you may still feel overwhelmed by responsibilities with your career, caretaking, or creative practices, struggling to find a balance between work and life.
Today I want to share a gentle reminder that there is nothing “wrong” with you.
Many of the structures we’re traversing daily were not built with consideration for the ebbs and flows of our humanity. And we are not born with the skills to break down complex project timelines into chronological, manageable steps. Even if someone else may have found a system that works well for them, that does not mean you are “less than” for exploring these tools at your own pace.
Perhaps the expectation that we manage all of these factors on our own is unreasonable and unfair. Humans are connective creatures and thrive when we can lean on the knowledge, perspective, and compassionate helping hands of others. I invite you to consider that maybe all you need is someone in your corner to support you along the way.
This is where Success and Accountability Coaching can come in.
A ceramicist I worked with shared: “I scheduled my first session with Kate when I started seriously thinking about making my passions my full-time work but I was feeling worried about how I could do that, especially as a chronically-ill person. That choice has shown itself to have been the sweetest gift to myself. I love working with a “productivity” coach who understands how much we need slowness and who supports that I can’t generally work more than 20 hours a week. Kate has a real knack for pulling out the wisdom I already have within myself. Rather than focusing on prebaked tips or tricks (though she does have some brilliant ideas to offer), she has helped me identify what will work for me through helping me tune in to what I already know about myself. Because of this, I leave every session with Kate feeling full of confidence in myself and feeling like my goals are within reach. It feels so wonderful to work with someone who I know can understand and witness the complexity of my experience as a queer, chronically-ill person, striving to find sustainable self-employment. I know I will recommend her over and over again to anyone in my community looking for external support in achieving their dreams without sacrificing their health and well-being.”
Success & Accountability Coaching is a container designed to help you make progress on your most important projects while balancing real life at the same time. I’ve supported clients through applying to graduate school, preparing tenure portfolios, starting new businesses, as well as finishing and submitting manuscripts for publication. I have also guided many folks through the process of completing their dissertations and earning their doctoral degrees.
At a glance, these projects may feel vastly different, but what connects them all is the desire to achieve short-term goals while developing long-term practices that allow for rest, hobbies, and self-care alongside our productivity.
Success & Accountability Coaching is a great fit for you if
You are working on a project that you’d like to complete in the next three to six months
You find external accountability to be motivating
You feel that breaking projects down into actionable tasks is challenging and would like support in learning this skill
You want someone to help you translate your project into an actionable to-do list
You have difficulty identifying which task to do first, next, or last
Success & Accountability Coaching includes
Zoom coaching calls
Detailed session notes where I synthesize everything we cover in our call into a to-do list, deadlines, and notes about your projects
Weekly email accountability to support you between our coaching calls
While my books for the Monthly Coaching Calls package are currently closed through August 2023, I am currently accepting clients interested in the more hands-on approach of Biweekly or Weekly Coaching Calls.
Biweekly Coaching Calls (currently accepting two new clients)
This container helps you achieve your goals in your way through a biweekly refresh to your task lists and deadlines. On our one-hour call every other week, we’ll take inventory of all you’ve accomplished since our last discussion and compassionately adjust your plans based on what is coming up in the next two weeks. On the weeks we don’t connect via Zoom, I’ll keep in touch via email to encourage and offer accountability as you progress on your projects and self-care practices.
Rate: $590/month, or $530/month for paid subscribers to tending
Weekly Coaching Calls (currently accepting two new clients)
If you are craving a consistent reinvigoration of your productivity practice, this offering allows us to connect on Zoom for one hour each and every week. During our hour-long call, we will explore what worked last week, what you’d like to shift this week, and how we can refocus on approaches that will help you to make progress on a project with increased efficiency. You’ll leave each appointment with an updated to-do list and a clear sense of the week’s top priorities. I’ll also check in via email between our coaching calls to offer my support in case you run into any obstacles or have any questions.
Rate: $1,145/month, or $1,000/month for paid subscribers to tending
Here are some of the kind words past clients have shared about Success & Accountability Coaching:
“I am a mom and at the time, was pregnant with my third child. I was extremely nervous about this new transition, and wanted to really explore what a work/life balance could look like for me. Not only did Kate help me work through questions I had about project management, but she also helped me think through my relationship to work and success.”
“After over 20 years of schooling, including a PhD, I’ve finally learned how to break an overwhelming project into manageable tasks! More importantly, Kate’s compassionate response to my anxiety over work taught me to be more compassionate with myself.”
“Kate’s Slow Productivity approach is this amazing balance of facilitating goal setting and completion while also acknowledging the capitalist origins within hyper productivity culture.”
“My meetings and check-ins with Dr. Kate helped me chart a tangible plan towards completing goals; this allowed me to approach my goals incrementally, instead of trying to overwhelm myself by trying to accomplish it all.”
“Kate’s approach to coaching was so refreshing: she showed so much empathy towards my exhaustion and encouraged me to treat myself with kindness. She’s helped me set up new habits that work with my specific strengths and motivators, while also helping me find ways to get around or through the things I find most tiring. After a few months of working with Kate, I finally had my first PhD progress check-in presentation where I felt genuinely proud of the amount of work I had accomplished. And I feel happier and more confident in my general work-life balance! Finishing my PhD feels achievable in a way it didn’t 6 months ago.”
If you’re curious about adding Success & Accountability Coaching to your toolkit and you’d like to meet every other week or every week, schedule yourself in for a free 30-minute chat where we’ll discuss how I can support you through coaching.
Take care and talk soon,
Dr. Kate
