124: Take Back Your Time: How the Bright Method Helps You Feel Less Overwhelmed with Kelly Nolan

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Dec 10, 2025

Kelly Nolan, a former attorney turned time management strategist, shares insights from her Bright Method designed for professional women. She highlights the importance of making the 'invisible load' of daily tasks visible, using digital calendars to reduce mental clutter. Kelly discusses realistic time estimation techniques to avoid overwhelm and improve decision-making. She reveals how better visibility of workload can enhance relationships and offers practical advice, like time-blocking mornings, to reclaim control over one’s schedule.

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INSIGHT

Overwhelm Is A System Problem

Overwhelm is usually a system failure, not a character flaw, and changing systems is smart.
Reframing struggle as a process issue empowers practical solutions rather than shame.

INSIGHT

Make Invisible Time Visible

Use a digital calendar to make your invisible load visible and reduce mental clutter.
Seeing all time commitments reveals real capacity and prevents overbooking and shame-driven decisions.

ADVICE

Calendar Repetitive Personal Tasks

Start by calendaring repetitive personal tasks (mornings, meals, dog walks) so they stop living in your head.
Repeat those blocks digitally and move them as needed to free mental energy and spot conflicts early.

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You may find yourself feeling like your calendar is working against you.

Where even the simplest week feels like a game of emotional Tetris.

That’s exactly why I brought Kelly Nolan onto the podcast this week.

Kelly is a former attorney who turned her own overwhelm into a realistic, flexible system called The Bright Method.

And she gets it.

She understands the invisible load women carry: the logistics, the appointments, the planning, the mental clutter...

And she knows how to turn all of it into something you can actually breathe inside of.

Her method isn’t about productivity for productivity’s sake.

It’s about clarity, space, and confidence.

It’s about seeing the truth of your time so you can stop beating yourself up and start making decisions from a grounded, empowered place.

Inside this episode, we dive into:

✨ Making the “invisible load” truly visible

✨ Why your time struggles are not a character flaw

✨ How digital calendaring reduces stress (and gives you back mental energy)

✨ Estimating time realistically, without the shame spiral

✨ The surprising way this method improves relationships

I'm just as passionate and geeky about time management, and I could have talked to Kelly for days.

I really hope you take just one valuable nugget from our conversation and give it a try.

It can change your life.

Keep moving forward,

Debbie

P.S. You can also find this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/D1gnE9dHh7M

Here's Kelly's bio:

Kelly Nolan is an attorney-turned-time management strategist and mom of two. She empowers other professional working women to manage their personal, family, and career roles with less stress and more calm using her realistic time management system, the Bright Method. The Bright Method has been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, and Kelly's work has been published in Forbes, Fast Company, Insider, and Parents. Kelly also hosts the Bright Method podcast. Most importantly, the Bright Method works for real women, helping them manage it all with more clarity, less stress, and the confidence to hold boundaries at work and at home.

To connect with Kelly:

Website: https://kellynolan.com/

Kelly's Free 5-Day Program: https://kellynolan.com/reset-refresh

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_kellynolan_/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellynolantimestrategist/

Thanks for listening!

If you'd like to know more about working with me, visit me at https://debbieharbeccoaching.com/ or https://www.instagram.com/debbieharbec/ on Instagram.

Or book a time to talk with me:

https://calendly.com/debbie-harbec-coaching/free-consultation