Start Doing it All in One Day

Shaye Koester  00:05

Hey, hey, it’s Shaye Koester and I’m your host for the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast where we connect you to ranchers and beef industry enthusiasts who can help you build a more profitable operation and improve your lifestyle.  Are you looking for a community of ranchers who support and challenge you to be more profitable and proactive? Then sign-up for our monthly RancherMind events. RancherMinds are mastermind events for ranchers to come together once a month and find solutions for their own and the industry's challenges.   Stay connected by following @cattleconvos on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and never miss an episode or event update by signing up for our newsletter on casualcattleconversations.com/newsletter.   If you get value out of this episode or any episode drop a comment or tip me by using the link in the show notes.  With that let’s see who our guest is today and connect you to a new resource to improve your own operation and lifestyle. 

Well, good morning, good afternoon. Good evening, whatever time of the day, you're listening to this. Today on the show, we are going to be talking about making the most of tractor time and your guest today is me, Surprise! I'm doing a solo episode. I have not done a solo episode for a long time. I normally love to have guests on here and I still do. But I do want to share some of my own strategies that you know, I've picked up over the years, especially this year, when it comes to making the most of your drive time, tractor time, whatever it may be during your busy seasons. Now, I say busy seasons like life isn't always busy. But you know, I think there's an extra sense of busyness or rush that comes with calving, haying, weaning, or if you are farming it is planting, harvesting, whatever it may be. So really, the reason I'm talking about making the most of your tractor time is kind of twofold. One as ranchers, there's always a lot on our mind. And we are doing office work making phone calls, business calls, doing research, etc. Even when it's not all hands on. There's a lot of other factors that go into ranching, and educating ourselves and learning and, you know, making those decisions. But also, many of us, myself included, have other jobs and priorities and responsibilities outside of what we're doing on the ranch, which I think is super cool is super important. And it's just a part of the ranching lifestyle these days now.

So with that, I'm talking about making the most of tractor time. So I used to get super frustrated, because it kind of felt like, anytime I was on the ranch, and doing some of that work, especially like in the tractor, it was like, I'm being productive, I'm getting a lot done for the ranch. But wow, I just have so many other things I could be doing for this podcast for my other job or other personal interests I have. And it seemed it felt like it was just kind of taking away some time from that. And it seemed frustrating at first, but one of the beautiful things with technology is there's a lot of ways to get around that. The other factor that used to make me frustrated with tractor time is I used to be someone who got in my head a lot, you know, with a lot of silence and a lot of alone time. I used to just let my mind run and it was almost like it was creating thoughts and scenarios that weren't even real. So I really had to work on you know, bringing myself back to reality and how to use that time and you know, make sure that doesn't happen too. And so today, we're gonna talk about how I spend my tractor time how I make the most of it. And I say tractor time, but it's not just tractor time. It's drive time. It's whatever it may be that you're doing, and it's really just mostly about maximizing time.  So let's get started. I feel like I have rambled enough.

And I guess so to start off. Some ways that I spend my tractor time would be podcasts, music, phone calls, and reflection. So we're gonna start with one podcasts. I don't listen to my own podcasts in the tractor because I listen to myself talk enough even though like you should really listen to my guests. I think that you guys could find a lot of benefit from listening to my podcasts and a lot of other podcasts during your drive time. So sometimes, you know, you may say, Well, I don't have service. Well, the good news is you can pre-download podcasts onto your phone no matter what app you're listening on. So even if you don't have cell service, you can listen from anywhere. And so with that, you know, I listen to ranching podcasts. I listen to mindset podcasts. If you have another business or another job, I love to listen to other podcasts that relate to that while I'm in that tractor. Because sometimes it makes me feel like I'm doing, you know, making progress on both ends or in multiple areas of my life by doing that. So really go through and what I would encourage you to do is make a list of things you want to learn about. Find some podcasts two to three, four or five, whatever it may be, and listen, and it can even find a comedy podcast. I enjoy listening to those sometimes too. But it doesn't really matter what it is. Like I said, I listen to a variety podcasts, I listened to other ranching podcasts, I listened to business podcasts, I listened to mindset podcasts, I listened to some comedy ones, religious, whatever it may be. And so I'd encourage you to explore those areas because you could be learning something about what you're doing during your drive time or what you're doing in that tractor. What's coming up what upcoming season on the ranch, can you prepare for or stretch your mind to think about more. So podcasts are really one way that I really like to maximize my time because I feel like I'm learning. So that's something that's really important to me.

Two is music, obviously. So whether that's you have a tractor that has a radio, or maybe you're upgraded, and you have one where you can even plug your own phone in and listen to your Spotify or whatever you want. In our old raking tractor. I definitely rely on my airpods to be making or not making music, you don't want to hear me saying, but listening to music. And so that's just one way to do it. I mean, to each their own on the music category. Some people love listening to music, some people don't. But that's just one thing I do. I know in high school, all I did was listen to music. And I never really understood why my dad would say it's important sit in silence too but now I get it. I still listen to a lot of music, but I still incorporate that into my tractor time. But there's also a lot of other things that I like to do too. 

So then I kind of led into silence. So we're going to talk about that too. So there does come a point where when I'm in the tractor, and sometimes I start out this way, especially if it's like early morning raking This is one of my favorite things to do. But just don't listen to anything. No music, no podcast, no news, it's just me and noise from the tractor, and the birds or I've been seeing a lot of deer out lately, that's been kind of fun seeing some the fawns run around. But I really like to use the silence time to one, take in you know, the sun coming up, or if it's midday, whatever it may be, but taking the beauty and think about our ranch our property, the land, we rent the land we own, really look at the bigger picture. Because I don't just look at my stuff or my family's operation. I get to see our land, I get to see our neighbor's land. I get to see wildlife. You know, it's something that is really neat to just sit and reflect and think about, you know, what really is in front of me? What matters in life? And so some of the easiest way to start reflecting is to, you know, list off three things you're grateful for. And that's something that I challenge myself to do every day, I like to start off and do it in the morning. And I also like to do it in the evening. But you know, easy reflections are just what are three things I'm grateful for. And a lot of times in my life, those are the little things I will be honest about that. A lot of times it's like, well, the sun was shining today or today we needed rain and the sun wasn't shining or just thankful for my family, my friends and loved ones like a lot of times it is just little things or even you know if you are in a hurry, and someone waved through the stop sign because they were being nice and they let you go first. And I don't care what it is just list three little or big things that you're grateful for in the day. The other part of reflection that I really enjoy is thinking about, you know, looking at where was the ranch last year? Where was the ranch five years ago? How has that changed to where we are today? And you know, what are some ideas for where that could go in the future, where do we want it to go. And so those are just interesting things to think about. And keep in your mind, and I'm sure a lot of you are doing that anyways. But, you know, if you're listening in the tractor and want to start doing that today, do it, by all means. And along with that, I like to think about how I'm showing up on our ranch, because that's something that I wanted to make sure if you know me, I'm a very intentional person. And I really wanted to be intentional about how I'm showing up on our operation. I graduated college in May, and I'm recording this in July. And it's like, I have this business, Casual Cattle Conversations, which takes up a majority of my time. But I also work for the New Stockyard Group. I also am a part of my ranch and my grandparents' ranch, I like to go help my boyfriend too on his farm and ranch. And so it's something where I have a lot of different directions that I'm going and I'm pretty social, too. I do like to go meet up with some friends, as well. So I really like to think about, you know, reflecting on how I show up to the ranch, and how I want that to look and what I want my involvement to look like in the future, if that makes sense. And do my own pre-planning there. So I really like to think about, you know, how did I show up in high school? And how has that changed since I've gone through college and, you know, been home at least part-time in the summers? And how can I make sure that even if I can only dedicate a few hours a week or, you know, two to three hours every night to our operation, you know, how can I make the most of those two to three hours. So that's something that I also like to think about and be intentional about. So it doesn't feel like I'm just showing up. I mean, I used to just, you know, show up and waiting to be told what to do. But I really appreciate knowing that I'm maximizing my time being as efficient as possible. And that also comes, you know this is a little off track... But we have a shared note, because we all have iPhones. So it's just the Notes app on iPhones that you all should have, if you are iPhone users, you'll have it. But it's just a running to-do list that anyone can add something to or take note on. We always call each other a few times a day anyways. But, sometimes it's nice to have a note too. It worked really well when we had an intern around as well. So anyways, silence, that's what we are talking about. I really like silence and reflection added to my tractor time.

The other component of tractor time that I enjoy are phone calls. So um, and this has been really important now. And it's something where I have AirPods, some people use Bluetooth, whatever it may be, I'd recommend getting some sort of hands-free capability to make phone calls. But I love calling my old college friends I call my grandparents, other family, friends, whoever it may be. And even if it's only five or 10 minutes, I just enjoy the phone call. Sometimes it's business calls, those are important too. So that's another way to make the most of your tractor time. And so I've started, you know, kind of implementing this over the past few years, even last summer, I got pretty good about it, as far as how to make the most out of it. And I can tell you, the main difference for me is that I used to be kind of frustrated about it. And now I really look forward to it. Because it's like working on the ranch is super important to me, that's something I want to do and I want to be there. But where it gets tricky is when I also have other priorities that are important to me as well. So knowing that I can be involved on the ranch and doing what matters to me. And being a part of that, that fills my cup. But I also know that I'm not letting everything else slide on the other end because I am doing something. I am progressing myself in more than one area of my work life, my personal life, faith life, whatever it may be. And so that's what I really like to do.

Sidenote, that's another thing I like to do. Sometimes if I can't make it to church, I do like to live stream church and listen while I'm in the tractor too. Or, you know, if I missed a Sunday, go back and listen to one. So those are you know, that's kind of the main thing.  I went from feeling frustrated about it and really conflicted because I was like, I shouldn't feel guilty about you know, working on the ranch and not doing this other work. You know, it should both be important. It shouldn't matter what I am doing and now instead of feeling frustrated, I now feel excited and energized and like they're just the best days ever when I get to do it all. So that's my pro tip on how to do it all how to make the most of your tractor time and you know, let me know. And maybe I'll do a little, maybe I'll start doing a few more solo episodes. We'll see not sure what I think about it yet. I'd rather talk to someone else and talk just to myself and a mic.

But with that, enjoy your day, make the most of your tractor time coming up, whether that's continuing out hay season, going into harvest season or silaging whatever it may be hauling hay, you know, or if your delivering heifers if you're making that morning commute, make the most of your tractor time. Here are my two cents. Reach out to me for ideas. If you're looking for other podcasts, either in the ranching space or outside of that, you know, you can contact me on social media just follow at @cattleconvos or search Casual Cattle Conversations. You can also DM me on my personal profiles which are just Shaye Koester. I think my Instagram is shaye_ocea. But if you just search Shaye that's s-h-a-y-e and  Koester is k-o-e-s-t-e-r. You will find my profiles on both Facebook and Instagram. So with that, have a fantastic week, a fantastic day, morning, afternoon, evening night, whenever you're listening. And start making the most of your time and be content with doing it all and be excited to do it all because you can. If you've been busting your butt out there trying to balance everything. I hear you. I don't believe balance exists, but I do believe we can figure out a way to do it all and live our lives in a way where all components of our soul feel alive. So take care. Have a great day, folks. 

And that's a wrap on that one. Be sure to let me know your thoughts on the episode and if you have any further questions around the topic, take care and have a great day.