Having a true work-life balance can be incredibly tricky. And one very busy #girlboss who has always managed to do it all swears by a simple scheduling hack for keeping her family, team, and—most importantly—herself happy.

Michelle Obama knows jobs often end up getting prioritized above your loved ones (something always seems to come up, right?), but a huge reason for this is because of how people plan out their day-to-day lives. “Even when you schedule your family, there’s still plenty of time for work, but we don’t plan like that. We let work inundate everything,” she told Money.

That’s why she figured out a better system for prioritizing her family and maintaining balance—and it all started with her trusty planner.

“Starting every year, before I booked anything, agreed to any meetings or conferences, we’d sit down with my assistant and we looked at our lives first. We planned that out first, and then what was left would be left for work.” — Michelle Obama

“Starting every year, before I booked anything, agreed to any meetings or conferences, we’d sit down with my assistant and we looked at our lives first,” Obama said. “We put potlucks in there, we put date nights in there, I put my workouts, we put our vacations on the calendar first, we put sports things and summers. We planned that out first, and then what was left would be left for work.”

It’s easier said than done, but when you already have the non-negotiables in your calendar, you tend to work around them as opposed to canceling or postponing them. Because her life events were already set in stone, she was able to truly do it all: be there for her family, be there for herself, and be there for her country. And if she can make that time, anyone can.

This Michelle Obama quote will give you hope during rough times. Or, find out her healthy idea for girl hangouts.