I'M SO OVERWHELMED! I have Christmas cards, shopping, party planning, party attending, blogs, customers to contact, marketing to do, promotions, out of town trip, out of town guests, a website to build for my day job, my day job responsibilities, kids, sports, family...the list goes on. It's the holidays and we are busy in general because...it's the American way.
But, did you know that the brain fog of having so much to do and not knowing where to start creates MORE anxiety than it's worth? I'm going to tell you right now, that if you follow this tip, you'll realize you don't have as much to do as you thought and will see it's more achievable as you organize your lists into bite-sized chunks. Your brain is working in overdrive trying to remember every detail, but if you get all that info out of your brain and into organized lists, your thinking will be more clean and your actions will be more intentional!
Let me know how your brain dump went. Do you feel lighter? Does your head feel more focused? Any thoughts to add?
But, did you know that the brain fog of having so much to do and not knowing where to start creates MORE anxiety than it's worth? I'm going to tell you right now, that if you follow this tip, you'll realize you don't have as much to do as you thought and will see it's more achievable as you organize your lists into bite-sized chunks. Your brain is working in overdrive trying to remember every detail, but if you get all that info out of your brain and into organized lists, your thinking will be more clean and your actions will be more intentional!
- Clear your schedule for at least two hours. Set the ambiance to be calm. Burn candles, play soft wordless music, have a warm cup of tea and no kids around. RELAX
- Get a blank sheet of paper for each compartment of your life or in a notebook, have a two page spread facing each other for each area of your life. For example, I have a Personal list, Day Job list and Motivating Freedom list all labeled. This will become your master list that you keep with you at all times and update when you have a brainstorm.
- Set the timer for 20 minutes and write down every thought you have about things you need to do in each category. Don't try to remember all the Personal list first. Just as each thought comes, write it down leaving a little room in the left margin for prioritizing. Go for 5 more minutes if you are on a role.
- Take a 5 minute break and walk around, stretch, run in place, get some water and breathe.
- Set the timer for 20 minutes again and finish getting any thoughts to paper including any ideas you want to do long term.
- In the left margin and with a red colored pen, star the most urgent things. If you wrote in blue, then use a black pen to draw a small circle in the left margin indicating that it's a high priority but not urgent.
- Now that your priorities are set, assign a deadline for those urgent tasks and high priority things. Are any of your tasks able to be given to someone else?
Let me know how your brain dump went. Do you feel lighter? Does your head feel more focused? Any thoughts to add?