5 Self reflection questions for an end of the year review session
5 Self reflection questions for an end of the year review session
We 21st-century humans move through life at such a high speed, whether it feels fast in the moment or not, we often miss what’s right in front of us.
As a time coach, reflecting is the key to intentionality, healing, growth, progress, and success.
Self-reflection or introspection helps you acknowledge what you did, who you were, and what went right.
It can also help you determine what can go better moving forward. Better meaning more authentic or aligned. Not better according to society or guilt.
Want to feel more aware of how you spent your time?
Want to more easily celebrate yourself? Feel more compassion, motivation, and confidence?
Grab a pen and paper or open a fresh google doc to reflect on your last year with me!
Before continuing, PAUSE!
Before we pause and reflect, let’s get super meta and pause to take a few big deep breaths.
Feel free to close your eyes, put your hands on your heart for a gesture of self-compassion, and take three big deep breaths.
Open your eyes, when you’re ready, and we'll go ahead and get started.
5 Self-reflection questions for an end-of-year review session
Q1: What happened in your life and business?
The first question that I always need to journal or think about to decompress from the past year was: What happened in my life? What happened in my business or job?
Here’s what happened in my life and business and what I learned in 2022.
Pause reading this blog, and take some time to journal about this question. I’d recommend 10 to 15 minutes. Feel free to open up your digital calendar or planners to help jog your memory.
Q2: What happened in the world around you?
The second question is: What happened in the world around me?
So not just in your personal life, but expanding out to what happened in your community and the world.
In 2022, we seem to be recovering from COVID, wars and revolutions broke out, elections were had, and so much more. I often forget about how current events in the world impact me and add internalized stress and anxiety.
Feel free to take another 10 to 15 minutes to jot down all the things that happened in the world around you that you can think of.
Q3: What goals did you accomplish? Not accomplish?
The third question is: What were the goals that I set at the beginning of the year? Which of them happened, and which didn’t?
If you want to go deeper, ask yourself why you think that was the case. For the goals that happened, what supported you in accomplishing them? For the ones that didn’t happen, how can you give yourself permission to let go of them?
If you need help letting it go, go back to the last question, what happened in the world around you? What happened in your life? Hopefully, those two questions will give you a bit of permission or compassion around why they didn't come to fruition.
Pause reading and journal about that connecting to the last two questions and truly start to see kind of how all these things that impact our time, ourselves, and our lives start to fit together.
Q4: What have you learned over the past year?
The next question that I always love to reflect on is: What significant lessons can I gather from the last year of my life? Some additional questions are:
What have I learned from all the things that have happened?
What did I learn about what makes me successful?
Then, ask yourself: How might I carry these lessons with me into the new year?
Again, pause reading here to take some time to journal about your takeaways now.
Q5: How can you celebrate yourself and your efforts?
The fifth and final question is: How can I celebrate myself and my efforts?
If you're here reading this and reflecting on your last year, that is enough to celebrate. I’m celebrating you reflecting and reviewing the past year because it’s 100% going to set you up for success.
A simple and easy way to celebrate yourself is through self-talk. You can say to yourself, “Thank you for making it through another year. Thank you for reflecting. Thank you for caring about me. Thank you!!!”
Another question you can ask yourself is: What do I need to do to make sure I actually celebrate myself?
It’s really easy for people to move right past celebrating themselves. This is the most important part of the end-of-year review session. You deserve celebration and acknowledgment!
Ok, I lied. Q6: Where would you like to be in a year from now?
With your above reflections and this question, it’s time to create a plan for 2023 that is sustainable, realistic, and most importantly authentic to you.
Want to end 2023 knowing that you made the best use of your time, energy, and attention?
Want to be able to take more time off to rest and take care of yourself than ever before? Or discover the strategies that will help you stay focused on and follow through with what matters most in your life?
Whatever it is, I'm here for it.
Click here to learn how time coaching can support you as you thrive into the next phase of your life.
The Truth About Time Pressure (Why You Always Feel Rushed)
The unsettling truth about time pressure (and why it's not your fault)
The meaning of time pressure
How often do you feel pressed for time or catch yourself rushing through the day?
Often? You’re not alone. According to Gallup Poll in 2015, 48% of Americans said they don't have enough time.
That right there is time pressure.
The Conversation defines time pressure as “…how rushed or pressed for time people feel on a daily basis”. It also relates to whether individuals perceive they have sufficient time to do what they need or want to do (including time for work, family, leisure, travel, study, volunteering or exercise).”
Time pressure can also be known as time scarcity, time poverty, or time anxiety.
The impacts of living with time scarcity
If you’re an entrepreneur or a self-development fan, I am sure that you have read about, taken courses, or done some healing work around a scarcity mindset when it comes to money.
Time poverty is no different.
According to the American Psychological Association, a scarcity of resources, including financial resources, shapes everyone’s decisions and behaviors. Living with scarcity drains mental resources and increases negative emotions, which narrows our focus and impacts our day-to-day decisions.
When you’re focused on a resource(s) being limited or running out, it takes you out of the present moment and prevents you from living the life you want to live.
Scarcity creates additional stress and anxiety, which we know now the massive impacts of stress on our bodies and minds.
Time pressure has a significant and negative impact on your ability to effectively manage your time, grow your business, and live your life.
I do also have to mention that some folks feel more motivated and work well under deadlines which is an acute form of time pressure. However, when you have a chronic feeling that there are simply too few hours in the day, that’s when the negative impacts start to set in.
Why time anxiety is not your fault
I do an exercise with my holistic time coaching clients to get a gauge on any time pressure or anxiety they have.
Often, they're shocked about how many negative thoughts they have around time that adds to felt time pressure.
Some common thoughts are:
“I'm always late”
“I'm so behind”
“I can’t believe it’s already (insert month/year)”
“I'm way too slow”
“I'm so busy”
“I don't have the time”
“I never have enough time”
“I don't have time to relax” or “I'll relax when I'm done”
“I'm not productive”
“I waste so much time”
(Notice any over-generalizations or all-or-nothing thinking?)
Once my clients start noticing their time scarcity mindset in their lives and business, it’s a lot easier to make decisions and create sustainable time management strategies to mitigate other time pressures.
The three biggest questions that I asked myself when I started healing my time scarcity mindset were:
What did I see and learn from my parents, caregivers, and those around me as a kid, growing up around time?
What do I currently think and feel about time?
Why do I believe them? Why do I think they're true?
Personally, I realized that I had adopted a scarcity worldview from my childhood, education system, and previous wage-labor jobs. My clients are frequently in the same situation.
Time anxiety is not limited to just your or my personal experiences though. We also need to investigate who or what taught so many people that what we get done is insufficient or that there is never enough time.
Time poverty is a societal (and systemic) issue
Mindset work can feel gaslight-ey.
Thoughts are hard to catch. Especially when you don’t or you feel like you don’t have enough time.
Not enough time is 100% real, nor are all 24 hours the same for everyone.
I appreciate that the APA states that any negative actions connected to scarcity are not the fault of individuals experiencing a form of poverty; scarcity research indicates that these are universal processes.
I mean…if in 2015, 154 million Americans said they felt time scarcity, it makes sense to me that it's a systemic issue just as any other large-scale issue is.
This is where I always come back to the negative impacts of capitalism.
Redflag shares, “The competitive drive to accumulate wealth through the exploitation of human labour is the starting point for understanding capitalism and oppression.”
Human lives (aka our time!) are the most important resource to profit on the planet.
There will never be enough time to get everything done. It’s literally impossible.
This is why the traditional time management and productivity advice encouraging us to get more work done, faster leaves us exhausted and confused.
Time abundance and liberation are possible
Feeling a lack of time is one of the things that is easy to revert back to. It’s normalized and engrained to think, say, and communicate to the people in our lives about how busy we are and how little time we feel we have.
I want to make sure I share with you that there is hope.
Time abundance (feeling like you have more than enough time) and time liberation (feeling free around how you spend it) are possible for you. I believe they are possible for everyone.
Both require individual AND systemic shifts, that are equally important.
Individually, if you want more time, or at least to feel like you have more time, in your life TODAY, I suggest starting with your thoughts rather than anywhere else.
Why?
Because if you have a time scarcity mindset, you will never have enough time no matter what planner, calendar, hack, or tool you try.
Addressing your time beliefs can make a huge difference in your relationship with time and really support you in managing your time more aligned with your values.
What’s coming up for you after reading the unsettling truth about time scarcity? Feel free to comment below. I’d love to support your investigation, healing, and thriving.
Learn more about how to feel at peace with time (while still accomplishing deeply meaningful goals)!
12 Simple ways to celebrate yourself without spending a dime
The antidote to being exhausted: Celebrate yourself
You're working extremely hard to make your goals and dreams happen.
Even though you love what you do, you're exhausted.
You're often hard on yourself because you feel like you should be further ahead or doing more.
When someone says, “Take a break,” you don't even know what you would even do with that break.
If you’re feeling any of these things I just listed above…I see and hear you.
You are working really hard trying to do what you might feel is enough, but is really the job of like 5 people.
In this blog, I'm going to share with you why celebrating yourself is so important and some ideas on how to reward yourself so you can stop downplaying your strengths and achievements, and feel your best.
It's time to celebrate how amazing you already are!
Why celebrating yourself is key to success
We live in such a fast-paced society, and we are taught from when we're kids in school all the way until we retire to get as much stuff done as we possibly can. When we care more about the number of tasks done, it’s easy to minimize what gets done and our efforts. That's why the conversation around burnout has become so loud.
When you only think about what's next, your goals, and the future, you deplete yourself.
When you’re depleted you’re not your best. It’s difficult to be productive, creative, and thoughtful when you’re drained.
How do you remedy this?
Since you’re here, you can guess: Celebrating yourself.
When you celebrate yourself for the things you do get done, you’ll have more energy, motivation, and momentum allowing you to achieve your goals much faster (and easier).
When you reward yourself, you're building your self-accountability muscle helping you follow through easier and procrastinate less.
When you pause and acknowledge yourself, your confidence and self-worth grow.
The result? Feeling fulfilled and content.
How to reward yourself without spending a dime
One common misconception I hear is that people believe they must spend money on themselves in order to celebrate and reward themselves. They think of going to a spa, going out to a fancy dinner, going online shopping, or even going to a store.
What happens when you don’t have the extra funds or time in your budget to do those things? You feel like you can’t celebrate yourself.
While there's nothing wrong with spending money on yourself, it’s extremely important to me to make acknowledging yourself more accessible.
Here we go!
1. Pat yourself on the back
Literally. In the past when I’ve finished a small task, I will pat myself on the back, give myself a high five, or someone else who’s around me. (Usually my husband)
2. Be your own cheerleader
Stand up and celebrate, cheer, shimmy, dance, or do anything that feels really good to just give yourself that energy.
3. Verbalize it
You can verbally tell yourself, “good job,” “way to go!” “hell yeah, (insert your name)” out loud or in your head. You can say anything that feels good and celebratory.
4. Share it with someone (or yourself)
Text or call a loved one to share something that you are proud of yourself for doing. You can also just write it down on a piece of paper.
I used to use my paper planner as a have-done list, where instead of all the things I wanted to get done, I wrote down everything I did.
5. The beloved bath
Take a luxurious celebratory bubble bath, of course, if you have a bathtub. Think: How can I make this bath feel like a luxury spa treatment? Oils, candles, music, tech-free, flowers, herbs.
6. Pick yourself a wildflower bouquet
Go for a walk, pick flowers and bring a little flower wildflower bouquet home to yourself.
7. Soak in nature
Grab a blanket, lay outside, cloud watch, and enjoy the weather. If it’s not sunny, run around in the rain.
8. At-home spa day
Take inventory of the things you already have at home that would make a nice at-home spa day (also, see the beloved bath above). You could: Paint your nails, give yourself a facial, and if you have one willing, get a partner to give you a massage.
9. Look in a mirror
Check yourself out in a mirror and say something meaningful or silly: “You go!!!” or “Damn, I'm fine!”
10. Have fun in the kitchen
If you like baking or cooking… check your inventory and bake something that you’re in the mood for.
11. Pass it forward
Being of service is one of those things that feels really good to my soul while making a difference in my community. Volunteer or give back to an organization you care about.
12. Permission to be “lazy”
Give yourself some guilt-free trash TV Netflix, scrolling Insta/Tik Tok time, or a delicious nap. Taking time off might feel extra challenging, read more about why you feel guilty here.
Wondering which idea to pick, or didn’t find something for you?
You can come up with your own way to celebrate yourself because the ideas are truly endless.
Pause, tune out the noise, and ask yourself, “What would feel joyful, energized, and really good to my soul?”
That’s your answer!
Once you have an idea of what feels good to you, open a note on your phone or take out a post-it note at your desk and write them down to easily come back to.
Caution! It can be easy to fall into the trap of toxic productivity with your rewards.
A lot of time, people think, “I want to clean the house, I want to weed the garden, etc.” While those are amazing to get done… Does your inner self really want to do the dishes? Go outside and mulch? Maybe! So make sure to check in with yourself first.
When (and how to actually) celebrate yourself
Another common misconception is that you have to wait until the very end of your project. For example, if you're building a website, it took me months and months and months to build my website and I felt like I couldn't celebrate myself until the entire big website was launched and ready to go.
That's not true! You don't have to wait until the end of big projects. In fact, the more you celebrate the small milestones, the more motivated and energized you’ll be.
Celebrating yourself can be a daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, or intuitive practice.
In terms.of making sure I actually celebrate myself, I schedule time in my calendar. At the end of each day, I have an event to review what I did as well as at the end of each week to do a more thorough review.
So I’m curious: What frequency would feel appropriate to you? How might you make celebrating yourself a priority?
Let me know in the comments below!
Want to feel more confident, in control, and at peace with your time? Click here to get free + supportive resources!
The five minute mindfulness meditation for when you feel like quitting
The 5 minute mindfulness meditation for when you feel like quitting
I've 100% had moments that I wanted to quit my business!
I wanted to just run away, throw in the towel, and just, not have to deal with it anymore…
It was just too complicated and too much. If you have been in that situation or if you're in that situation right now, at this moment, I want you to know that it is 100% normal to have this experience when you are starting your business!
I made this 5-minute meditation for you so you can come back to who you are deep down. You can release any of the things that are weighing you down. You can come back to why you started your business in the first place so you can be re-motivated, reinvigorated, reignited in your passions and your drive to change the world + to do amazing things with your business.
If when you feel like quitting or it's just too much for you, come back to this 5-minute meditation, come back to this exercise. Just take a few minutes to go inwards, to breathe, be with yourself. That is the most beautiful thing that you can do to take care of yourself.
For whatever reason, if you feel like quitting your business and you need support. Someone to help you go inwards and figure out what's going on and how to be more intentional with your time so you don't feel so overwhelmed and like it's just too much to handle I’m here to support you.
Want to feel confident, in control, and at peace with your time? Click here to get free + supportive resources!
The 5 Lessons I Really Learned In 2020
The 5 lessons I really learned in 2020
2020 is almost over! What the hell just happened?
This year we’ve had a pandemic, social uprisings in support of the black lives matter movement, an election, and hurricanes and wildfires… all in just the United States. Inside each of our homes, we’ve all experienced massive transformations and shifts in our work lives and in our personal lives.
For all of us, it has been a truly chaotic and unique year. For me? No different. I started my business, quit my engineering job, and started traveling full-time. That’s why I wanted to share with you the five biggest lessons that I learned this year in my business and in my personal life, after taking some time to reflect*.
*As a caveat, if you are still processing and grieving you don't need to go searching for the lessons or always find the positive. You are allowed to feel angry, upset, or have any other feeling. Grief is normal.
Lesson #1: You’ll never feel totally ready
So my first lesson of 2020 is that no matter how “ready” financially, mentally, or emotionally you are, it is always going to be terrifying to leave your “safe” 9 to 5.
There is a huge wave of people who are building a business from their cubicles, excited and hoping for the day when they’ll be ready to leave their 9 to 5.
This year was the year that my husband and I had prepared to take a “sabbatical”, if you will, move and travel around the world and spend time with family.
When COVID hit, obviously we were not able to backpack Europe. But, we still chose to give away the majority of the material things that we had, move closer to family, spend time with them, rest, and take care of ourselves.
When it came down to the last remaining weeks at my job, I was a stress ball. I cried a ton. I couldn't think about anything else and it was so scary.
If you are an entrepreneur who is dying for the day when you’ll leave your 9 to 5, no matter how much you prepare, the moment that it happens will probably still feel terrifying. At least it did for me.
The lesson is, be prepared to not feel prepared. And do it anyway.
Lesson #2: Less truly is better
I finished my time management coaching training in January of 2020, then immediately started working with business owners. The common theme?
Saying “no” or pruning things is the key to making the most of our time.
This was the year that I truly, truly learned that, and maybe you did as well.
When COVID really locked us down in the US in March, I was stripped of driving to my 9 to 5. I stopped teaching yoga multiple times a week. Going out and hanging out with friends or eating out was not possible.
The only things I had to do were work my 9 to 5 job, take care of myself, and grow my business.
Those were the three main priorities that I had. Everything else basically vanished almost overnight. This allowed me to grow my business fairly fast while still being able to take care of myself, spend time with my husband, cook (I love cooking), clean (also love cleaning).
2020 was the year of learning the importance and impact of actually saying no.
Lesson #3: Working too much stops you from being you
When I work all the time, focus only on checking things off my to-do list, and trying to get further ahead in my business and life… I lose myself.
I forget how to slow down, rest, and just be me.
Then after I would lose myself, trying to slow down and rest would feel impossible. I would justify it by saying, “I am working a 9 to 5, growing a business, and have all the other life stuff to take care of… I’ll slow down when I leave my 9 to 5.”
Before this year, I didn’t really know what true rest was. Even though I knew all of the science and facts that resting was going to make me more productive and intentionally happy, I still couldn't “do” it.
I finally learned what it feels like to rest, and how to work towards my goals without losing myself.
In the beginning, it wasn't pretty. In order for me to rest, I had to compassionately, and sort of forcefully, make myself rest. I had to make it a non-negotiable in my schedule even if I was working on things.
I am so grateful to have a somatic therapist who is helping me slow down and rest in a compassionate and gentle way.
Once I was able to let go of my “tight grip” around needing to do more and more, it really opened up my body, my heart, and my mind in a way that I've never been able to experience before.
I created the space that I was always after by going inwards.
So, no matter how much you know you're supposed to slow down and rest, it can still be extremely hard. Having support from those around me was key.
Want to enjoy the freedom and flexibility that you are craving? I’d love to help. Click here to read about working with me.
Lesson #4: Let your values values lead the way
This year has been eye-opening for me on what my core values are, what I believe in, how I stand and show up in those values.
I believe we, as a society, are slowly starting to realize that, not living in our values and communicating about all the important issues we're facing are preventing us from healing, growing, and actually changing as a society.
As a result of resting and properly taking care of myself, I was able to explore, go inwards, and grow a ton (see lesson #3).
Then, I was able to hire Bear Hebert, a radical business consultant, who was able to bring my values and who I am into my business.
Just like in my business, making sure that I spend my time in alignment with my core values, is equally important.
When I wasn’t clear on my core values and how to create a business and life around them, I felt lost. Now, I feel a lot less lost.
Lesson #5: Reckoning with my privilege
I learned how my privilege and my whiteness have advantaged me and my life, and at the same time contributed to the oppression of other groups and communities of people.
2020 has been a year of racial reckoning in the United States and some would say the globe as well. Due to the social uprisings in support of the black lives matter movement this year, I was able to confront my privilege in a deeper way than ever before.
I learned more about the oppressive laws structures and racist policies that our country still has in place, and continues to approve, that have done harm and continue to do harm against BIPOC communities across our country.
As I continue to listen and learn from anti-racism educators, listen to other people's experiences, and process my own lived experiences, I have been able to use my privilege to support and uplift the voices of black entrepreneurs across the country.
I've been able to take everything I have learned, processed, and continue to learn and apply it to what I do as a holistic time coach.
If you are reading this lesson and you are white or have white privilege reach out if you have any questions. We can start a dialogue around how to use our privilege to make this world more equitable.
What did you learn?
Those were my five biggest lessons of 2020. Pretty big lessons, right?
If you haven't checked it out already, I have another blog with some self-reflection questions that will help you end this year in a grounded space and start the new year prepared and aligned. Click here to read it.
I’d love to hear what your biggest lessons were! Share in the comment section below or send me an email.
It’s 2022 now! Are you ready to heal time scarcity and live into your values? Click here to get free + supportive resources!
5 Planner tips you need to create more ease in your business and life
5 Planner tips you need to create more ease in your business and life
So the other day I was scrolling on Facebook (yes I know!) and I realized that it was that time of year when everyone is looking for a perfect planner for the next year.
Don't get me wrong, planners are awesome (you know I have one, and I'm gonna get into why I have one in a little bit). But in this post, I'm going to share with you why your 2021 planner won't make you more productive and what to do with your planner if you do get one.
This way you will actually be more productive without hustling, without burning yourself out.
Comment below if you are getting a 2021 planner and want to use it better!
Reason #1) Your expectations for the year to come
The question that I want to ask you is…
How many years have you gotten a new planner, set big goals for the year, and then halfway through you realize that you're not even working on your goals and you beat yourself up over it?
In the past, whenever I got a new planner, I would open it up, I would be so excited, I'd have all these amazing intentions for how to spend my time to be able to reach the goals that I have set.
As you can imagine, you know what happens next, I get off track, something shifts. Something comes up and prevents me from reaching my goals. Whatever the case may be, I did not follow the perfect plan that I created in January and then I feel like I'm the one to blame. I am discouraged, I beat myself up over it and that's not the full truth of what actually happened.
But there are so many reasons why we don't follow through with our original plans and goals that we set. And if 2020 has taught us anything about the world is that everything shifts. We need to be flexible with our goals, with our plans, with our schedules.
So, if you often find yourself in that cycle of setting huge brand new goals and getting super excited at the beginning of the year, and then beating yourself up for not being able to follow through with it, know that this is a super common cycle that we are all set to.
I am bringing this up now because, if you go into your planner before setting your huge high expectation goals for the year, you can come into it with full awareness of this cycle and set better goals.
Personally, I don't set annual goals. There's a ton of research and reasons why but what I personally use and teach in my business is quarter planning. So I have rough intentions of what I want my life to look like in a year but I never set hard goals or hard plans for the year.
I do them in quarter chunks because I know that things are going to shift internally, inside of myself the goals that I want to achieve and externally, around us.
If you have not planned quarterly yet and you're in this cycle, I would definitely tell you to look into planning quarterly instead of annually. Sign up for my Q1 Planning workshop by clicking here.
Glorified to-do lists
The next reason why your 2021 planner won't make you more productive is that usually planners are just glorified to-do lists.
They're just pretty books that we write down lists in and lists don't work. They're good for a single purpose of just brain dumping but lists don't actually show us how much time we have and when we're actually going to get those tasks on our list done.
I want to talk about the concept of a to-do list. To-do lists focus our attention and energy on all of the things that we have not done yet. This leaves us with this unaccomplished, unfulfilled, continue to beat yourself up, burned out, hustling type mindset and mentality, when our to-do lists never end.
I don't know a single person that is more productive when they feel behind, exhausted, and can never get enough stuff done. For the people who are reading this and you’re thinking “oh my planner has places for me to write in my gratitude for the day, my top three” and all these other things that aren't just a to-do list, those are still things that you need to fill in and that you are going to beat yourself up about for not completing every single day.
I have so many clients and people in my personal life that tell me “Oh I'm bad because I didn't fill out my gratitude in my big three years”. Whatever you want to call it of the day. Bottom line is that planners often make us feel like a failure or not good enough. So that is not going to make you more productive.
I could talk about how to make to-do lists better for days and how to actually complete your to-do list without feeling crappy about yourself, which I have tons of blogs on... What I'll say here is that we need to pay more attention and energy to the things that we have accomplished and that we have gotten done. This is the opposite of feeling crappy about yourself. When you focus, acknowledge, reflect, and celebrate on all the things that you have done, you are more motivated, energized, fulfilled. All of those feelings, are what you need to feel to continue that momentum and continue to get things done.
In the beginning, I told you that I have a planner. Yes, I do have a paper planner but guess what I use my paper planner to do? I write all the things that I have done or I spent my time on. If I skip a day, I don’t beat myself up over it. I either go back and fill it in or I literally just not fill it in because it doesn't define my worth.
You can read this post all about the three things most people miss when they write a to-do list. It will help you figure out maybe some things that you need to start incorporating into your time management systems and organization.
Our planners don’t include rest time
The third reason why your 2021 planner will not make you more productive is that our planners don't mention rest. Most of the time, a lot of people have a hard time resting, if it's even possible for them to rest. Even though the majority of us probably know that resting and taking time away from our to-do lists and our tasks is what is actually going to make us more productive, we still can't do it.
In sense, our planners do not encourage us to rest, to have quality time with our family, to knit, to watch Netflix…yet again.
Our planners encourage us to stay exhausted, burnt out, hustling, and focusing on the things that we have not done yet so it makes rest even harder for us.
Again, those things are not going to make you more productive. So what to do instead is to have rest included in your planner. If it's not already, we need to shift our mindset to making rest and quality time with ourselves and our loved ones a non-negotiable that comes first before anything else, if it's possible for you.
Obviously, we need to work enough to survive to pay our bills. Which is a whole other discussion around how our society is keeping us in these vicious cycles. However, we all can take a moment, whether it's just a second to take a deep breath. That needs to be in our planners, our schedules and that needs to be non-negotiable.
The mindset shift that I needed to make in my life is that my to-do list, my tasks will truly never end. That is literally being alive, we are human.
The things that we need to do will never cease to exist. So we need to understand that in order to think “Okay, I can take some time, put my to-do list aside and actually rest”. When we have a mindset that thinks “when I just finish xyz then I can rest”, there's no finishing, there's no end, there's no being done.
I'll just say here as a caution or a warning sign is that when you start to rest it's going to feel uncomfortable. When you do try to rest and relax, your brain starts racing. That is the conditioning inside of us around working, just know that you are doing it right. It is not an easy thing for any of us, so I just wanted to mention that to encourage you to continue to rest even when it feels uncomfortable. That is the journey that we are all on together.
All in all, planners really do a heck of a job reinforcing the things that we have not done. Which encourages us to continue to be exhausted, to continue to be burnt out, to continue to be stretched thin. None of those feelings or states are conducive to being productive, to get the things that we need to get done.
In order to be truly more productive in your life, it usually takes more than just writing down on a piece of paper. There is usually a ton of mindset work that needs to go into it. True change comes from going inwards and doing the internal work to heal ourselves. We need to be able to seek better lasting solutions without having to hustle, burn ourselves to the ground, and being stretched thin in every capacity.
If you got anything out of this post just remember to focus on the things that you have done and be able to reflect and celebrate those things. That is what is going to help you be more productive, that is going to help you feel more motivated and energized.
If you have any comments or questions, feel free to pop them below. I would love to talk with you more about how planners don't necessarily make us more productive and what you are going to do to make a change in your planning.