DAY 2: 10 DAYS OF WELLBEING
Today’s message won’t take you very long to read, but it will take you just a little longer to action…
But it’s worth it. It’s a really beneficial exercise to help stop your mind spinning with all those things you feel you ‘should’ be doing and letting go of some of the stress that creates.
DUMP YOUR TO-DO LIST
Don’t panic. I’m not suggesting that you bin it completely.
But let’s get your mental task list out of your head where it’s all spinning around with what feels like a million other things.
HOW DO I DO THAT?
By emptying your mind of all your things To-Do by putting them onto One List. That One List becomes your ‘Second Brain’.
Your Second Brain will hold your To-Do List safely, securely and all in one place. That way you can save your actual brain for having ideas and inspiration, not for desperately trying to store them all.
This time, before you start to collect your thoughts do have a think about what method works best for you to keep your list. There are many productivity, project management and To-Do Apps out there… Asana, Trello, ToDoist, Wrike… to name but a few. You might be a fan of a spreadsheet to keep track of lists or still prefer good old pen and paper. Just consider what will be the best way for you to get a list of everything into one place.
CAPTURE EVERYTHING
Then sit down, start your list and keep going. List EVERYTHING.
Grab that mail that you haven’t yet gotten around to sorting. Find those little scraps of paper with notes and reminders. If like me you use more than one notebook, get them all and put all the lists together. Everything. Appointments you need to remember, calls you need to make, things you need to buy, jobs you want to get done around the house, projects you’d like to get started, trips you’re planning on making. Capture it ALL.
I know this feels overwhelming, but once they’re in one place, you have already created some sort of order.
BUT I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO!
How the BLEEP is this meant to help my Wellbeing?! It’s just reminded me of the 4,073 things I haven’t done yet!
Yes but now they’re not ‘nagging’ you constantly, pecking at your head causing a flurry of panic.
They’re all in one place. That way, you’ll know they’re safe, you haven’t lost anything. You do need to start putting them in some sort of order. But you don’t need to overtax your brain trying to remember everything.
GET YOUR LIST IN ORDER
There are a plethora of Productivity and Time Management Methods to choose from to help you prioritise and manage your To-Do List. But to get you started just ask yourself a few questions:
* Do I really need to / have to do this? If not, DELETE.
* Do I want to do this? If possible, DELETE. Or…
* Can I give it to someone else to do?
* It’s been on my list for months, am I really going to do this? If not, DELETE. Trust me, it will still be there in another 3 months, might as well delete it now.
* Is there anything URGENT (that’s urgent to you, not something that is on somebody else’s urgent list but not so important to you)? If so, take a couple of those and put them on your Daily To-Do List for tomorrow.
NOW WHAT?
Grab yourself a cuppa, a glass of wine, or take a break outside to get some time out. There’s nothing more to do today. Unless of course you want to…
OVERCOMING OVERWHELM
Read this if you are feeling a bit overwhelmed. It will guide you through how to overcome that and take back control.
And let me know if you’d like any more tips. Not because I’m naturally organised. Quite the opposite. I’m the queen of procrastination, a constant ideas generator who’s not very good at actually getting things done and I have a serious dose of Shiny Object Syndrome. So I needed to find ways to help me control my out-of-controlness to actually get things done. And I’ve checked out a lot of books, courses and methods on my quest so I’m happy to recommend what’s helped me.
Tomorrow…. How to Still Your Mind…
10 Days of Wellbeing: Day 1: A Wellbeing Boost