> Your internal rhythm may be off after a weekend of relaxing that makes getting back into the weekday routine both a mental and physical challenge.
> Monday’s kick off the work week for many of us, and that means having to face our likely overwhelming to do list, plus having to do that job or interact with some people we may not be particularly fond of.
There are actually lots of reasons why Monday’s are hard for us, but I want to help shift that Manic Monday story in your mind into the anticipation and excitement of a potentially Magic Monday!
I’ve really come to love Monday’s over the past several years and truly get excited for the start of my week. So, I thought, it would be helpful for me to share a bit of inspiration and strategy for you to use to start shifting your mindset and organizing your week so that you too begin to look forward to Monday!
3 Questions to Ask Yourself to Set Realistic Expectations for Your Week
Let’s begin with your specific needs and expectations to determine what would make this week feel successful, productive and a little more organized.
Here are three questions to ask yourself to get clear on your own expectations for a productive week. Journal on these questions, write the answers out in your planner or simply ponder your responses as you prepare for your day- but do try to record your answers for reference and action.
Question 1: What needs to happen this week to make it feel productive and successful? Try to identify three things you can take action on that would make you feel like this week mattered.
Question 2:What drains on your time and energy do you need to watch out for and avoid this week? For each drain, think of a simple plan for preventing these obstacles or dealing with each if they arise.
Question 3:What can you do to support the best version of yourself this week? Think of a few simple habits or actions you need to take this week to make sure you are able to show up each day to the best of your ability. It may mean asking others for help, but you know what you need to show up at your full capacity, so don’t be afraid to ask.
The answers to these questions are going to give you some amazing insight into the few things you need to do to ensure your week feels successful and is supporting you in an effort to live your best and most balanced life.
I know it may seem counterintuitive at first, but the success and productivity of your week isn’t found in the accomplishment of many various things, but instead is found in the fulfillment of just a few strategic priorities.
So, again, record those responses and put any action items into your weekly plan or schedule so you can ensure you make your best week happen.
I hope this post has given you some insight, encouragement or inspiration to make this week amazing.
If you did enjoy it, let me know in the comments or feel free to forward this post to a friend or loved one you think could use the support this week!
How to Create an Inbox System for Busy Professionals
I talk a lot about how to create a solid plan for your workday so you have a clear focus and intention for how you’ll be spending your time, but the real challenge for most busy professionals is handling the additional new action items and tasks that accumulate throughout your workday.
It’s great to start the day with your top three tasks identified, your schedule for calls and meetings, and of course time blocks outlined to do deep work, but what should you do if you get even more new tasks and items that need to be integrated into your existing daily plan?
How do you capture, prioritize and integrate new tasks that come from the multiple different inputs in your workday like meetings, emails, messages, and calls from team members, superiors, clients, and other co-workers?
The solution is to have a well organized inbox system.
Your inbox system may actually be made up of multiple different task and information capture solutions, especially if you are someone who not only receives new tasks throughout the day, but also receives information that may pertain to specific projects, or perhaps needs to capture your own ideas or reminders for future meetings or work that isn’t currently your focus at the moment.
A Place for Everything and Everything in it’s Place
My first suggestion for creating your organized inbox system is to decide the specific places you are going to put specific types of information and the general process you intend to follow for each.
New tasks must be captured and processed in a different way than information you may need for future reference, so having a unique process for each different information type will be important.
It would be optimal to capture new tasks in one centralized location, like an inbox page of your planner, a brain dump spread, or a specific file in a notes application, so you can then determine the priority of the tasks.
I determine the priority of my new tasks using an Eisenhower Matrix that evaluates tasks for urgency and importance. Any new tasks that are urgent and important will be integrated into my plan for the day, while other tasks of less urgency or less importance may be scheduled for another day or kept on a pending list for future reference.
For example: Urgent and Important Tasks | Do Now Not Urgent and Important Tasks | Schedule Urgent and Not Important Tasks | Delegate Not Urgent and Not Important Tasks | Delete
For any information you receive during the course of your workday, I think it’s important to have a separate system for organizing notes and reminders so you can quickly locate and use the information when you need it.
I recommend using a digital notes tool to organize this type of information especially if you are receiving it in digital form most of the time through messages and emails. It’s quite easy to simply copy and paste information, where as rewriting it onto a paper notes system may take a bit more time. Of course, if you prefer to be fully analog and use a paper notes system for this part of your overall system, do what works for you.
I use Apple Notes to organize raw information and ideas, because the app syncs across my laptop, iPhone and even my iPad so that I always have access to it, and because it is digital I can use the search function to quickly find information as well.
I keep my notes app organized by folders for different categories of information, like Personal Notes, Business, Marketing, Content, etc, and then I keep individual note files inside the folders to organize specific topics for quick reference.
If using a notes app doesn’t work for you, you could also use a Google Sheets file or spreadsheet application on your computer to organize information by category and topic as well.
If you’d prefer to use a paper based system, you could divide a notebook into sections for your categories, or include pages in your planner dedicated to specific categories or projects you need to retain information on to act on later.
Turning the System into a Routine
With your Inbox System set up, the next part of the process would be to define and establish a regular routine for transferring and reviewing information.
It’s not enough to have the system set up with the defined place for each type of task or information to go, but you also need to decide how often you are going to review your various other inboxes to transfer information into their appropriate place in your system, and how often you need to review those individual places to make sure you are utilizing the information you captured.
I generally check my inboxes (email, message systems etc) about twice a day, once in the morning at the start of my work and once in the afternoon before I stop working for the day, and that is the point where I will funnel tasks and information to their appropriate spots in my organization system.
Tasks get listed and organized with the Eisenhower Matrix, and information, reminders or ideas get organized to their appropriate folder or note in my Apple Notes.
I keep active notes for each of the classes, products and pieces of content I create so I can quickly transfer or capture information that pertain to each of these individual projects quickly, as soon as it comes to my attention.
When you initially start this routine, it will be a good idea to set alerts to ensure you use the system regularly, and then after a while, it will become a natural process you do as part of your day.
I hope this information helps you create your own organized inbox system to stay on top of your tasks and do your best work, no matter what you do! Let me know how it works out and if you have any questions and I’d be glad to help!
Today I am sharing more on Planner Alchemy- tips for using your planner to manifest productivity and success in your life. Specifically, I want to share some tips for how to Feng Shui your planner to attract positive productivity energy.
Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese practice of using and directing universal life force energy or qi into areas of your life to achieve balance, harmony and improvement.
When we hear about Feng Shui, we often hear the practice used in terms of organizing and decorating our homes, but we can also apply Feng Shui principles to our planner and so I want to share five such tips with you today.
Tip 1. Keep your planner open whenever possible: If you are working at your desk, keep your planner open, even if you are not actively using it or referring to it, because this helps to clear the air around your planner and attract positive chi as part of the Feng Shui Philosophy.
Tip 2. Clear out clutter: a main principle of Feng Shui is to keep your spaces clean and neat. One of the tenants of Feng Shui is that positive energy or qi can’t flow in a hoarded room. So, good qi also can’t flow into a hoarded or messy planner. I regularly remove unnecessary pages from my planner and either discard them if they are not needed or save them in an archive or storage binder for future reference, as this will help clear the energy of my planner for positive qi!
Tip 3. Fill your planner with beauty and happiness: In Feng Shui, the way an area looks and feels has a major impact on the type of energy that is attracted to it. So, make sure you leave inspirational images and quotes in your planner so that positive energy is attracted to it. Keep some tokens of happy memories tucked inside extra pockets or punched inside your planner. I’d also recommend taking notes of achievements and positive events on your agenda pages as this will also help to make your planner a destination for positive energy.
Tip 4. Choose your ink color purposefully: In Feng Shui color is a powerful quality meant to strategically attract energy into your life. Consider choosing the ink colors that you use inside your planner, in terms of your pen and highlighters, strategically to correspond to what energy you are looking to attract more of in your life.
Here are the Feng Shui Color Correspondences:
Black: Career + Life Path White: Children and creativity Grey: Helpful people and travel Blue: Knowledge and personal development Turquoise: New beginnings and confidence Green: Growth, family and health Brown: Stability and security Purple: Spirituality, adventure and prosperity Pink: Relationships, partnership and romance Red: Fame and reputation Yellow: Power, health and patience Orange: Health and happiness
Tip 5. Store your planner in a clean and well lit space: Don’t keep your planner shoved in your bag or in a drawer for hours on end, leave it in a place of respect out in the open where it will not get damaged and will be like an ornament in your life. If you have respect for your planner and treat it with respect, positive energy will also continue to flow to it, attracting success, abundance and productivity into your life.
Watch the Video on How to Feng Shui Your Planner
So, those are my top five tips to apply the principles of Feng Shui to your planner to start attracting positive productivity energy into your life. I hope this gives you some new inspiration for using your planner to attract more abundance, productivity and success in your life.
I have finally written and published my book on planning and productivity called the Functional Planning Handbook and it is available right now for sale on Amazon.com.
Those of you who have been following me for a while know that this book is something I’ve been talking about writing for years, and I’m so excited to finally launch it publicly to the world!
As you can surmise from the title, this book is my official guide to functional planning, and it was truly written to be a companion to your planner as you can see from it’s petite 4 x 6 inch size!
It’s a book you can learn from by reading through it, sure, but it’s really meant to be a reference guide for you as well because if you have been planning for any period of time, you know that it’s not about learning the strategies once and you suddenly know exactly how to plan and organize your life.
Functional planning is truly a skill and a practice that you develop over time and I wanted this book to be your pocket reference guide and handbook that you could reach for when you had a question about how to perform your daily planning routine, but also to be a source of inspiration and motivation for you to get things done. That’s why several chapters of this book are dedicated to discussing time, task and energy management strategies you can implement quickly and easily in your life.
This book, like much of my content, is direct strategy- no fluff or filler- that is actionable and practical for the variety of women and lifestyles in my community. If you are an ambitious woman in my community who desires a more organized, intentional and successful life, and knows planning and personal organization are strategies that can help you achieve more with less time, stress and effort, then the functional planning handbook is for you!
And, of course, for those of you who support the launch and purchase your copy this month, I have a special bonus gift for you- A Functional Planning Routines planner insert with 21 prompts that you can use to support your daily, weekly and monthly planning routine so that you make better, more complete plans that you feel confident executing on to make your ideal life a reality!
I sincerely hope you love the book, the bonus and will consider leaving me a positive review for the book on Amazon so we can get this essential functional planning information in the hands of more amazing women who need it!
Thank you all so much for your ongoing support and encouragement, this won’t be the last you hear of the book- we will certainly be discussing it more in the coming weeks, so you can understand more of the behind the scenes of what finishing this major goal looked like for me!
Thanks for joining me on this journey and we will talk soon!
→ Have you been struggling with your planning and personal organization?
→ Do you question how to best set up your planner for the year?
→ What inserts to include?
→ How to establish a regular planning routine?
→ And how to ensure you actually use your planner to get more done with less time and effort?
Learning how to properly set up and use your planner is the first step to ensuring you have the systems in place to confidently plan a balanced and successful life.
One where you have visibility to all the important tasks in your day, the time set aside to get them done, and still have room each day to care for yourself, your family and the other priorities in your life.
Whether you work for yourself, another company, are a stay at home mom, student or even retiree, having a reliable planning system at your fingertips is the difference between a balanced, intentional and fulfilling life and one where you feel completely disorganized and out of control.
That’s why I have created a NEW FREE TRAINING Class called:
How to Plan for a Balanced and Successful Life!
I’m hosting this new training live on Saturday, January 22nd at 2pm EST and you are invited to be part of the inaugural class.
In this FREE Training, I am going to teach you:
✔︎ How to set up a functional planning system, one with the inserts you need to ensure you are capturing all of lifes tasks, and then how to establish a simple routine to ensure you are utilizing your planner to get things done on a daily basis.
✔︎ I am going to teach you how to use your planner to create a system to ensure you are able to quantify and track your work to make your planning process easier, and also to make organizing your tasks and scheduling them into your life a seamless process so that there is a time for everything and everything gets done.
✔︎ Finally, I am going to teach you ten time, task and energy management strategies to help you complete a long to-do list. These are simple, practical strategies you can implement immediately in your life for a greater sense of productivity and satisfaction with your work.
You are going to walk away from this training armed with knowledge that you can put to use immediately to finally commit to a planner system that works for you, to help you get all your tasks organized and to ensure you know fundamental productivity strategy to work smarter not harder.
Greatest of all though, you are going to walk away from this training with a sense of confidence and clarity that you know how to handle the endless stream of tasks that life brings to you!
Embodying that sort of confidence will immediately bring you more ease, intention and balance to your life because you will begin to recognize that you don’t need to hustle to get it all done. You don’t have to sacrifice your personal goals, time with your family, your wellbeing and even your sleep just to complete a to-do list.
As Elton John sings in the Circle of Life, “there is more to do than can ever be done” in this life! The to do list is always going to grow no matter how much we check off each day, so utilizing systems to manage the work is the best way to bring yourself a sense of peace and trust that you are in control of your life and it’s direction!
I’ll be emailing you reminders and the link over the next few days so you don’t miss out, but make sure to mark your planner and set an alarm on your phone now so you have the time blocked off!
In the meantime, let me know your biggest planning and productivity struggles. Leave me a comment and let me know what specific questions or issues you have and I’d be glad to help.
Today I want to teach you the productivity strategy that every functional planner, creative entrepreneur and female business owner needs to create a balanced and successful year: A Productive Daily Routine!
For those of us who seek to find balance in our lives between our work and personal priorities, structuring an intentionally productive daily routine is an activity that will help us create a dedicated time and space for what matters.
Although I don’t believe it is necessary for any two people to have the exact same daily routine, I do know that there are research backed habits that are essential to your productivity and success. So for me, fitting those non-negotiables into my schedule creates the basic structure of my productive daily routine and helps me to create a day and life with a sense of intention and flow.
Let me walk you through those habits and how to structure your productive daily routine in this weeks video below! Video: Creating Your Productive Daily Routine
I hope you’ve enjoyed this video and learning how to create your own productive daily routine to support a balanced and successful life this year!
Now I want to hear from you in the comments, what non-negotiable habits are you making time for you your daily routine?
xoxo,
P.S. If you are looking for more inspiration and accountability to build your ideal productive daily routine, the Productivity + Planning Mastermind is ready and waiting for you!
Members of my Productivity + Planning Mastermind get weekly accountability check-ins with me, as well as both group and direct coaching. Plus, members of the mastermind get a library of planning tools to help them get organized and manage their time and tasks better. They also get masterclasses that walk them through setting their goals, changing their habits, working on their mindset and other ongoing education topics.
As we kick off off the New Year, now is a wonderful time to reevaluate and establish a more productive daily routine.
For those of us who seek to find balance in our lives between our work and personal priorities, structuring an intentionally productive daily routine is an activity that will help us create a dedicated time and space for what matters.
I like to think of my daily routine in four segments:
☀️ Morning 💻 Afternoon (Workday) 🍽 Evening 🌙 Night
And within those segments of time, I have specific productive activities to perform.
Although I don’t believe it is necessary for any two people to have the exact same daily routine, I do know that there are research backed habits that are essential to your productivity and success. So for me, fitting those non-negotiables into my schedule creates the basic structure of my productive daily routine and helps me to create a day and life with a sense of intention and flow.
☀️ Morning Wake Up + Make Bed Meditate Journal Morning Hydration Plan for the Day
💻 Afternoon First Work Block Take a Break Second Work Block Make + Eat Lunch Third Work Block
🍽 Evening Movement Make + Eat Dinner Tidy Up Family/Relationship Time Personal Time
🌙 Night Bath/Shower Skincare Routine Evening Hydration Reflection Sleep
Feel free to use my structure to create your own Productive Daily Routine and let me know in the comments what your daily non-negotiable habits are for 2022!
xoxo,
P.S. If you are looking for more inspiration and accountability to build your ideal productive daily routine, the Productivity + Planning Mastermind is ready and waiting for you!
Members of my Productivity + Planning Mastermind get weekly accountability check-ins with me, as well as both group and direct coaching. Plus, members of the mastermind get a library of planning tools to help them get organized and manage their time and tasks better. They also get masterclasses that walk them through setting their goals, changing their habits, working on their mindset and other ongoing education topics.
Imagine this scenario:It’s the first week of the New Year and you are desperate to get your ish together so you can finally become that productive and organized woman with the amazing business or career- plus a perfectly balanced life where you remember everything important, achieve all of your goals, and even make time for your own self-care!
I don’t think this is a difficult scenario for any of us to imagine because this week is the first week of the New Year, and the woman I described is that ideal woman we all wish we could be. That includes ME! I know many of you may feel like I am that woman already, and perhaps I am in your standards, but a collective problem we all face is that the standard for that ideal woman we want to be is different for all of us, and no matter how much we have achieved, we all feel like we have much more work to go until we become her.
Realistically, I think as we continue to grow, expand and evolve, so does our vision of that ideal woman, which accounts for why most of us aspire to be her, but few of us ever feel like we embody her.
But guess what?
Whether or not we are setting a realistic expectation for the ideal woman we want to be, I know there are practical, action oriented steps we can all take right now to get and stay productive and organized this year, and at least intentionally move in the direction of what life as our ideal selves would be.
So, I have broken this work down into nine practical steps we can all take to organize our lives, get clear on what we are trying to accomplish this year, and put ourselves on the path to productively achieving the results we desire.
Are you ready to get started?
Awesome, let’s jump right in!
Step #1: Choose and Use a Planner
This first step should surprise precisely none of you, because you know I am all about organizing my life, time, and tasks with the help of an amazing, custom productivity tool, aka my planner! But, I have to mention this step because it is in fact the first step we need to take, and we know common knowledge isn’t always common practice- and this post is all about practicing what we know we need to do to become the organized and productive woman we want to be.
So, have you figured out your planner of choice for the year yet?
It doesn’t matter to me if you use a custom paper planner situation like I do, or if you decide you are going to use a digital system. I just want you to have a dedicated planner that can do the following for you:
Act as an inbox where you store all your ideas, tasks, schedule, key information etc
Organize information in a streamlined way so you can make the most of time, task, and energy management principles to literally work smarter, not harder
Give you a clear line of sight to what you need to be working on each day, week, month, quarter of the year to remain on track with your goals and vision for the year
This needs to be one single planner or digital system because if you have multiple inboxes and schedules and task lists, you won’t be able to get that big picture view of everything you have going on.
Also, this really should be one single system you commit to using for the complete year because, again, all the information in all the places really becomes a disorganized mess. That mess translates into your productivity, organization level and success for the year, so you do you, but I say one planner for most people is all you need.
If you want to use the same system of inserts that I use, click here.
Your planner is a tool, not a toy, so choose wisely!
Once you have your planner picked out and/or set up you now need to start populating it with information so you can start planning and scheduling your year. I know, I know, another revolutionary tip, but set your snakiness aside, because I know that many of you reading this right now have a planner and are not putting all the important and necessary information you have into it.
I know some of you have information for your schedule or appointments or kids school calendars someplace else. Another calendar, another app, someplace other than the one planner I said needed to act as your ultimate inbox!
And what is actually worse, I know some of you have that beautiful planner that you are really vibe-ing with at the moment but you have some tasks, ideas, meetings etc that you have decided you are just going to remember the details of… like remember in your brain as opposed to inside your planner. Recipe for disaster!
I don’t care how fresh in your mind some of that information is- I know you are going to forget some or all of it by the time you really need to have that information in front of you. But still, you continue to defy my practical advice. I promise you, things won’t change for you this year unless you start making changes. So, please, populate all the information you know about for the year into your planner so you have a line of sight to it.
Go ahead and write it in pencil if you are afraid plans will change, or write the information on a sticky note and put it in the right area of your planner to act on later. But, please populate what you know as soon as you can, and continue to add new information as you receive it.
If you aren’t sure what information to add to your planner, the video linked below will help provide more details and recommendations.
You already know, the habits you have established by this point in your life are the make it or break it for your overall success. We are what we repeatedly do. The reality we see around us is the result of the actions we take on a habitual or routine basis.
And I’d venture to guess that you have some bad habits that you know are holding you back from achieving your goals and becoming that ideal woman you want to be!
So, we have to get our habits under control and to do that we need to get clear on two things:
We need to know which habits are keeping us stuck with the results we currently have, and…
We need to understand the process for replacing habits so we can make a meaningful change to adjust our results
If you need help with changing your habits to change your life, the video below will provide you a framework of practical steps and advice to guide you.
Step #4: Decide what you want your life to look like
Now, before you can actually make any real meaningful change in your life, you are going to need to get clear on what it is that you want your life to look like. And the wonderful thing about this is that whatever you imagine or desire for your life is something you can create and bring to reality.
Many people hold themselves back from the life they want, simply because they can’t get clear on what it is they actually want. They think they are just indecisive, but let me tell you, indecision is a decision!
So, when you are looking around at the areas of your life thinking that things need to change, and you look at the opportunities and paths you have before you, if you don’t choose one and take action, that is a choice to stay exactly where you are.
I know making choices can seem intimidating.
What if I make the wrong choice? What if I go down the wrong path and I end up further behind than I already feel? What if make a change and things don’t work out?
Yea, that can happen! And if it does you can choose again and keep trying. BUT staying where you are can also be the wrong choice. Not changing paths and remaining where you are can also put you further behind. And keeping things the same means things that aren’t working out for you right now, will continue to not work out for you. You think making a decision and making a change is a risk, but you take the exact same risk when you choose to be indecisive and don’t make any change at all.
One of my favorite quotes from Einstein says “The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.”
So, if you desire a change in your life, trust that this feeling will lead you to an opportunity and a path where your desires will be fulfilled. The path may not be a straight line to fulfillment, it may require time and patience and a period of uncertainty, but if you stick it out and keep choosing the new path everyday, you will absolutely make it to a better destination. Because I don’t believe following your desires and following the calling of your heart can ever lead you astray.
It just can’t! You can’t mess it up as long as you choose a direction and see it through. Because God/Spirit/The Universe uses our feelings and desires to guide us and God/Spirit/The Universe has a much better view of our life and all the possible paths we could take.
So there is a lot of power in deciding and doing and trusting, so if you are feeling indecisive the video linked below is going to walk you through a simple but powerful activity you can do to understand what you want to for your life right now.
Step #5: Set your goals and get them mapped in your planner
Once you decide what it is that you want to accomplish this year you can go ahead and set actual goals for achieving those results and changes you desire. Now, I know that for many of you, you have tried to set goals in the past and failed to achieve them. So for some of you the idea of setting goals seems like a waste of time and not worth the effort.
If that sounds like you, I want you to know that this is the start of a new year, it’s a new day, a new week and a fresh opportunity for you to start over and achieve whatever you desire. But first, I’m going to need you to forgive yourself for messing up in the past because actually, that is the toughest part of the process of goals and achievement.
Like you, when I get off track with a goal or feel like I’ve messed it up entirely, I experience a lot of guilt and that guilt, more often than not, is the reason I can’t continue to take action.
It can make me feel like a failure, like I made the wrong choice of a goal or like I am not worthy to receive the outcome I was working towards…
BUT IT’S ALL LIES!
You can never really mess anything up until you give up on it entirely, and I don’t think you are ready to give up on that goal yet that is weighing heavily on your heart.
So, repeat after me:
Even though I have lost track and perhaps even lost faith on this goal, I still truly and deeply love and accept myself.
I forgive myself for believing I wasn’t capable of achieving my goal.
I am worthy to receive every goal I set and every outcome I desire.
Doesn’t that feel much better?
Now, it’s time to recommit to your goals!
The video below will talk you through what you need to do to set your goals for the new year if you’d like some additional guidance.
If you have never created a vision board before, you are definitely in for a treat with this step because I love making a fresh vision board each year. It’s one part fun crafty activity, one part practical productivity tool, and one part mindset reprogramming tool.
A vision board is a collage of images that represent your goals brought into fruition. So, image what having each of your goals would look and feel like to you. Your vision board gives you the literal ability to see what those goals look like in your life and when you can actually see an outcome, it becomes much easier for you to achieve it.
Vision boards work based off real science too. There is a network of neurons in the human brain stem known as the reticular activating system (RAS), and this network governs multiple different bodily activities and reactions, but an interesting activity it is responsible for is the information that our brain filters to our conscious minds. The human brain actually receives and filters through a tremendous amount of data and information about our bodies and the world around us. Most of which, we are never consciously aware of because our brains don’t give us information it doesn’t think we need. Using a vision board begins to train your RAS to adjust that filter so that we become aware of specific data and information related to the images on our vision boards. It’s one of the limited ways, we as humans, can actually reprogram the processing and computing power of our brains to work for us in pursuit of our goals.
So I definitely recommend creating a vision board if you are going to set any sorts of goals for your life because it can be a powerful tool you use to help program yourself to achieve the precise success you desire.
If you need more specific direction on how to create your vision board, definitely check out the video linked below.
Like many who have accomplished any amount of success, I attribute much of my achievement over the course of my lifetime to my mindset. It’s pretty well accepted now that mindset, your beliefs and outlook on life, play a key role in what you are able to accomplish, also known as manifest. Mindset is often the “secret ingredient” that gives specific individuals an edge in their pursuits. Where many have failed, a positive mindset is often the deciding factor in why one prevails.
Of course, there are still plenty of people who label mindset work as a type of pseudoscience that isn’t real. This doesn’t surprise me, as mindset is often difficult to quantify, and therefore nearly impossible to test for or measure in any way that would allow us to understand its precise role in patterns of success or failure.
That doesn’t prevent or deter me from believing in and working on my mindset, in order to manifest the outcomes I desire for my life. If self-reporting counts for anything, I certainly can attest that working on my mindset with tangible strategies has, in fact, made me a more productive and successful person.
When I actively work on my mindset, I hit more of the goals I set for myself, and show up more fully and intentionally to my tasks for the day.
I certainly prescribe to the idea that “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right,” – Henry Ford
When I choose to “think I can” I am more focused and accountable to seeing my goals through to fruition.
So finding ways you can cultivate a positive and strong mindset, are essential to whether or not you will be successful this year at getting and staying productive and organized on your pursuit to become that ideal woman you want to be!
For more strategies on how to work on your mindset, check out the video linked below.
Step #8: Continue focusing on personal development and educating yourself
Did you know that reading is considered to be one of the most universally acknowledged success habits?
Statistics are thrown around all the time about how many books millionaires and CEOs read in a year. It’s always something crazy like 4+ dozen! I know for some people, that number seems intimidating. They say the average American reads less than one book per year.
But personally, I don’t believe that it’s the exact number of books read that really makes someone successful. What I think is a more accurate predictor of success is that you are someone who values ongoing education and the way that is most commonly and easily practiced is by reading.
Look, if you are truly trying to have a wonderful, productive and successful year and you don’t feel like you are someone who normally achieves that, you are in fact requiring that you do some personal development work in order to upgrade or up level yourself into that ideal woman you want to be.
Personal development can take so many forms and be practiced in so many ways, but focusing on continuing to educate yourself through any means available or interesting to you is going to need to be an essential part of your daily life moving forward into the new year.
So find some ongoing education practice that works for you and find a routine way to follow through with it on a regular basis.
If you need more ideas, the video below can definitely help.
Now we’ve made it to the ninth and final step in this productivity and organization process and if you took the time and put in the effort to review and act on steps one through eight, some you are going to be in excellent shape for the new year.
BUT- despite all that prep, many of you could still flub your best intentions and goals for the year because you are missing one very small, easily overlooked element of success.
That element is accountability, specifically, external accountability.
That’s right, having some form of external accountability is going to be crucial for many of you if you want to follow through with your plans and goals for the new year. That’s because for many people, their own internal accountability is not enough. And, let’s be honest with ourselves here… if you are reading this you most likely aren’t someone who does a good job at keeping themselves accountable to their goals.
And I know many of you right now are probably rolling your eyes and acting like you don’t need any external accountability, that you are sure you can do it alone, but if you have tried and failed in the past, that’s likely a pretty solid indication that you can’t do it alone. I think you know this on some level. But really, the negative reaction you are having comes down to one or both of the following very common issues.
You don’t want to have to bother someone else for help
You don’t feel comfortable sharing your goals with others because what happens if they don’t happen and you look foolish
I know asking for help is hard. I know asking for support and accountability feels vulnerable and feels like you are giving up control on some level. But for most people out there, external accountability is absolutely the deciding factor for whether or not you will follow through.
Look, it’s human nature. Change is hard, even when it’s a change that would bring us into alignment with a wonderful and ideal future for ourselves. Part of becoming a successful human is learning from your past mistakes and avoiding them at all costs so you aren’t doomed to repeat the past. So, if you tried to go it alone in the past and you weren’t able to keep yourself accountability- learn from that experience now and find some support or accountability.
So, if you need ideas for finding support and accountability, the video linked below will definitely help you generate some great ideas!
Members of my Productivity + Planning Mastermind get weekly accountability check-ins with me, as well as both group and direct coaching. Plus, members of the mastermind get a library of planning tools to help them get organized and manage their time and tasks better. They also get masterclasses that walk them through setting their goals, changing their habits, working on their mindset and other ongoing education topics.
Essentially, you could check off each and every step of this process right now, by enrolling in the Productivity + Planning Mastermind!
Join my Productivity Inner Circle for Ongoing Support + Accountability to Live Your Best Life!
The Productivity + Planning Master Mind
The Productivity & Planning Master Mind is the ongoing support you need to get all your thoughts, plans, dreams and ideas out of your head, and onto paper so you can get down to business creating your dream life!
The Annual Membership Option is Currently $22/month (billed annually) and includes the 2022 Master Planner System FREE!
Have any additional questions about the sale or which products might be best suited for your needs? I am always available to help support and guide you. CLICK HERE to email me so I may assist you.
xoxo,
AKA @MissTrenchcoat | CEO & Designer of TheCharmedShop.com
“I’ll finally be organized and productive once I find the perfect ________ for me!”
So many of us get caught up in collecting what we think we “need” to have in order to get organized for productivity and we find ourselves stuck in a cycle of searching and buying the best tools instead of focusing on what really matters.
Some things you do NOT need in order to become organized, productive, and successful:
❌ Multiple planners and a stash of inserts
❌ Lots of apps for routines, tasks, tracking, reminders and sleep
❌ Stickers and washi tape
❌ Colored pens and highlighters
❌ Drawers full of stationery supplies
❌ A daily journal
❌ Stacks of cute notebooks
❌ Coffee mugs with inspirational quotes
❌ A stash of scented candles for your office
❌ An iPad, tablet, or certain brand of computer
❌ The latest iPhone
❌ An Apple Watch or other smart watch / habit tracking device
❌ A high tech alarm clock or sleep machine
❌ Boxes, sorters and organizers
YOU DON’T NEED ANYTHING TO BE PRODUCTIVE.
(Go ahead, read that again…)
Productivity isn’t something you can buy, it’s a choice you make to put effort into ensuring your life works smoothly and intentionally.
It’s about building systems;processes for how you’ll approach the various tasks in your life.
It’s about setting clear goals and objectives;what do you want and how do you plan to achieve it.
It’s about being a good manager of your time;setting clear expectations for each day and planning a simple workflow to get as much of it done as possible.
I know it’s a hard shift, but in order to truly be productive, you must shift out of the mindset of buying your way to productivity and success, and shift into the mindset of working your way to productivity and success.
STAYING ACCOUNTABLE TO YOUR PRODUCTIVITY ISN’T EASY
It’s not easy being an ambitious working woman in today’s society. Women have more responsibilities on their shoulders now than they ever have that can make getting organized and motivated feel impossible and overwhelming, which is why goal getters like you and I need to stick together!
To be a safe space for women like you and I who see beyond the surface of our societal expectations, challenge the accepted norms, and know there is a better way to live.
It’s a place for support, encouragement, accountability and ongoing personal development for us to continue challenging accepted norms and choosing our own unique path to success.
→ The Mastermind includes so many resources to help you on your journey, from multiple live calls each month, to on-demand strategies, tools, and even a complete course on productivity!
→ We have our own private chat forum where we connect and discuss topics ranging from planning, metaphysics, mindset, and wellness.
→ We have a monthly book club to help nurture a growth mindset and continue to learn.
→ We even have a dedicated group for small business CEOs to learn and connect as well!
→ The best part is, when you join the Mastermind, you get immediate access to the entire library of resources, masterclasses and bonus materials that I have been creating since it’s launch.
→ There is no waiting, content isn’t dripped to you, it’s all there for you to explore and access on-demand as you please.
→ And of course I am there as well for guidance and to answer your questions along the way.
When you know better, you do better.
Are you ready to do better for yourself, your family and your future by committing to your personal development to become the best woman, mother, spouse, sister, daughter, aunt and friend that you can be?
