Are you struggling to find your perfect planning system? Your unicorn planner? A sense of that ever elusive Planner Peace? Well, in today’s class I am going to help you finally find that peace by helping you identify the reasons why people fail to find the planner of their dreams and stick to using it so you can get more done!
Would you like a simple but challenging routine to kickstart your productivity into high gear?
How does a 31 DAY PRODUCTIVITY BOOTCAMP CHALLENGE Sound?
The PRODUCTIVITY BOOTCAMP is an On Demand Instagram (optional) Challenge with a full month of simple but effective prompts that will help you:
✔︎ Get refocused on your tasks and goals for the year
✔︎ Improve your productivity through scientifically researched principles of productivity
✔︎ Create plans and routines that suit your life and needs
✔︎ Grow and strengthen neural pathways associated with executing and getting things done!
The Productivity Bootcamp is intended to be like one of those month long bootcamp exercise programs but for your mind. During the bootcamp we are going to hit reset on our productivity by challenging ourselves each day to take small steps through simple lessons and activities that will add up to big changes to our productivity. By the end of the bootcamp, we will be in prime shape to get focused on
I think it’s easy to forget that if we want to be organized, productive and successful, we need to work at it. Time management and execution is about so much more than having a planner and making a plan. Truly, it’s a mental exercise that requires daily practice to develop the mental strength and self discipline necessary to make prioritization, focus and getting things done second nature.
Just as following an exercise routine will help you improve the shape and condition of your body, nothing will improve your productivity more than having a simple (yet, well-researched) daily process to execute on. And having a community following the process along side you is the best motivation for ensuring you stick with it! This is truly the reason I created the Bootcamp, so that I could put all the research I’ve been doing on productivity into an actionable plan for others to follow, even if they were beginners to the topic of productivity.
The Challenge Includes
• A dedicated Bootcamp Resource Site Page where you will find all videos, downloads, additional instructions and support
• Challenge graphics for Instagram Feed & Stories with Prompts and community hashtag
• Daily Video Lessons explaining each prompt
• Extra download graphics and worksheets to make the most of specific prompts that you can keep and use as long as you’d like.
What Bootcamp Members are Saying
“The GTD Bootcamp challenge helped me make some big progress on projects that I have had on the list for over a year now. They’re almost done! Thank you Alexis!” -Becca
“Love the CharmedGTD bootcamp. It made me re-evaluate my plan proces and showed some missing links. Also made me realise that I need a different planner for next year because I’m more a monthly/weekly planner, than a monthly/daily planner. A lot of the other prompts made me re-evaluate my life, which was a welcome excerciece. Thanks Alexis” -Rianne
“I want to thank you for this idea of yours which seems so simple and exactly this feature makes it so deep and helpful. You’ve created small and bitable pieces that motivate to go forward and stick to the Bootcamp. And at the same time each prompt is a part of a puzzle so they altogether are the elements of the final productivity image. It has already influenced on significant changes in my daily routine and I’m really grateful to you for creating such an amazing system. I’m delighted to be part of the Bootcamp of yours.” -Anastasia
“Great accountability partner for increasing my productivity! Love the short, concise daily prompts, that allow me to go get things done!” – Lisa M.
Are you ready to hit Reset on your Productivity and Rebuild your Productivity Muscle?
Sign up for the PRODUCTIVITY BOOTCAMP TODAY and join the challenge!
I can’t wait to lead you on this month long journey and see all the ways you put your new productivity physique to work in your life!
If you are someone who is looking to become more organized and successful with the help of planning, the formula is pretty simple.
Step One: Find a reliable planning method.
Step Two: Make sure to write down and make time for all scheduled events and known tasks within said planning method.
Step Three:Do the things!
Simple, right?
Well, maybe in theory more so than practice. Step one can sometimes be a process of trial and error, which I get, but then again I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to find a system that conforms perfectly to our lives, when the truth is most people could make do with a pen and a notebook! Step two is a habit you just need to work on, making time to sit down and plan out your tasks and activities, and then also making sure you keep your planner with you in situations when you might need it so you can record information there making your system air tight. Step three, though, is were the real work is done and it’s really where all tutorials and direction for planning just taper off. Step three is go time, the moment of truth. To do or not to do, that is the question and if you are not someone with a lot of internal motivation, accountability and self-discipline, this can be the moment when the whole process falls apart.
If this is you, I get it!
Despite whatever you believe of me, how productive I am, how self-motivated and on the ball I can be, even I have moments were I see a task on my to do list and then I go blank. I might walk away from my desk for a while, take a break, or work on something else. I’ve clearly hit a wall with this task and I am trying to avoid it with all the psychological defense mechanisms known to mankind. For one reason or another, I’m experiencing resistance preventing me from starting and completing the task.
Resistance is the best way I know to explain this situation. Of knowing what I need to do next, but avoiding taking the action. It’s not something I experience with every task, and I think for the vast majority of us that is the case. We might not avoid all tasks we’ve planned, but we avoid some. This actually gives us really good insight into what’s going on with us in our heads- because that is where the resistance lies. When I hit this sort of resistance in my day, one of the things I tend to do is avoid working on a specific task and skip to something else on my list or go do something else entirely like start cleaning my house or meal prepping something. So, clearly I’m not just being lazy here, I am willing to do something, just not that particular something for a reason that is likely unknown to me in the moment.
The reason is unknown to me in that moment because my brain is causing the resistance and it doesn’t want me to see or understand whatever trigger or limiting belief this task is brining up. This is a normal part of the fight or flight mechanism in the brain. When the brain senses danger or anything it has determined is a threat to its delicate equilibrium, it puts us in a panic mode. Hence the reason I tend to see a task I don’t want to do and immediately get up and away from my desk to take myself away from danger. It’s also not uncommon to experience anxiety, mental strain, physical stress in the body, and other symptoms of a fight or flight reaction being triggered. It’s important to understand that we ourselves aren’t the ones deciding to have this response, instead it’s the programming of our brain’s autonomic nervous system that tries to protect us even when we aren’t aware of the danger. In the case of avoiding a task on our to do list, it’s clear to our rational mind that doing that task isn’t going to put us in harms way physically (unless the task is something that does involve danger, rare, but possible), but our brain has interpreted the task as a danger none the less.
Usually, the brain will trigger this sort of response to a task for one of a few reasons. First, if we have never done the task before. That’s pretty common. Our brains operate under a consistent fear of the unknown, and when we haven’t ever experienced something before, we get scared. Think of the jitters you got on the first day of school, on your wedding day or going to see a new doctor. Newness equals foreign to our brains and that means danger!
The second reason the brain might trigger this response is because we have some known existing anxiety over it. To give you an example from my own life, when I used to work at the fortune 50 before going full time for myself, I would dread our teams weekly calls or any event or interaction with my boss at the time because we did not gel. As a result, I would frequently avoid doing any work to prepare for those events (not going to make the situation any better, I know) because thinking about having to interact with my boss stressed me out to an unusually high degree. In fact, when I finally left my job, I gave my notice right after a one-on-one call with my boss and the day before we had a scheduled meeting together, and I didn’t even tell him, I emailed HR because I was literally shaking and overwhelmed with stress and anxiety. So, this is a bit of an extreme example, but I think it illustrates the point that sometimes we panic and avoid working on a task when we know we are afraid of it. Our known fear translates to a fight or flight response in our brains!
The third and final reason the brain might trigger this response is because a task is actually highly important to us and our personal identity. Now, this reason is something of a blend of the first two situations. It could be something we have never done before and something we are a little bit afraid of, but more so than that, it might be part of a larger goal that we feel strongly tied to. So, I find that when people set a personal goal for themselves, something they think is very important, something they feel called to do, or something they know deep inside is going to bring significant change to their lives, this can trigger the brain as well. I think the reason tasks related to the achievement of our goals ends up triggering our brains is because we have usually built up this goal in our minds, dreaming about it and fantasizing about it, that our brains fear the change you’re anticipating. I think of this as a subconscious anxiety response, similar to the second example but you don’t consciously know you are afraid of the tasks!
Okay, so these are three very significant reasons why our brains might set off a fight or flight response to doing tasks we have planned for ourselves, but what can we do to overcome this resistance? Eventually, we have to come back to the task at hand, and if it’s important to us to achieve it, we need to disable that fight or flight response and actually get down to work!
When this happens to me, when I get spooked by a task because I’ve hit a measure of resistance in the limits of my own mind, I use a simple but effective visualization practice to condition my brain. I’ll identify the task I need to work on and I will get myself in position as if I am about to do the work. For most of my tasks this means sitting at my desk, but if you’re avoiding cleaning out your closet or going for a run, this activity is best practiced in the situation where the task is to be accomplished for added ambience. So, once you’re situated in the right area, without taking any action, visualize yourself moving through the steps necessary to complete the task. So, if you were going to complete the task, how would you start? Imagine yourself taking the action and see with your minds eye the results beginning to form step by step until the task is complete.
Remember, you’re not actually doing anything right now, you’re just sitting or standing in the place where your task would likely begin and envisioning yourself doing the task like a daydream. If you need to, feel free to use some notes or an outline to keep your progress visualizing the task on track. This is you practicing to perform the task, and the great thing is, visualizing yourself doing the work actually convinces your brain that you’ve done it or that you have some experience that increases it’s confidence and therefore shuts off the fight or flight response. You might not think something like this, daydreaming yourself completing a task would have any affect, but science has shown that the brain can’t tell the difference between something that happened in reality and something that happened in your mind.
Everything is processed in your brain after all, those images you see in your minds eye of yourself performing the task are just as real as actually doing the thing, and get this, research has also shown that your body even records muscle memory from your visualized experience as well. This is why many pro athletes use visualization to practice when they are not at physical practice. Because this sort of mental rehearsal conditions your mind and your body to understand what it looks like and feels like for you to perform a task. This is why we see so many inspirational quotes about visualizing your goals and daydreaming about your future, because mental dress rehearsal increases the chances that you will actually take action and it will help you produce better results when you do because you’re prepared. You’ve done this before, even if it was all in your head!
So, next time you run away from or avoid a task that you had planned, take a moment to regroup and spend some time visualizing yourself taking the action. It might feel funny the first few times you try it, but like everything practice makes perfect!
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic and anything you have to add, so please feel free to leave me a comment below. Also, let me know how this strategy works for you- I’d love to hear your experiences and of course celebrate your successes with you!
I hope your September has been a productive one for you thus far, I know mine has been for sure! You might have noticed that I am back to creating content on a more regular schedule now, here on the blog, on my youtube channel and on Instagram as well. That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about today, my content schedule. I know my content has been on and off for a few years now. If you’re one of my long time followers, you know I used to hold myself to a strict schedule of 3 blog posts a week, one to two videos a week and nearly daily posting on Instagram. That was until 2017 when I decided to take a step back from my content and take a good long look at my goals and priorities for my life, my brand and of course my business.
Honestly, it felt so good when I initially let myself off the hook for content and refocused on myself. So much of my time had been spent thinking about and creating content for so long that it was nice feeling like I had gotten back so much time in my weeks to dedicate to myself and other areas of my life and business. I spent much of that found time focusing on my own personal goals, prioritizing my self-care, and deeply analyzing my future goals especially around my brand and business. In a lot of ways I feel like that time was spent helping me to really wipe the slate clean for myself to make room for the next phase of my life and business. But, the longer I spent away from content creation, the further I seemed to be from that next phase at the same time. Eventually, I made my way back to posting regularly on YouTube, and I even dabbled in and out of Instagram again, but I still didn’t feel like my next phase was starting yet. If you watched my Money Manifestation Declutter Series on my YouTube Channel, you know that since the Spring, I have been bustling with energy and ideas for my business again, but through most of the summer I kept feeling like I was being stifled by my own creativity. I had all these great ideas and not enough time to share them all on YouTube or Instagram Stories. I didn’t understand what was wrong with me that I was feeling back to my old content generating self, but my ideas didn’t seem to be as organized and efficiently produced as they once were. That’s when I realized what was missing. I was missing writing, and specifically I was missing blogging. Blogging was the first content I axed from my schedule back in 2017- I really thought I could do without it and channel my content creativity to video to make a bigger impact there, but I think I was wrong.
Yes, I can see the results of my videos more immediately, but I think for me, blogging and written content had a more cumulative effect on my business than I realized at the time. Most importantly, it had a cumulative affect on me more than I realized. Blogging does a few things for me that unfortunately video never will!
First of all, blogging gets me to write regularly, and although I had always been hesitant to admit this in the past, I really think at my core, I’m a writer. I definitely don’t see myself as a great video creator, that’s for sure and although I do some writing as part of video creation, it’s not nearly the same thing as sitting and writing out a 2,000+ word blog post. Undoubtably, writing has always been my strength and I think for a long time I took it for granted because it had always been a skill I didn’t have to think much about.
Second, blogging is something of a cathartic activity for me. When I think of cathartic writing, I usually think of journaling or poetry or even novel writing, but blog posts count too! I guess it doesn’t matter what you’re writing about, pouring your thoughts and words onto a page can be extremely therapeutic. Looking back now, I realize that so much of my failure to step into my well planned next phase was delayed because I was missing this key therapy that helped me manage my thoughts and ideas.
Next, blogging gives me the ability to quickly update my community on my ideas, strategies, products and general information I need to share. One of the problems I was having with my YouTube content was that I had so many ideas for content but not enough time to execute on them all. So I had to cull down my ideas, choose the concepts that I thought would make the best videos and just shelve the rest for later. At best, one full days work creating, editing and uploading video content could yield me at most two or three videos if I was extremely organized and focused. On the other hand I can write, format and schedule out at least twice that amount of content for my blog in the same time. I can share ideas and updates so much faster when all I need to worry about is writing them out and creating a picture for a post! Back when I was creating content regularly, I lived by a methodology of separating ideas into video content ideas and written content ideas, which helped me to optimize my content for each platform. With this system my content ideas didn’t have to compete for a spot on my editorial calendar because there was a place for everything I wanted to share and a plan for creating it so that all my ideas come to fruition.
Finally, blogging is how I manifest for my business and life! This point is actually very important for me and something I only realized recently. Because blogging produces more content, more ideas and more updates on my site more frequently, it actually helps me to feel in flow and in alignment because I am in a constant state of creation. When I create video content, it usually takes me a full day of work and then I don’t see the fruits of my labor published and live for a number of days. All that time and only once piece of content to show my audience. But when I blog, one day of work means days of posts popping up throughout the week. Even after all these years of blogging, I still get a flutter of excitement in my chest when I see a post has published on my blog, and that positive vibration is ultimately what helps me attract new members to my community, new customers to my products, and new ideas and inspiration to my mind. My life just flows better in every way when I’m writing and posting to my blog regularly!
Okay, so that was a really long and drawn out explanation for why I am back to blogging after my time away, and now I want to explain the true purpose of this blog post which is to share my new content schedule for the rest of 2019 with you and set some expectations from what you can expect from me this fall!
Fall 2019 Content Schedule
• You can expect 3 Blog Posts per week from me here on my site. These posts will include articles on productivity, planning, personal development, success and more. I do intend to also use my blog as a means to share quick updates and news about products, classes, and anything I have going on that might impact my community online and of course my business.
• You can expect 1 YouTube Video a week from me over on my YouTube Channel. These will mostly center on helpful tips, how-to’s and different tutorials that really utilize the video medium. I have a number of different planning and productivity videos on my to film list, but as a rough expectation I am aiming to share one planning video, one business video, one vlog style behind the scenes video, one Live class and one fun lifestyle video a month (depending on the number of weeks in the month). I’m also planning to shift my weekly upload day from Sunday to Friday in an attempt to keep my weekends clear of anything work related. You can find more information about my Live classes in the LIVE Event Schedule below.
• You can expect sporadic posting from me on Instagram. Right now I am building out a concept for my Instagram posting schedule, but I’d rather focus my time and effort on creating original content on my blog and YouTube. So Instagram will be mostly announcements, behind the scenes and quick tips when I have something I want to share.
• You can expect occasional dog videos from me on Tiktok. If you haven’t heard, I recently signed up for this platform and it is a complete time-suck but at least I now have a dedicated place to share adorable videos of my dogs, Starbuck & Sultan. If you’re interested in following along, definitely look me up, I’m @MissTrenchcoat of course.
• Right now I have no plan for Facebook or Twitter outside of sharing and reposting existing content. I believe my blog and Instagram feed are set to autopost to Facebook and Twitter, but I won’t be creating any dedicated content on either of those platforms for now.
If you’d like to join me for any of my upcoming LIVE classes or events, here is a running list of everything I have scheduled. Some of these events are ticketed and I will link you to where you can sign up, others are free classes I’ll be hosting on my YouTube channel, so make sure you are subscribed and feel free to turn on notifications so you are aware of when I post a video or go Live!
• Friday September 20th @ 1pm: Planner Peace Master Class, Free Live Workshop
• Friday October 18th @ 1pm: Money Manifestation Techniques, Free Live Workshop
• Friday November 22nd @ 1pm: How to Create a Successful Passive Income Business in 2020, Free Live Workshop
• Friday December 13th @ 1pm: Set Up Your Planner With Me, Free Live Workshop
• Wednesday December 18th @ 1pm: New Years Goal Setting Workshop, Ticketed Event
• Saturday December 21st @ 8pm: New Years Goal Setting Workshop, Ticketed Event
• Saturday December 28th @ 1pm: New Years Goal Setting Workshop, Ticketed Event
So that is my Fall 2019 Content and Live Event Schedule! I hope this post has been helpful to set some expectations for my content and how we can connect live for the rest of the year! Make sure to review the dates on that LIVE Event Schedule and mark your planners for any events you don’t want to miss. I’ll also be emailing out reminders for those Free classes if you are on my email list!
It’s been FOREVER since I did a roundup of some of my favorite office related items, so to celebrate Back-to-Work season for the fall, here are seven of my absolute favorite items in my office that I would recommend you check up to up level your office space!
This laptop stand is pretty much a game changer for my desk! In the past I have used a few different types of laptop stands to help raise my laptop screen to a more ergonomic level and/or to save space on my desk by raising my laptop. I have always preferred laptop stands that are more or less invisible, either acrylic or super slim so they don’t impose on the overall look of my desk, and well, this stand is probably the most invisible of them all. You see, it’s not actually an individual stand, it’s actually a material based sticker that adheres to the bottom of my laptop and folds into a stand origami style. So, not only is this pretty much completely invisible on my desk, but it’s also a portable stand that is just on my laptop all the time. It’s super thin, made of a very soft microfiber material and actually quite strong. It has two main height levels, one that I consider my desktop mode and the other I use for typing to create a more ergonomic angle when I am not using my bluetooth external keyboard and mouse. It doesn’t really solve the problem of storage on my desk, however, as it is part of my computer, I can use it with other stands as well which is really nice!
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I recently updated my desk to something a bit larger. While the new desk gives me much needed extra depth on my desk, one thing it sorely lacks is storage- it has none! So, to supplement, I purchased this 3 drawer filing cabinet to go under my desk and I am so glad I did! Not only is it great storage, but it’s on castors so I can move it around as needed. I have been using it as like a sidecar extension to my desk to take pictures, set up a separate little work station for crafting, and I even started putting my smaller tripod on it to help me get more creative angles when I film at my desk. It’s been so handy I actually regret not purchasing it sooner because it can absolutely be used with a variety of different desks to add storage and function to a workspace.
What can I say, I love cute cases for all of my gadgets and when I found this Celine inspired bag shaped case I knew it had to be mine. Really not much to say about it except it adds some extra heft and style to my AirPods which is useful for when I leave the charging case lying around to be able to see it. Plus, I just like all my cases and accessories to match my aesthetic and this is such a vibe on my desk!
I got the inspiration for this nite light style mini salt lamp from an Amazon favorites video from Allie Sevdalis so I take no credit for this find! I ended up purchasing a two pack of these lights to add extra ambience to my home; one lives in my office, the other in my bedroom. Salt lamps are said to have many different healing and cleansing properties, salt in and of itself is a very absorbing and cleansing element so I don’t doubt it, but overall I just like the look and the extra little nite light in my office in the evenings. If you haven’t heard me talk about this before, I don’t use very many lights in my home at night. I am a believer that it’s best to use lower lights or ideally candles (or fire light if you have a fireplace in your home) when the sun goes down as to not disturb the natural circadian rhythm of your body. This little nite light provides the perfect almost faux candle situation in my office for my moon lit work sessions.
Fair warning, this is not the exact acrylic paper tray I use on my desk but it looks pretty close. The one I have is no longer sold, but I absolutely love it as a fixture on my desk. At one point I had taken my acrylic tray and flipped it over to act as a stand for my laptop which worked out perfectly, giving my laptop some extra height and providing some excellent storage on my desk as well! Now that I have a larger desk, I’ve converted it to being traditional storage. I use the bottom tray for my planners and paper things and the top holds mostly makeup and accessories that have come to live on my desk. Again, I like when things on my desk are more or less invisible as to not draw too much attention away from the aesthetic of my desk, so an acrylic tray like this is perfect to add invisible storage!
If you run any sort of business or do social media for work or fun, this little phone stand is a must! First of all, it’s portable so you can easily fold it up and throw it in a bag with you as necessary. But, it’s also adjustable, which means I can use it to help me film videos for instagram and get that straight on view without having to hold my phone. Since it is thin metal, I have even been able to wedge it in interesting place throughout my home when I want to film or do a FaceTime call away from my desk. Of course I also use it to just hold my phone during the day and watch videos from my phone when my laptop screen is occupied. It’s a pretty functional little stand!
In March I upgraded my MacBook Air to one of the newer MacBook Pro’s from Apple, but with that upgrade came the loss of what I consider to be one of Apple’s greatest achievements in laptop design; the magsafe charging connector. If you aren’t familiar, Apple was I believe the first company to put a magnetic charging port on it’s laptops, which meant that if you had your computer set up and plugged in, if something got caught on the charging wire, it just popped easily out of the computer without taking the laptop with it. Well, when I upgraded to the MacBook Pro I have a feeling that this no magsafe was going to be trouble and I don’t know it this was prophecy or just bad luck, but would you believe that within the first week of having my new laptop, my dog Starbuck got spooked by something out the window, ran passed my desk, caught on my laptop charging cable and sent my brand new MacBook Pro plus half of the things sitting on my desk crashing to the floor. Luckily, Starbuck was unscathed and nothing broke, but my MacBook Pro screen did get a little scratch. I do have the Apple warranty that covers two accidental injuries to the laptop so I can get the screen replaced when I have time to spare it (probably never haha) but after I cleaned up the mess and caught my breath I found this amazing magnetic USB C charging cable on Amazon and promptly ordered two sets! It’s been a laptop saver for sure! No matter if you use an Apple laptop or not, if your laptop uses a USB C charging port I’d highly recommend this charging cable and magnetic port to protect the investment of your laptop! You’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!
I hope you enjoyed seeing this roundup of some of my current office faves! Hopefully this inspired you to add some extra organization, inspiration or functionality to your office or desk space!
I’d love to hear about the office items you’ve been loving so tell me about them in the comments!
As you may already know, I have been doing a lot of research into the human brain over the past two years to learn more about how it functions, how our neural net is created and it’s role in helping us achieve patterns of positive productivity and success in our lives. When it comes to success and productivity, so much of our results in life come from the idea of establishing strategic habits and routines that make our ability to plan, organize and execute a naturally integrated part of our personalities. For example, it’s fair to say I am an organized and productive person, but that’s not a result of any natural instincts or talents, instead, that is a result of years of repetition and work nailing key habits that lead to routines for success in my life. No one is naturally wired to be productive, maybe some of us have some inborn traits that make it easier for us to reason the most effective plan, or give us an edge when it comes to spacial organization, but all god-given talents are absolutely useless unless they are acted upon consistently.
This is both good news and bad news for those of us who strive to improve our lives because on one hand it means that anything someone else has achieved is also achievable for you with work and dedication, but on the downside, it means we have to focus a lot more on being intentional with each action and habit we establish in our lives. If you’ve ever tried to establish a new habit in your life, you know how hard it can be to achieve this, because unfortunately the way our brains function, things that we have done in the past create an often automated response by our brain that compels us to perform a habit, out of…well, habit!
This is because for a majority of our days, our brains are in an autopilot like mode controlled by an area of our brain known as the basal ganglia. In may ways the basal ganglia appears to be something of a central hub of our brains, it controls many of our body’s automatic functions and responses. Many functions we don’t give any strategic thought to, like the movement of our eyes, the way our body moves, our thoughts and even our emotions. Most notably however, the basal ganglia controls our learning and, you guessed it, our habits!
So, throughout the course of our days, the basal ganglia is in control of the show. Which means that in order to change a habit, to make new choices for our lives and build up a pattern of repetition for any new habit, we need to switch off the basal ganglia strategically during the day. Obviously, we don’t want to turn it off entirely, we absolutely need it to function, and it’s not like you can ever truly turn off an area of your brain anyway, but, if we want to successfully make a switch in our routines, add in a new habit or swap a bad habit for a better one, wouldn’t it be awesome if we could temporarily silence that voice in our head that automatically tells us NOT to do that new awesome habit we know will change our lives? Because that voice is coming from the BG, and I don’t know about yours, but my BG is a complete loud mouth who often screams bloody murder if I want to make even a tiny little change that will benefit my day. Sure, he might let me try something new once, but if I try to repeat a new task to start paving the new neural pathway for the establishment of that habit, you’d think I was fugitive from the law the way my BG calls me out and emotionally tracks me down until I turn myself in and submit to its will. But, alas, there is a way to silence the basal ganglia, to mute it’s cries and demands for attention in your moment of need when you are trying to make a better more productive choice.
A few weeks ago I learned about an ingenious little hack that you can use to switch the the center of control on you brain away from your basal ganglia and focus it on the part of your brain known as the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex or PFC is the area of your brain that controls, of all things, planning and complex decision making. So, hitting mute on BG and metaphorically changing the channel to give the PFC more control during strategic moments of habit formation is exactly the hack to master in order to make the often difficult process of establishing new habits and routines, easier! It’s not a miracle cure by any means, but when you switch control from the BG to PFC, it makes it easier to make the right choice, to choose that new better habit and to say no to any bad habits that don’t serve you but your BG just can’t shut the heck up about!
Are you ready for the hack? It’s so simple, but the most profound lessons in life often are!
All you need to do to hack your brain to switch control from your basal ganglia to your prefrontal cortex is spell the current day of the week backwards right before you go to execute your new habit.
I know, it sounds silly, right? But, I promise you, this is well researched and tested science! Let me explain how it works.
So, I will admit, it’s not necessarily the day of the week that figures into the effectiveness of this hack. But rather, it’s the fact that spelling a word backwards, a word you might not know backwards by heart, activates your PFC because it requires you to envision the word in your mind and then carefully list out each letter back to front. So, this hack could be used with any word. You can spell the current month backwards, you could spell your name, your pet’s name, your street address- all of it works to activate the PFC! I just think that for me, if I choose the same word to use everyday, like my name, eventually I am going to start memorizing it and this hack could loose it’s effectiveness. So, by choosing to follow this hack with the days of the week, everyday when I go to do this task is a new opportunity for me to have to remember what day it is (and most days I can’t even tell you what month it is accurately without some thought) and then take the time to spell it. So, I’ve put my own little spin on this hack, but feel free to do what works for you!
So, let me explain a little more in depth how I’d expect you to use this hack.
Let’s say you have chosen a new habit to integrate into your life, working out is a nice generic example! And you have struggled to get yourself to go to the gym in the past. Well, before we even get to using the hack, you’d probably benefit from choosing another habit to override or swap with the new habit of going to the gym. So, if you are someone who perhaps comes home from work and then hits the couch to watch TV, perhaps that would be a good habit to swap out. You’ll need to have a plan in place for how you’re going to execute on a regular basis, so identifying that old habit of come home from work and plop on couch as the cue and habit we are going to override with the new habit of come home from work and grab gym bag to drive to gym, is a nice seamless override. Maybe you could even do one better and instead of coming directly home from work, you drive directly to the gym, bag already packed and in your car (but that requires a few extra steps for accountability). Whatever you choose as your cue and old habit to override, you need to solidify it as your ongoing plan in your mind and ideally in your planner and with an alert or reminder on your phone because the first step to successfully executing a new habit is to remember it’s the new habit!
Once you’ve taken care of those formalities, now you are ready to execute the hack as a means of overcoming obstacles and objections you know your BG is going to flood you with as soon as you see that reminder and stop to decide whether or not you are going to follow through with the plan! So, as soon as you see your alert (or better yet, add this as the name of your alert that way you don’t forget to perform the hack either) ask yourself to spell the day of the week backwards.
First, you’ll identify what day it is, then you’ll see the word in your mind, and then you’ll start spelling it out one letter at a time in the reverse.
Achievement unlocked- your prefrontal cortex is now activated!
From here, you’ll now tell yourself it’s time to execute on the plan and guess what? With the intelligent and mature portion of your brain now in control, you should encounter far less mental resistance. Your PFC will send you messages that this is actually a good idea and praise you for remembering to prioritize this important habit. It’s like you’ve got your own personal hype man in your head, as opposed to that downer friend who is always low key doubting you and sabotaging your success. Of course, at the end of the day, this is still your brain and you still need to take action. Your PFC isn’t going to suddenly override all your functions and do the work for you, but it will make it easier for you to make the right decision and not fall into the temptation of laziness the way your BG would.
So, I hope this little hack helps you to make some strategic changes to your habits and keep you accountable to yourself and to your own brain for the routines and results you develop with your choices and actions! I’d love to hear how you enjoyed this hack and how it works out for you. I definitely think this is one of those hacks that will serve you better as a reminder in your phone for when you’ve planned to do that habit swap, so make sure you don’t miss that key step because you want the PFC to get in control of your decision making function before the BG has a chance to rain on your parade!
Thanks for checking out this post, leave me a comment with your thoughts down below and I am wishing you a very productive week ahead!
So, we are currently sitting at the head of the second week of September and before we know it, it will be Thanksgiving, then Christmas (and the Winter Holidays) and then viola, we’ll blink and it will be 2020! So, last week I sat down to do some forward planning for the rest of this year so that I can have an intentional and well paced final quarter of the year. I highly recommend you do the same at some point this month because there is nothing worse than stepping into the busiest season of the year with no plan but a prayer!
Usually, my Q4 is something of a hot mess!
Obviously, part of this has to do with my business. Q4 is a very busy time of year for most businesses, and then on top of that, Q4 is really where I pull out all the stops on my home-maker vibes. I’m not usually what one would consider the traditional home-maker type, but during the holidays I morph into a completely different beast. My home-making type during the holidays is what I consider a perfect juxtaposition between Martha Stewart and Morticia Addams. Over-the-top theatrical, dramatic, dark, and yet surprisingly cheerful and welcoming. Home cooked meals, candles everywhere, multiple decor changes around the house, guests and lots of events and excursions. So, yea, my life usually gets pretty hectic, like most during the final season of the year, and making decisions and plans for myself under that sort of stress just leads me into a spiral of overwhelm and sometimes a bit of disaster management!
So, during this end of year planning session, the main focus I gave myself was to answer the following questions:
What were my hard line priorities going to be?
What did I absolutely want to get done no matter what, what would be great to have completed before 2020?
What would be my stretch goals (those objectives that I’d like to accomplish if I have the time but nothing concrete is riding on their completion)?
Answering those questions, a very clear picture began to materialize in my mind!
One of the top priorities for the end of the year was to make sure both myself and my community were prepared for the new year with clear 2020 goals! I know it might be weird to think of my priorities in terms of what I’m trying to accomplish for you and the rest of the community, but this is my role our community as I see it. So keep in mind when you do your end of year planning session, that it’s okay to have objectives for others that pertain to your role in their lives. Just make sure you are reasonable with your expectations of what you can accomplish in the name of others.
What I KNOW I can accomplish for both myself and each of you in the community is to host a series of live classes and workshops where I give you as much opportunity as possible to set your goals for 2020 and get time with me to answer your questions about the goal setting and planning process.
Last year I hosted a New Year Goal Setting & Planning Workshop that was a complete success, and it’s been my intention to do host a similar workshop again this year! So, I’m pleased to announce that I have opened up ticket sales for the 2020 New Year Goal Setting & Planning Workshop a little early so we can get this scheduled into our calendars and make the time to prioritize this very important annual task!
Now, let me give you some important details about the workshop. I loved last years workshop and so many of you reached out to tell me you loved it also, which I highly appreciate. But, I realize last year’s workshop would have benefited from a bit more strategic planning in order to ensure every single one of you had a stellar live experience.
The main issue with last year’s workshop that I want to remedy this year is that I need to teach this workshop multiple times in December, not just once! I know that the workshop is online and on-demand but, not everyone was able to attend the single workshop I hosted last year. Which is why I am very pleased to announce that due to my little Q4 pre-planning session, I have marked off time to host not one, not two, but THREE live sessions of the workshop!
The tentative dates for the 3 Live Workshop Sessions are:
• December 18th, 2019 @ 1pm Eastern Standard Time • December 21st, 2019 @ 8pm Eastern Standard Time • December 28th, 2019 @ 1pm Eastern Standard Time
Now, I say these are tentative dates because I have no clue what other obligations or family gatherings are happening during December, so I can’t fully plan for those right now (if only everyone were planning their year four months in advance lol) but I am very committed to these dates and times and if anything does change I will let you know and make up for the change with a rescheduled session!
For those of you who do pre-purchase your tickets, I’d love for you to reach out to me and let me know any suggestions for other times that work for you so I can keep those in mind!
Of course, when you purchase your ticket to the Workshop you won’t need to choose a single date, everyone who purchases is going to get access to all three live events so you have time to process your plans by attending more than one, or if you have questions during your first round and want to go through it again live, I know it’s great to be able to have more time with me live to get questions answered that may have popped up with you as you processed your goals the first time around.
With the Workshop, you are going to receive a set of goal planning worksheets for 2020, and once the live events are complete, you’ll have access to an edited replay of the workshop which will include the best version of the workshop plus all of the Q&A from the three sessions in one video. You’ll get access to the replay, plus email support from me through January 31st, 2020. Sound good?
Well, if you already know you are down for this year’s New Year Goal Setting & Planning Workshop with me, don’t wait to purchase, grab your ticket now with the early bird pricing because next month the price will go up!
If you have any questions about the workshop, feel free to let me know! You can leave me a comment down below or shoot me an email.
About two weeks ago I launched the 2020 update to the Charmed Life Master Planner! Thank you to all those who have supported the planner over the years and have already purchased your 2020 editions, I’m thrilled to have you as part of my #MasterPlanFam! But, for those of you who have not yet purchased, or aren’t sure about whether the Charmed Life Master Planner is right for you, today I wanted to give you some insight into what I believe makes the planner special and why you should seriously consider purchasing your copy for the sake of your productivity, organization and time management in 2020!
So many options or same old same old?
I realize that when it comes to choosing a planner for yourself for the New Year, the options are seemingly endless. Now more than ever we have so much choice for how to plan, what our planners look like and the price point that works for our needs. You can buy a planner in nearly every paper size you can imagine. You can buy a planner with every binding option technology allows. You can buy a planner in your favorite color, pattern, personalized with your name, refillable or disposable, you are drowning in a sea of options. Or so it seems on the surface. If you take some time to break open most of the options out there you come to find that although many planners seem different because they look different on the outside, once you get inside everything is the same but in different packaging!
This is the illusion of choice brought to you by the genius of marketing; selling you the same old planner in a pretty new package! I can remember a few years back before the boom of planning when planners came in two options, a professional gender neutral black cover and a pink cover for the ladies because all we were to planner marketers at the time were a default color. There were never major differences between the black and pink planners, but marketers at the time knew that women were interested more in style so they made a version of their planner just for us to meet our needs; pink was apparently the need of women.
If you think things have gotten much better for women in the planner world, look again. Yea, now we have more options than pink or black, we now have identical planners updated with more feminine font selections (less business formal, more fun and script fonts) and instead of just a pink cover, we now have many many stylized cover options intended to speak directly to the personal identity of all the different types of women. Such styles of women include; The Boss, Girly, Cat Lady, Fashion Icon, Boho, Unicorn, Brainy, Goal Digger, Tom-boy, Foodie, Kawaii, Sleepy, llama and Mom! If you think I’m being overdramatic about this, I’m not- take a trip over to Michael’s Arts & Crafts and you can view on one shelf planner covers that speak to each of these caricatures of women and more- they discover and add new styles of women everyday!
Again, when you open these different planner “options” you quickly find that everything is the same, or variations on the same few styles of planners. Month on two pages, week on two pages, contacts and notes. Month on two pages, day on one page, and less notes. The options across many different planners and across many different brands boil down to styles that result in one of two major planning and productivity issues. Either they are too basic in terms of what they give you, so if you aren’t a seasoned planner or naturally highly organized your plans become a mess that lack focus (monthly, weekly). Or they are too focused on the daily planning aspect which reinforces the trope of busy = productive and prevents the user from getting a big picture view of their lives and results (monthly, daily). So, essentially, the vast majority of planners out on the market are glorified overpriced calendars! Dated or undated, all these “planners” give you are spaces to write in what you are doing on which day. No true space to make your plan, just enough space to write down the tasks, appointments and meals that fill your days. No wonder so many within the planner community switch from planner to planner looking for a system that works for them- they are simply switching from one version of the same to another!
The Charmed Life Master Planner Breaks the Mold
The Master Planner isn’t like any other planner on the market because it’s not just a calendar. The Master Planner is intentionally designed to be a Functional Planning System and incorporates scientifically researched productivity principles to ensure you are keeping organized, getting that big picture view to track the direction of your efforts, but also giving you the flexibility to drill down to your day to find focus on the task at hand. The Master Planner isn’t just a planner, it’s a productivity tool that when you commit to using it, will help you learn to plan better, manage your time more efficiently and achieve more of what truly matters to you.
Within the planner you actually have three productivity tools in one as the planner is broken into three distinct planning sections. The first section is the calendar, which is ostensibly what you are purchasing when you buy most of the other planner options on the market, but with the inclusion of dedicated space for monthly task lists and tracking in line with well researched best practices for productivity!
Next, you have a dedicated yearly project planning section which is the second tool within the Master Planner. Within this section you have the space to truly map out your objectives and goals for the year and to track them so you always know where you and can actually see the results of your progress at a glance inside your planner.
The third and final section and planning tool is the Brilliant Ideas spreads. In this section of the planner you have the dedicated space to clear you mind of ideas, thoughts and plans to organize and act on them, and you have the ability to brainstorm new plans and ideas before you schedule them into your calendar. Imagine that, a planner that gives you the space to plan what you are going to do and capture all your ideas so that you are doing your best work before you schedule those individual tasks into your calendar! Truly, in soo many ways the Charmed Life Master Planner is head and shoulders above other planners and is unrivaled in it’s ability to help you focus on and improve your productivity!
I created the Master Planner because other “planners” on the market were not only failing to improve people’s productivity but they were also sending women the wrong message about their productivity. The message sent to women by most planners is that busy = productive and that the measure of your value as a woman, wife, mother, student, daughter and friend boils down to how many things you can check off a to do list in a day. I’m continuously alarmed by the number of women within my community who come to me asking me which of my products, classes or courses will help them complete a full days worth of work in just an hour or a weeks worth of tasks in a day. Of course the answer to this question is none of them will. Instead what my products, classes and courses strive to do is to give you strategy, intention and clarity to get into alignment so that you know what tasks are truly going to move the needle in your life towards the goals you want to achieve. No one can accomplish 40 hours worth of tasks in just 8 hours, but through strategy and focus you can certainly achieve the most impactful results of 40 hours of work within a single work day. But this idea that we need to check off all the tasks, do all the things and be all the things to everyone in our life as women is a detrimental state encouraged by society and perpetuated by the planner market that leaves women with a blank calendar spread and no direction or indication that she should not strive to fill up each empty space. If the point of a planner is so I don’t forget another mundane and uninspiring task that truly won’t impact my life one way or another, then I need a planner like I need a hole in my head. No, thank you!
Stop using a planner that makes you a slave to your schedule or endless to do list. Start using a planner that works with you towards the goals and dreams you want to achieve, because to me, that’s the point of having a planner and a worthy reason for prioritizing it’s use everyday! People often ask me how I remember to stick to using my planner, and honestly, if your planner was filled with the goals and objectives that light you up with passion and excitement for your life, you wouldn’t be able to forget about it!
If you’re ready for a better way of planning, get your Charmed Life Master Planner now and start seeing the difference in your days, weeks, month and year because I have seen the impact in my life and the lives of many within my community and I know you will too!
Wishing you the best for a Productive Week & Life!
While I was creating the content for the CharmedGTD Productivity Bootcamp last month, I stumbled upon a question about productivity that seemed to really resonate with those participating in the challenge. How do we know when done is better than perfect? It was something I discussed as part of one of the prompts, to Choose 5 Projects to Focus on for the Week. The premise of the prompt was that sometimes, overachievers such as myself who like to be super productive, will say they limit their focus on projects to just five, but then ultimately schedule more than that into their week. Thus, creating a situation where we don’t have focus, our attention is everywhere, and even though someone like myself who may do this sort of thing regularly might be able to complete all the work, it raises the question of if we are doing our best work?
Those of you who have been following me for a while know I am all about the line “done is better than perfect.” You could say it happens to be my personal productivity motto. For me, it addresses the essential truth that perfect as a standard doesn’t exist and those who keep striving for this standard are often allowing fear to rule their actions by putting off finishing a project or handing in work or releasing a creating into the world because it doesn’t meet the standard of perfect. The connection between fear and perfectionism often holds people back from moving on to the next thing and enjoying the fruits of their labor, which is why my general opinion of perfectionism is that it’s a lie that fear tells us to prevent us from success. It’s a way of self-sabotaging our work and productivity so we never have to face the criticism that ultimately comes when people are doing any sort of work really. Truth is, even the most beloved and celebrated work throughout history has received heavy criticism, you can’t please everyone, so why try?
But, I also have come to an equally problematic realization about the concept of done is better than perfect, that hits close to home for me. What if we use this concept to continue to move on to the next thing and the next thing as a means of never having to go too deep or put in too much effort into our work? It’s almost like the flip side of perfectionism, a defense mechanism against criticism that keeps some people, myself included, putting in as little effort as possible so that we can create a higher output, but at a lesser quality than we would achieve if we slowed down and created a little less but created it a little better. I definitely recall situations when I used my done is better than perfect mentality as an excuse to move on from a project without having to put extra effort into it, perhaps now I can see it was a defense mechanism I created to shield me from criticism. After all, I know criticism is inevitable, so if it comes, what better defense can I provide myself then “well, you may be right about what this is lacking, but I did all this in only a week/month, I’d like to see you do better!” It’s hard to argue with a statement like that. Yes, it’s not perfect, but how could you expect it to be in such a short time. I have to admit, I know I’ve used this anti-perfectionism stance as an excuse before, if not to others but mostly to myself, but why?
Well, again, I think this comes down to the vulnerability that comes from creating and putting out work over and over and over again that specifically goes out to the public eye, and wanting a defense mechanism to protect from criticism. For a very long time, I’ve operated under the personal belief that my lazy effort was better than most people’s “perfect.” This belief originated in college when I would very often write a paper in about two hours that received an A (I called this my two hour term paper) while my classmates would toil for days writing a paper that resulted in a C. I know that I’m a good writer/communicator/teacher so when it comes to any project that involves these strengths, I’ve essentially brainwashed myself into believing that I can get away with handing in my lazy effort because it’s worked for me for so long. Even this post I am writing right now, I am nearly 800 words into this and I started writing maybe 15 minutes ago. I have had to edit very little and so far I am very pleased with the flow of this so, guess what? Once I’m done writing, I am going to slap a photo on this and post it without thinking too much about it so I can go about my day and move on to the next thing I need to do! Maybe this sort of done is better than perfect attitude is acceptable for my free content, and maybe it works for some of my paid content too, but where do I draw the line? How do I know when done is better than perfect or if done a little better, or a little slower, or a little more is actually the standard to hit?
How to know when done is better than perfect?
Okay, so I hope we can all agree at this point that the standard of perfect doesn’t actually exist. Perfect is too vague, too non-specific, too immeasurable to base the vast majority of our work off of. That being said, I do think there are things in life that do deserve for us to reach towards an ideal of perfection, but since this isn’t a measurable objective, our standard of perfect will ultimately only be met once we have the feeling that our work is finally ready! Since there are truly no actionable tips I can share with you on how to reach that state of feeling like your work is ready, let me focus today on sharing some important questions you might want to ask yourself to double check your work to see if it’s ready for the world or if you should do a little more work on it.
How important is this work?
When thinking about whether you’re ready to finish a project and move on to the next thing or to release said project to its audience, think first about how important the project is to you and to your audience. Let’s take this post for example, I’ve already explained that this wasn’t much work at all for me to write and that I know I won’t be putting very much time and effort into this after I’m done writing, and that is because this one single post isn’t incredibly important to me. I didn’t have to write it, it was an idea I had that I wanted to share but I don’t have anything specifically important I am trying to achieve with this other than simply sharing an idea and hopefully inspiring my audience to think about this and apply it in their lives. Now, if this post were part of some content marketing I was doing, meaning it’s part of a marketing campaign for my business, well then I would probably take a little more time with it making sure it was as well thought out as I could make it. And if this post were not a post and where instead a sales page for a product, well then, you’d bet more planning and strategy would go into the time I was spending working on it. So, when it comes to whatever you are working on, before marking it complete and handing it in, determine how important the work is to you and to the audience you are creating it for. If your working on a report you send out on a weekly basis with updated sales figures for your team, yea that’s probably important to the people who get it, but you do it every week so it’s probably more important that the numbers in the report be right as opposed to you getting fancy with graphics and extra language or analysis since the life of the work is only about 7 days. If the report is meant to be shared at an annual operating meeting for your entire company, well then by all means spend some extra time on the quality of your analysis and graphics because this is a one time event you are preparing for.
When is this work due and how flexible is the due date?
The next thing to think about when it comes to whether done is better than perfect in your work is the due date for the project. If you are done a project today that is due next month, well then you have some time to think about it and adjust. If your project is due tomorrow, there is only so much you can do in that time. If you have flexibility with your due date, meaning you can ask for more time because perhaps you feel like you really want to do the extra work, then ask for it. I don’t think there is anything wrong with pushing out a due date in order to get a better product if you just aren’t happy with it!
Who is going to see this and what investment was required?
I’ve mentioned a few times already the concept of the audience for your work, this is essentially the person or people who will see it and I’d say one of the most difficult things to determine when we are doing our work is guessing at the expectations of that audience so you can please them. In some cases, you can actually talk to your audience and find out what they expect so you can tailor your work to those expectations, but if you can’t, it’s up to you to use what you know about them to determine the standards. Another thing to keep in mind about your audience is the investment they have made into the work you’re producing. So, again using the example of this blog post, no one had to pay to read this, it’s freely available. If this were an article or content in one of my products however, then I need to evaluate my work in terms of pleasing my paying customers who’s expectations I want to meet and exceed with this content so that they find value in it and are willing to purchase again in the future. If you are doing a project for work, clearly you are being paid for your work, so there is a level of professionalism and standards your workplace may have, and if you are working on a project that might go out to a client or customer of your job, again, consider their investment or their potential investment in your company if their expectations are met or exceeded with your project.
Can you beta-test this with your audience before releasing it?
Something I try to do as often as possible is to beta-test my products with my audience, meaning that I will get volunteers from my community to try out a class or course before I release it publicly. That way I can make important changes before it is seen my a wider audience and I am actually able to consult with individuals who belong to the audience I am trying to please. Even if you are not running a business as I am and creating products for sale, this is still a concept you can likely use in your own life. When I was in college, something I neglected to explain to you about those two hour term papers was that I would very often write those papers a week or so before the due date and then hand them in as a first draft to my professor to review. They would gladly accept my paper early, would read through it in a day or so and return it to me with their corrections and input to make the paper better according to their expectations. So, once I had those corrections all I needed to do was spend a little time making the changes they gave me and then hand the paper back in on time for that A! Seriously, this process gave new meaning to the term easy A! It’s not just with business and school that this can be applied, you can likely also do this with certain work at your job- in fact, I bet for important projects your boss may even already schedule in time to meet with you to review your work which might seem daunting except for the fact that this actually makes your job easier because you can put less effort into the first draft than you might think, and then put in more effort once the project has been reviewed. This isn’t about getting out of doing work, but this is about knowing when to put in the most work, and for me, I have found that once you have your audience’ input, then you can do the bulk of the important work instead of doing a lot of work ahead of time before you know what they want and how they will react to what you’ve produced.
Could this work be changed or upgraded in the future?
The final question I always ask myself when I am working on a project is how permanent the results of this work really are, if I put out a post with a spelling error in it, is this permanent or can I change it? If I release a planner insert with a spread I’m not 100% thrilled with, can it be changed and released later? For much of my work the answer does tend to be yes, and I do spend a good amount of time taking feedback from my audience and upgrading or updating products in a stream of new iterations in order to bring the end result as close to perfect as possible over time. A great example of this from my business would be my Charmed Life Master Planner inserts. When I first released that insert pack back in the summer of 2015 I was pleased with it, I knew it worked and had value as it was, but I still wasn’t sure about a few pieces in the design. Year over year I have been taking the feedback from my community and those who purchase the planner to tweak the design. Again, because perfect isn’t a measurable objective, some people may have seen my first iteration of inserts and thought it was amazing, even if I felt like there was more potential. But, if I had no released those inserts as is back in 2015 and then every year since, I would likely not have refined the design to the place it is today, which I am so very pleased with! So think about your projects and what you are working on and if you can release it now with the intention in your mind to learn, adjust and refine as you go along!
So, I’m looking at the clock, it’s been an hour and ten minutes since I started writing this post and I have just hit the 2,600 word mark, so I think I’ve said everything I wanted to say on this topic. I hope this internal commentary on this post hasn’t turned you off, you know I don’t usually add these sorts of details, but for the topic of this post I thought it would be helpful for you to see in real time (sort of) what my unedited process for writing an article is like. If you have thoughts you’d like to share on this, please do leave me a comment below so we can discuss and I’d love for you to share more personal insight into how you determine whether your work is done and perfect or not! Thanks for stopping by and spending a piece of your day with me, I do hope it was inspiring and enlightening for you!
This past Saturday I hosted the most AMAZING live planning class called THE PRODUCTIVITY EDIT! I really believe this may have been one of my absolute best live classes! Not only did I share some really great information to put your planning into perspective, but I also heard from so many of you that the content and energy of the class was very inspirational in helping you to step into the role of Editor-in-chief of your life, energy and time!
Those of you who have followed me for some time may remember that I am a great lover of magazines and each September I go out and get the “September Issues” of fashion magazines as an annual tradition to help feed my creativity. September is considered the New Year’s of the fashion world and so the very best and most up-and-coming content, design, photography and style is integrated into these key issues. It was with this inspiration in mind that I walk you through the very creative and original content of the class to help you think outside the box at how you can approach your planning and productivity this season!
So, the content of the nearly 3 hour class was definitely on point! And to add some extra icing on the cake, we also walked through some POWERFUL activities for getting focused on curating the next season of our year intentionally!
Those activities came in the form of guided worksheets from the workbook that accompanies the class, called THE PRODUCTIVITY EDITWorkbook. This valuable workbook is a must for anyone who wants to get the most out of the activities and planning strategies we walked through in the class.
THE PRODUCTIVITY EDITWorkbook is a 46 page PDF workbook that you can get in my shop, print out and use to creatively curate and plan the next quarter or season of your life!
• Do you struggle with traditional planning because you consider yourself more visual or creatively focused?
• Do you have goals or a vision for the direction of your life that you struggle to prioritize alongside life’s more urgent tasks?
• Do you find that you have different priorities or objectivess to manage through different seasons of your year?
• Could you benefit from a streamlined process for planning on a seasonal basis that can then be used in conjunction with any planner or time management system?
THE PRODUCTIVITY EDITWorkbook is a Seasonal Planning Guide for Curating & Editing Your Life that walks you through the 5 activities we performed within the class that follow along with the concept of stepping into the role of Editor-In-Chief of your life.
THE PRODUCTIVITY EDITWorkbook will help you:
✔︎ Learn to approach each new season of your year with a fresh vision and inspiration for the life you are intentionally curating!
✔︎ Align they key people in your life with your objectives and expectations to get the support you need to bring your goals to fruition.
✔︎ Set clear intentions for what you will achieve each season and use passive manifestation techniques to help you find the solutions, people, and resources you need along the way.
✔︎ Edit down your objectives into manageable plans that you can easily track and accomplish.
✔︎ Turn the everyday tasks and expectations of daily life into a streamlined plan with clear responsibilities and defined schedules.
So, what are you waiting for?
Check out the FREE class and get your copy of THE PRODUCTIVITY EDITWorkbook because this new approach to planning might be exactly what you need to blend inspiration with action for a successful season ahead!
I can’t wait to see what you accomplish with the help of the workbook, so please do keep in touch and share the progress you make designing your personal magazine for the season!
