It’s time to end the busy addiction

Have you caught the busy addiction? When your friends ask how you are, your standard reply is now “Busy!”. Nearly always followed by a feeling of unease at just how much you need to do.   You’ve got so much on your plate that you feel like it’s going to overflow and ooze down the side to leave spinach green splotches all over your floor.   You know if one more thing gets added to your to-do list then it’s going to explode into a million pieces of unfinished tasks.   You begin to crave a moment, just one, when you can sit with a cup of tea and simply stare out the window.   I understand. I’ve been in that busy place. While being that busy can make you feel important (you must be, you have so much more to do than anyone else!), you have a sneaking suspicious that you are motoring along the road to burn out.   When you find yourself checking your emails, while planning out your work week, while eating lunch at your desk (again), while wondering when you’ll be able to do any kind of exercise, you are kidding yourself that any of those tasks are receiving the attention that they deserve.   The solution is a simple one. It’s not always an EASY one.  

Reduce Your To-Do List

  Did I mention it wasn’t going to be easy?   When I first attempted this I looked at the to-do list inside my calendar (I’ll tell you soon why this isn’t a good way to be organised), and was stumped. “But it’s all important! How can I delete anything?”   I had to take a step back and start with a different question:  

“What are my non-negotiables?”

  These are the things I need to do that will make me happy, healthy and successful AND that will only be changed in cases of emergency.   My first set of non-negotiables included daily exercise, dance training, Spanish classes and me time. Those items are now scheduled into my weekly calendar in bright yellow.   Next came my CEO time. This is when I put on my CEO hat and focus on the high-level matters in my business to make sure I have time to work ON my business (and not constantly in it).   Scheduled client calls go into my calendar next followed by my weekly mastermind with a business friend of mine.   For the rest of my business tasks I’m about to trial a new system. Over the past few months I’ve been putting my to-list in my calendar so I knew what I’d be doing each hour. This hasn’t worked as well as I wanted on a number of levels.

1. The list wasn’t always prioritised the way it needed to be
2. I was constantly moving items to a new day because I hadn’t allocated enough time for them
3. I didn’t get to cross anything off my list. There is something deeply satisfying about crossing something off a list or being able to mark it done in some way.
4. I’d open my weekly calendar and be disheartened by the never ending list of things to do.

  For my new system I’m refocusing on what I want to achieve over the next 90 days. I wrote a list of every single thing I need to do to achieve my focus. If you’d like to do the same you can use the 90 Day Plan template that I created for you.  

  I’ve estimated the time each of the tasks will take and the date I want to achieve it by. I’ve put all of this information into a spreadsheet. Because I like them and they work really well for me. I now have a way to prioritise my tasks, track the amount of time they take and cross off items as they’re completed. I’ll let you know over the next few weeks how this new system is working for me.   Have you found a system that works really well for you when organising your life and business? I’d love to hear in the comments below.