Clarity is my word for this year. What a year to choose this one! 2020 vision….that’s perfect vision right? My vision was very blurry…kind of like 2020….you know, like the next level of Jumanji where you never know what is coming next. Just hold on and figure it out as you go! That was kind of how I was living my life and leading my community. I believe they call it white knuckling it, hanging on for dear life…or as Dori says,”Just keep swimming….just keep swimming.” I was tired of trying to do it all but yet not quite getting anywhere. I found I was losing my passion in my personal and professional life. I realized that a lot of people were having difficulty trying to understand my vision or what I was trying to get across because I was constantly trying to teach it all, cram it all in, or do it all. I was exhausted and had not a lot to show for all the work I did every day. That’s when I found the word Clarity and then…I actually planned and then did the work.
I found a lot of habits that I was doing along the way that were not serving me at all. I decided to take a step back and reframe my habits and that was when it all became clear to me. I thought I would share the reframed habits here in this blog with you today to hopefully save you from my mistakes. Alright, here it goes…
- Figure out a vision with three mile markers – Pick one thing that you really want to do either in your personal life, your professional life and with your family and then pick three mile markers to get there. If you are not sure how to do this, check out my earlier blogs on visioning and it will show you exactly how to go through this strategy. Here are some examples from the three buckets that I always pour into in my life. The first bucket is Personal connection. I really wanted to become a Digital Course Creator for Leaders in Education. My three mile markers were to grow an email list, create content consistently in order to serve my community for free, and to begin to create my course. Another example might be to live a more healthy life style which pours into the mindset/wellness bucket. The three mile markers might be to meal prep every Sunday, move your body every day for thirty minutes, and to meditate for 5 minutes each day. An example of a business vision that pours into the craft/business bucket might be to make all staff meetings more productive. The mile markers might be to take out all housekeeping, set up adult learning through a workshop structure, and to model a teaching strategy at every meeting. I have the ultimate FREE Guide to Workshopping your Meetings that you can download here if you are wondering exactly how you might do that! I digress..the point is to find clarity and be productive so that you take action by action to get to your end point. Therefore, choose ONLY ONE. I just gave you a few examples.
2. The next habit that I adopted in order to gain clarity and productivity is I got really clear about my calendar. I planned each week out obsessively and I am not going to sugar coat this, it took alot of time at the start. It was because I had never planned this way before and so it took me some time to figure out exactly how I wanted to spend my time. I realized that my calendar was only filled with appointments, meetings, and sports activities and I just had to figure it all out in between (just keep swimming, just keep swimming). Enough of that! If I wanted to change I had to take action and I had to do it every single day. I began to schedule in all of my buckets because they were all important and I made sure I poured into them every day. I scheduled in my family and friend time and my colleague conversations/check ins which connected to the connection bucket. I even scheduled in my wine, friends and reality TV time! Next, I scheduled in my me time which poured into the mindset and wellness bucket. In my calendar, it had workouts, my morning routine, the book I was reading, the next podcast I wanted to listen to, etc. Finally, I wrote all of my business stuff in there which poured into the business and craft bucket. I didn’t just write meetings and to do lists. I wrote in when I was going to get my next batching session in for writing or administrative tasks. I wrote who I needed to touch base with and scheduled how much time I would talk with them for. It really could look however you wanted as long as you got clear with the time that you had, what you wanted to get done with that time and then actually do it. Guess what! I even scheduled my rest in there. That is so important! Do not always think (like I did) that I always had to be doing something. Rest is equally important.
3. I found the magic of BATCHING. You guys, if you don’t know what this is, you need to learn about this strategy. I have a blog post on exactly how to batch. Just click here to read it after you are done reading this post! Batching is when you dedicate chunks of time to work on similar tasks without any interruption. These chunks of time will usually last around two hours but may go on for multiple days. This magical dedication of time will lighten your load and you eliminate stress if you stay dedicated to these focused chunks of time. It eliminates overwhelm and stress and will save you tons of time! The best part about batching is that it gives you clarity on exactly what you want to get done and it actually gets done. It also rejuvenates the creativity that dwindles if you have to do the same thing every day because you are only doing this task every six weeks or so. This is key!!!
4. The last one is the MOST IMPORTANT! I TOOK ACTION ON ALL OF THE THINGS THAT I SCHEDULED, VISIONED, AND BATCHED. You have to take action and do these things every single day. This one is the hardest. Like I said before, I am always going to be super honest with you. Everything that I said I was going to do in my calendar, my milemarkers, and my batching, I did. However, I didn’t do it all at once. I decided what I was doing through my calendar, I had a plan through my vision, and I had a time frame to get it all done through my batching sessions. Guess what! It actually happened! It happened because I didn’t try to do it all at once. I focused on one thing at a time, action by action and….I set a timer. I did not go over that time. Once my scheduled time was up, my timer went off and I did the next thing on my calendar. Not only was I more productive at work but I was way more intentional with my me time, rest time, and family time. I am much more fulfilled, more energized, and have so much more clarity because I know where my time is being spent.
All of these habits are still a work in progress for me, but I am growing now instead of treading water (remember that song…just keep swimming..). I am gaining clarity each day and with that, rejuvenation, intention and progress towards finally living the life that I want and love. I have reframed the way I show up for my business, my family, and myself.
Now, it’s your turn to reframe how you show up so that you can finally get traction and live the life that you really want. I go deep into exactly how I reframed my world in my course Leading Through Distance Learning, Face to Face Teaching….And a Pandemic. Click here to save your spot to my FREE webinar. Or click here to go straight to my sales page to go deeper into exactly how to reframe how your community shows up through a pandemic. This course is only available for the next two weeks so make sure to enroll before it is too late! It is a game changer for your entire community!
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