209 | Feeling Overwhelmed with Your To-Do List? Do this one thing to help you prioritize and bring you clarity
Ready to wake up excited and clear about your priorities every day?
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE:
Overwhelmed with your to-do list? Ready to wake up excited and clear about your priorities every day?
Join Danielle as she shares a powerful strategy to eliminate stress and prioritize tasks. Learn how to do a brain dump, eliminate non-essentials, delegate effectively, and update your list.
Gain clarity and peace to start each day excited and focused.
Tune in for actionable tips to streamline your life and business!
1. Begin with a Brain Dump:
Take a few deep breaths or a moment of prayer to calm your mind.
Write down everything causing stress or on your to-do list.
2. Eliminate, Delegate, Update:
Eliminate tasks that don't need immediate attention.
Delegate tasks where possible, even in your personal life.
Update your list with priorities, rating tasks from one to three.
3. Prioritize and Break Down:
Prioritize tasks based on their impact on your life and business.
Break down projects into small, manageable tasks taking less than 10 minutes.
4. Schedule in Your Calendar:
Block out specific times for each task in your calendar.
Include buffer space for unexpected events.
5. Give Yourself Grace:
It's okay if some things don't go as planned during busy periods.
Prioritize what matters most and be flexible with your expectations.
Implement these steps to turn overwhelm into peace, ensuring you wake up excited and clear about your priorities every day.
[00:00:00] Danielle: Hello, welcome to another episode of the Business Babes Collective podcast. I am your host Danielle Wiebe and today we are going to be talking about how to eliminate overwhelm by doing one simple thing on a consistent basis. So before we dive in, I wanted to just share because I know that this time of year can feel really overwhelming.
[00:00:24] Danielle: You know, there's a lot of fun things happening. There's a lot of festive things happening. It is the holidays. It's Christmas. You're probably getting together friends or family. You have a lot going on within your life and potentially within your business as well as you're either, um, wrapping things up for the holidays.
[00:00:41] Danielle: And I know some of you, your business is actually ramping up until, you know, I have people within our mastermind and even in our community who have brick and mortar stores and, um, they have product based businesses where they are busy literally right up until Christmas. And so I understand this, this time can [00:01:00] be incredibly, um, crazy for, for a lot of people.
[00:01:03] Danielle: And so I just want to say that if you are in that season, if you are in that time of overwhelm, First and foremost, know that you're not alone. And second of all, know that you can do some simple things to eliminate some of that overwhelm. So I'm going to be talking about that today, but also I just want to be super transparent.
[00:01:26] Danielle: I want to be honest with you, because these last few weeks have felt very, I'll use the word full in my household. There's been a lot of things going on also within the business. So as many of you know, we relaunched our action takers club program, which I am so incredibly excited about. And we have the most amazing, amazing members and community that have already jumped in to that program.
[00:01:54] Danielle: And if you have not jumped in yet and you are thinking of jumping in. Jump in before the end of the year because we [00:02:00] have some incredible founding member bonuses that are available right now So definitely come join us because we are going to be kicking off the new year in an incredible way But as I was saying we relaunched action takers club We had a holiday party last week when I know some of you were there Uh, and we also have just had a very full schedule with our two little kiddos.
[00:02:27] Danielle: And many of you know, my husband also has his business as well. So we're balancing two babies, two businesses, just very full lives and businesses. And so I have to admit these last couple of weeks have, there have been moments where I have felt like, Oh my goodness, I have. So much on my plate, what am I going to be prioritizing?
[00:02:50] Danielle: And so this specific, um, process that I'm going to share with you today is exactly what I do when I'm in those moments of, Oh my goodness. What do I [00:03:00] do next? I feel like there's a million things that are all urgent and important and like, I feel like I need so many things to be done at the exact same time.
[00:03:10] Danielle: And it's when we get in those moments of overwhelm and stress and anxiety and kind of, we go down that swirl. This is what we need to do when we are in those moments. And it's exactly what I did do when I was feeling that last week. So. Let's go ahead and jump into the episode so that you can turn that overwhelm into peace and calmness, so that every day when you wake up, you know exactly what you need to do and you feel excited to start your day.
[00:03:41] Danielle: Welcome to the Business Babes Collective podcast. I'm your host, Danielle Wiebe. In this podcast, you'll learn tangible business tips and strategies. On how to grow successfully and sustainably. We'll also interview seasoned entrepreneurs so you can listen in on their stories and see behind the scenes of what it [00:04:00] took to grow and scale their businesses.
[00:04:02] Danielle: Let's dive in as we discuss the wild, exciting, crazy challenging rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship. Alright, I'm gonna be sharing with you one thing that I do when I am just. at capacity, right? Because it happens. Life happens. If you are a entrepreneur, if you're a mom or a wife or you have other things going on, you know, sometimes you're just feeling so at your limit, right?
[00:04:29] Danielle: You're like, if I have one more thing come my way, I might just like Breakdown . And so I wanna share with you something that gives me a lot of peace and allows me to move through some of those priorities that I have, but that really helps me organize it in a way that makes sense and that's also prioritizing things in the way that will actually help me to.
[00:04:54] Danielle: do things in order of when they need to get done and when they're most important to get done. [00:05:00] So the reason I want to share this with you is because I have really lately, if I'm being totally transparent, Have felt very at capacity for the last several weeks So we've had a lot going on like I said in the intro in the business in our personal lives With the kids it has just felt so incredibly full our schedules and it's not so much in a bad way like A lot of the things that are happening are really good, except for, you know, kids getting sick and all that jazz, but Relatively, you know, everything is going really well, but I'm ending a lot of the days feeling completely exhausted And so the other day I was really thinking about this and I was like, hey, I want to get in a better routine I want to get in a better rhythm and so whenever I'm feeling kind of like a little bit out of sorts I go back to What systems have I used in the past?
[00:05:54] Danielle: What are things that I've implemented that have really allowed me to move [00:06:00] through these seasons, right? Because there's always gonna be seasons where we feel like we're at capacity, and It really, the way that we move through it is either we're just going to totally break down and burn out and like, get sick and then be bedridden for a few days, which has totally happened to me in the past.
[00:06:18] Danielle: Um, but I don't want that to happen. So when I start to see these signs, these like red flags, so to speak, I want to recognize those red flags. And instead of moving further into burnout and overwhelm, I want to. Be able to take a step back and really do the things that I know I need to do and put the systems in place so that I can move forward in a really healthy way.
[00:06:43] Danielle: So, in prefacing that, let's dive into what I actually do when I'm feeling overwhelmed. So, one of the things that I love to do, and if you have been a part of our community for a long time, if you have taken our programs or if you've done some coaching with me, this might be [00:07:00] familiar with you, to you, is I do what's called a brain dump exercise.
[00:07:05] Danielle: So a lot of times before I do a brain dump, I will sit down and I'll really just like take a few deep breaths. Sometimes I'll pray and just be like, okay, God, like help me. Just help me to prioritize the things that I need to get done. And I asked him to give me peace. So if that doesn't resonate with you, you can just take some really deep breaths and just calm your mind.
[00:07:30] Danielle: Because sometimes there's just so much swirling around in there that we just need a moment of just like. And so that's what I do first. And then you want to get out a notebook and pen or you can use your phone, but I personally like using physical paper, a paper and pen because there's something about just Having a paper and pen and not having technology around you that also helps you calm down and [00:08:00] allows you to Get rid of some of that overwhelm as you're doing this process So that's the way I like to do it get out of paper and pen and if you are listening to this and you can Do that then go ahead and pause this episode go grab a paper and pen And then you can hit play and continue on.
[00:08:17] Danielle: So the first thing that I do is I literally brain dump everything that is swirling around in my mind. So I brain dump the things that I need to do, things that are on my to do list, things that are maybe giving me stress or anxiety, um, I just literally write it all down. And this might take several minutes.
[00:08:40] Danielle: So what I would recommend doing is set a timer for how much time you want this to take. So it can be anywhere from like 5 minutes or 10 minutes, um, 15 minutes. If you don't do this regularly or if this is maybe the first time, first time that you're doing it, then you might need a little more time. Once you start doing this regularly, you can actually cut it [00:09:00] down to usually about five minutes is good.
[00:09:02] Danielle: If you're doing this on like a weekly basis. So set a timer for yourself, do a brain dump of everything that is to do on your list or things that are clouding your mind or stressing you out. Put that all down. Now, once that's all down on paper, Then what you're gonna do is three specific things. So number one, you're going to eliminate.
[00:09:26] Danielle: So this is probably the most difficult thing that you're gonna do, but you're going to actually cross out anything that doesn't actually need to get done. And I can guarantee you that there's probably things swirling around in your brain that you might have written down that is, was on your mind for a certain reason, but it's actually not something that is necessarily a priority.
[00:09:48] Danielle: And so that can actually be completely taken off the list or completely deleted off the list. The second thing is something that you want to delegate. So identify things that are on your list that you could [00:10:00] actually ask somebody else to do. Now, some of you might have a team or maybe you have a virtual assistant or you have someone that works for you.
[00:10:08] Danielle: So this could be a really easy thing for you to do where you take a certain amount of things to say, okay, I'm going to have this person on my team take care of that. Now if you don't currently have a team, think about some things that you could potentially outsource maybe in your personal life. So say for example, one of the things on your brain dump list was Get groceries for the week.
[00:10:29] Danielle: So how could you make that? How could you delegate it? Make it simple? So maybe that is asking your husband to pick up groceries. Maybe that's ordering meal prep Maybe from a meal prep service or a company Maybe that's ordering your groceries online and having them get delivered instead of going to the grocery store and getting those items, right?
[00:10:51] Danielle: So think of ways that you can Delegate things in your personal life that normally would take you a lot of time to [00:11:00] accomplish. Who could you ask to do those things for you? So if you have a spouse or if you have a roommate or someone that you live with Some of those things hopefully can be delegated to that person Or how can you actually simplify?
[00:11:16] Danielle: Those things so that they take less time. So for example, like I said Ordering groceries online is a lot simpler and it takes less time than going to the grocery store. Now, my husband and I, now, like, that is one thing that we absolutely do every single week is we order groceries online. We hardly ever go to the grocery store anymore because with two kids Especially the ages our kids are, like seven months and two and a half, it, to go to the grocery store, to like, to physically go to a grocery store, to pack up the kids, get them all ready to go outside, then get them in their car seats, then take them out of their car seats, like, it is it's, It is a whole thing, you guys, and I'm sure the other moms listening in to this are like, oh yeah, no, going to the [00:12:00] grocery store is a whole ordeal, takes several hours.
[00:12:03] Danielle: So we are like, nope, not doing that. We are ordering them online, they get delivered, it is so incredibly convenient, it saves a It saves so much time and also saves our sanity. So definitely that is something that we are currently doing to simplify. So how can you simplify if you can't delegate? How can you simplify?
[00:12:22] Danielle: How can you simplify the things that you're doing in your life? Um, and if you don't know how to simplify or if you don't know how to delegate, ask someone in your life. How do you do this? How do you meal prep? How do you do your groceries? How do you do your laundry? Like maybe they have a system that works for them, right?
[00:12:43] Danielle: Like maybe they have a really great system and I have to admit I don't have some great systems for some of these things in my life like for laundry Honestly hit me up if you have a great system for laundry because I currently do not have a good Laundry system. So, you know, ask the people in your life and [00:13:00] figure out how can you simplify some of the things that you're already doing?
[00:13:04] Danielle: And how can you delegate and get other people to do it now? We could get into a whole conversation on delegating when it comes to your business. So if you feel like you Are not currently delegating enough in your business and you feel like you need to delegate more that's definitely a muscle to flex That is something that I have actively been working on over the last several years and even Even recently more recently in the last several months is how can I delegate more?
[00:13:33] Danielle: How can I not only? um delegate as far as like team around me that I'm having help me with certain things, but also how can I get like the very best coaches? How can I invest in masterminds and communities that can help me grow and learn things from people that know it better than I do. So when it comes to delegation, I feel like that's like a whole other topic.
[00:13:57] Danielle: Learning from the best people, hiring, [00:14:00] that deserves its own episode. So I feel like we will have to do a entire episode on delegating. But that is the second thing you're going to want to do to your list is to figure out what on your list can be delegated and what on your list should be delegated.
[00:14:16] Danielle: Delegated. Number three is updating your list. So when you have eliminated and delegated, then you're going to update. And so what's left on your list, what I want you to do is I want you to rate it From a list from one to three based on how important it is that that thing gets done. So what will make the biggest impact for your life and your business if you get that thing done?
[00:14:48] Danielle: Now this is really important to prioritize because if we just go ahead and start our days and we just start doing our to do list, right? Like we write down what we need to do and we just start doing it [00:15:00] without actually prioritizing it, then we might be just prioritizing and doing things in order of What we feel like we need to do next and it might not be the things that actually Should get done based on what our priorities are.
[00:15:13] Danielle: And so your priorities Might be different from other people's priorities as well. So it's really important to know like what are your values? What are your priorities in your life and in your business? Because if we only prioritize our work and our business priorities, then we're not prioritizing the things in our life that are most important.
[00:15:33] Danielle: And so really, I want you to think about, okay, what needs to be a priority every day, every week, every month in my life, and also in my business, and then rate those things on a list from one to three. And then, Go ahead and go to your brain dump list and put a one beside everything is that is a one priority like it needs to Get done.
[00:15:55] Danielle: It's very important it's something that is a non [00:16:00] negotiable and then put a two next to something that is Important but maybe not as important or as urgent and then number three is kind of like a nice thing. So for example, like, I would really like to get this done, but it's not like a major priority.
[00:16:16] Danielle: Now, again, your priorities might be different than someone else's. So don't just base, base your numbers or base your priorities off of someone else's priorities in their own business. They have to be personal to you. So once you have those updated in the order of priority that they would be, so a one, a two, or a three, then what you're going to want to do is anything that's on that list that is a project, you are going to want to break that down.
[00:16:47] Danielle: So for example, So if you have on your list, create a blog post or update your website or anything that is going to take you more than like 10, 15 minutes, you want to actually break that down into really [00:17:00] small, manageable tasks. that are going to take you less than 10 minutes. So break it down into really manageable tasks.
[00:17:06] Danielle: Now, the reason I say this is because often when we look at our to do list, it is in a project format. So it's these big things that we put on our to do list and we assume that it's going to take less time than it actually does. And so what ends up happening is we put so much on our to do list and we think we're going to get like 10 things done in a day.
[00:17:27] Danielle: And we only get one thing done in a day because we don't realize that that Each one of those things has several 10 minute tasks inside of it. So when we break it down into those small little 10 minute tasks, we can see where can we fit in those tasks. Now, the beautiful thing about this is that When we break it down into those super small tasks, we can fit those tasks into really small, uh, sections of our day, right?
[00:17:54] Danielle: So for example, and I know this has happened to you because this happens to me all the time, [00:18:00] when you have a call coming up, for example. So say, say it's 8 45 and you have a call that starts at 9. If you have something on your list that you know for a fact is going to take you less than 10 minutes, You get that thing done, right?
[00:18:14] Danielle: You have those 15 minutes. You're like, oh, this is going to take me less than 10 minutes. I'm going to go ahead and do that thing so I can check that one thing on my on off my list. But if that, um, thing is like write a blog post, for example, that is a project and that's not going to take you 10 minutes.
[00:18:29] Danielle: And so you won't even start on that task. So instead, what do you do? You pick up your phone. You start scrolling Instagram. You waste time. You literally waste 15 minutes that you could have been doing something productive, something that would either move your business forward or improve your life in some way, and you decide not to do it because you think you don't have enough time.
[00:18:48] Danielle: Now, this thing on your list that could take 10 minutes could be something that is like go for a 10 minute walk. It could be get a glass of water to keep yourself hydrated, right? It doesn't [00:19:00] necessarily have to be like getting something done, but it's something that actually improves your life, improves your business.
[00:19:07] Danielle: And so put those things on your list. Okay, the last thing to wrap up this episode is the final step in this brain dump is to actually put the things That are on your brain dump into your calendar and actually block out the time for those specific tasks so get out your calendar or whether it's a physical planner, whether it's a Google Calendar or Apple Calendar wherever you have your calendar and Whatever you do to kind of organize your time put it on your calendar put those really important things schedule them in time block your days so that you know what you're doing and in what order, on what day, and also give yourself a little bit of buffer space.
[00:19:53] Danielle: So especially if you're someone who is a mom, or you have a lot of other things going on, [00:20:00] give yourself buffer space so you give yourself room for life to happen, right? So the kids get sick, or someone needs to be picked up, or you know, you get a phone call in the middle of the day, Whatever that is, right?
[00:20:15] Danielle: You want to give yourself some of that buffer space so that you're not chasing time and you end up feeling behind at the end of the day. So, schedule in those things, time block those things, but then also give yourself some buffer space so that if things take a little bit longer than you thought, then it's okay and you're not stressing yourself out.
[00:20:35] Danielle: Now, what I also want to say to end off this episode, Is that it's okay if some things are going to fall through the cracks during a time of your calendar being full, right? Sometimes something has to give. Now as many of you know, I absolutely love this podcast. This is like one of my favorite things that I [00:21:00] get to do is creating these episodes for you.
[00:21:02] Danielle: And within the last couple of weeks, there have been a few times where I have had to let a week go by where I don't have an episode drop. And you know, that like pulls at my heart strings. I'm just like, oh, like I want to be consistent. And that is definitely a goal of mine for 2024, because I feel like.
[00:21:25] Danielle: the past three years of running this podcast. I have been so good at being consistent with episodes. Um, and many of you know, I went up to two episodes a week. I think it was fall of 2022. I believe that we had two episodes a week. And then more recently, when Max was born, I announced that we were going down to one episode a week.
[00:21:49] Danielle: And then there's been a few weeks in the past several months where there hasn't been an episode every week. And so, you know, I just want to be transparent with you and I want you [00:22:00] to know that sometimes, like I said, something has to give. And at the end of the day, I'm going to prioritize the things that matter most in My life and in my business, of course, being a mom and being a wife, that's like first and foremost, and my faith and people that are in my real life of friends and family members, like that all comes first.
[00:22:25] Danielle: And so prioritizing those things first is really, really important to me. And I absolutely love this community, this podcast community, but also, you know, my clients and my mastermind members and now my action takers club members like those people really come first when it comes to the business side of things.
[00:22:44] Danielle: And so sometimes there are a few things that need to be put on the back burner, whether that's a episode of the podcast, launching, um, an email going out. Or a social media post going up. And so, you know, with all of the things that we've been working on in the [00:23:00] past several months. Um, within the business, my time and my team's time has been prioritizing the launch of Action Takers Club, the holiday event that we did, and really making sure that we're serving our community really, really well that's in there.
[00:23:16] Danielle: And so, yeah, I just wanted to share that, and I think the reason I wanted to share that with you is because I think that so often the people that we follow online, whether it's the podcast. Um, episodes that we're listening to, or just the people that we follow on social media, we just assume that their lives and their businesses are perfect, and we assume that they never struggle with consistency, or they never struggle with like, um, I don't know, prioritizing things in, in their life and in their business.
[00:23:47] Danielle: And that things always just like go really smoothly for them. And I just want to be transparent and let you know, like, I struggle with the consistency of wanting to be [00:24:00] incredibly consistent with the podcast and the fact that I have been really consistent. And then over the past several weeks, it has not been consistent.
[00:24:09] Danielle: And so I've definitely struggled with that, I think mentally as well. And so I want you to know that if you are in a season where you are struggling with something like that. Know that you're not alone, know that it's okay, know that you need to prioritize the things in your life that matter most and give yourself that grace if you need that.
[00:24:27] Danielle: So hopefully someone needed to hear that. If you're feeling really burnt out or you're feeling really just tired of having this It's like responsibility of all these things. I hope that these tangible things that we talked about in the episode today, doing the brain dump, eliminating, delegating and updating your list, prioritizing your list and then breaking it down.
[00:24:50] Danielle: Like I hope that tangible, those tangible things support you and help you. But I also want you to give yourself grace as well. Give yourself grace and [00:25:00] know that it's okay to take a step back, know that it's okay to take a break and that your whole business isn't going to fall apart if you take a few steps back for a moment, regroup and then recommit to the things that are really, really important.
[00:25:14] Danielle: So thank you for being here. Thank you for being a loyal listener to the podcast. You have no idea how much I appreciate you, how much I love you. And I am so excited. I really, really am wanting to. Prioritize this community, this podcast community in 2024, so you can expect some really exciting things coming very soon.
[00:25:40] Danielle: And because we have now wrapped up a lot of the big things that we have been working on, we have a lot of other big things that we're working on, but Prioritizing this podcast is very important to me and so you can expect a lot of exciting things in 2024 and of course wrapping up the year in [00:26:00] 2023. So I will see you in the next episode of the podcast.
[00:26:04] Danielle: Until then. Have an amazing day and we'll talk to you soon.
[00:26:12] Danielle: If you love this episode, make sure you screenshot, post, and tag us on Instagram at business babes. Co want to know when the next episode goes live, subscribe on your podcast app, and while you're there, give us a review until next time, keep dreaming big, setting goals and taking action.