Year of Push 3.25 Do Less To Do Better

by | Jun 19, 2017 | Blog

I used to feel overwhelmed pretty much every day. My to-do list always exceeded my work capacity. There was always more to do than time to do, or at least that’s what I told myself.

I hear from my clients all the time that they are stressed, overwhelmed, have too much on their plate and they drop the ball on self-care because it’s just too much.

If feeling overwhelmed by life & obligations is getting in the way of taking care of yourself, you MUST make a change. Now. You cannot wait until the kids are older or you have more money saved. It has to happen now. This is more about mindset than workload and it’s time to take control.

I have a really simple strategy for days I feel overwhelmed. It is SO BASIC but it has changed my life.

Sometimes we dismiss simple solutions because they seem too basic, but this one has been a game changer for me.

I realized that my to-do lists were made up primarily of things that I wanted to get done, that needed to get done at some point, but weren’t critical for the day to which I had assigned them.

If I feel overwhelmed, I’ll take a look at my to-do list and evaluate every item on there and ask the following question:

Is this something that must get done today or just something I’d like to get done today?

80% of the things on my to-do list weren’t’ critical for the day to which I had assigned them. Sure, I wanted to get them done but the things that were absolutely CRITICAL for the day were far fewer in number.

Though I don’t take this approach every day, I absolutely turn to it when I’m overwhelmed. Every single thing that isn’t critical for the day at hand gets removed from the list.

Couldn’t be more basic, ya know? But it works!

I no longer put myself in the trap of exhausting myself with the things that aren’t critical for the day & then feeling pressured at the end of the day to rush through the things that are critical. I wasted a lot of energy because I wasn’t prioritizing and doing first things first.

Today, for example, the only things that must get done for Primal Potential are:

  • this blog
  • tomorrow’s Daily Motivation Podcast
  • tonight’s Masters Club webinar

Are there 25+ other things that have to get this week and I’d love to tackle today? Of course. But I can immediately ease my mind and feel more in control when I only look at what must be done today.

A workout is something I choose to fit in, but at the end of the day, it’s not required. I did make time for it today, though not at my normal time. I had to push it back a while to make room for today’s priorities.

“Denim”
AMRAP 15:
60 Double-unders
30/21 Calorie Row
15 Overhead Squats (115/80)

I wasn’t really in the mood for the gym today but a 30-minute warm up and 15 minute workout made me feel infinitely happier and more energized.

On the food front:

Around 10am I had Paleo Power Meals spaghetti squash with meat sauce. It was literally the only thing I had in the fridge since it’s delivery day & I haven’t picked up this week’s food yet.

Around 3pm I had chicken & broccoli over cauliflower rice and dinner was steak frites around 6:30pm.

I picked up a bottle of Polar seltzer this weekend – pineapple grapefruit flavor – omg, it’s totally my new favorite!

PS: If you’re new to these posts, listen to this podcast episode to get the scoop on what changes I’m making in my life and you can start back at my first daily post here.

The Primal Potential Podcast

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