Coffee with a Rebel Podcast 

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Show Notes 

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How to get things done without burning out

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Full Episode Transcript

Today I wanna talk to you about productivity. It seems quite challenging for a creative, multi-passionate to feel productive. Right, like we became stuck in "Oh my God, I was only able to do one thing", while that's still productive in my book.

I think there has been this programming that we have been told. We have to do all the things in one day and that's just not true right! Something I've started doing once I figured out my own goal-setting process is to just focus on the three to five most important things off the day, and that's personal and business. It's not just about business, business business. For me. It's also personal.

My son still has many many doctor's appointments, I need to take him to. I do other things that I enjoy like going hiking and running on the trails and those are pretty important to me, so my workout is pretty much on my list every day. But we're told that we have to do everything in a day, but I'm telling you that your work is still going to be present tomorrow. You do not have to squish everything into one day to get it all done.

Look at your goals see what you're working on and look at the stuff you said need to take care of, and then from those goals, choose your three to five most important steps right. I don't love the word balance because we can never find that equal fifty balance, it just doesn't exist. What I like to call It is harmony. It's more like a dance. Sometimes we give a little bit more business. Sometimes we give a lot more life and it's sort of like a back and forth and life and dance, taking the lead periodically here and there.

You can still get things done and you can still be productive by just doing three things a day. If a workout, a shower, and eating a good meal is the most important thing you'd do for one day that is still productive. If the next day you workout, take a shower, eat a good meal, and create art or write your book or reach out to a client or anything that you need to do, that is still productive. 

Something I started doing at the beginning of this year is to write down daily accountability in my community. Every day I share with them what I'm working on. Every day can sometimes feel the same, but not every day is. There are days like today is recording a podcast episode, it's writing my next book, it's making art at the end of the day and it's working out. And I share these every single day because I feel like people get caught up in having to be productive to do all the things. And then they get into this paralysis of not being able to do anything at all because they're so overwhelmed with all of the things that need to get done in order to reach the goals that they want to reach.

Take a deep breath. Look at your goals and know what you're working on. Right in my last episode. I talked about how I set goals and how I choose goals, and how I give myself ninety days, increments deadlines to help me stay focused to reduce that overwhelm and it helps me get things done, I choose three to five things on my to-do list and do it.  

It doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to be overwhelming. You get done in a day, what you get done. One of the best things I did for myself is knowing how and when I work best on what activity! For me my mornings are best for brainwork, like I drink my coffee, I do my workout, and then I get into my brainwork that I need to do that.

You know the writing. The marketing requires a little bit of brainwork, and then in the afternoon I'll do my creative stuff, my art stuff, and that's how I work. There are some days I still do brain work in the evening and it depends on the project, but usually, all of my brain work that requires my mind and thinking skills are done for me first thing in the morning because by noon I am pretty much brained out. Like I'm done and it's time to be more creative and work on the art project.

And so you know if you're struggling with getting things done and you're feeling pressure about being productive, remove that and look at your goals and choose three to five things that are important to you for that particular day. Know that tomorrow is another day where you can again do three to five things. Not every day is going to have five things but every day is going to have three things. Sometimes there might be three. Sometimes I might be four things. Sometimes there's only one thing.

It's time for us to remove that pressure we have put on ourselves because of other people's hustle, for lack of her prescription. The word hustle has been thrown around, you gotta hustle hustle hustle and do all the things in one day, and for some people that works, and that's fantastic, but for a creative and some people that may not want to do it like that, that's not gonna work because we kind of burn out. We're absolutely gonna burn out.

And by really focusing on less activities per day, we're able to also recharge at night and get the rest that we need. I literally get eight hours of sleep pretty much every night, because that's what I need and so that's how my day is structured. Brainwork in the morning, artwork in the evening in the afternoon and evening, and then chill out on my futon, read a book, watch Tv and go to sleep.

You know at the end of the day that works for me. I still get a lot done. I can write three to four blog posts in a day, so I still get a lot done. It just depends on what the goals are and figuring out what's more support to you.