When you’re juggling conflicting roles and a to-do list that never shrinks, overwhelm and guilt slows you down. It’s a common challenge for moms who run a business, like Kirsten.
Despite late nights and constant sacrifices, Kirsten couldn’t figure out how to manage everything on her plate.
Instead, something always had to give.
It reached the point where her kids asked why she wasn’t around, her marriage was under pressure, and she’d have sleepless nights worrying about losing clients.
Exhausted with the pressure and wracked with the guilt of not being enough, Kirsten was at breaking point.
Why couldn’t she get it together?
She wasn’t lazy or incapable. In fact, Kirsten worked harder than most people she knew. She just couldn’t figure out how to end the day on a win so she could feel successful in all areas of her life.
She wanted answers…
“Either run the day or the day runs you.”
Kirsten did a lot right.
She kept an up-to-date to-do list and managed key dates with her diary. What she didn’t have was a daily structure – a clear outline of what she had to achieve on an hour-by-hour basis to win the day.
Instead, she was sloppy with time – and it wasn’t intentional. Without the right tools and strategies, Kirsten was busy, but not productive and she was making some common mistakes:
- She had no plan, no deadlines, and no structure
- Quick, easy wins were prioritized to shorten her to-do list
- Social media was a distracting time drain
- Tasks got an open time window instead of a realistic timespan for completion
- Emails were answered whenever they came in
- And time with her husband and kids never got scheduled so was rarely prioritized
The truth is you can’t get a grip on your day until you transform your relationship with time. All top performers know this. It’s why the world’s best swear by their daily schedule.
And when Kirsten did the same, her productivity, relationships, and life transformed too.
Most schedulers don’t have these features – make sure yours does
There are three elements to a daily schedule that boosts productivity, performance, and positivity.
1. Leave zero white space on your daily timeline
Unless you earmark time slots for specific tasks, time will evaporate! That’s why zero-hours scheduling is a game-changer. Instead of leaving your day to chance, you take charge. Here’s how it works:
- Time-block your day into 30-minute chunks
- Allocate each time slot a named activity
- Leave no white space and no time unaccounted for (you’ll squander it if you do)
- Schedule EVERYTHING – work tasks, meetings, breaks, social media, answering emails, exercise, time with your kids… EVERYTHING you want to accomplish in your day
- Then take action!
With deadlines to keep you focused, you’re less likely to procrastinate. In turn, you get more done in less time. Scheduling also flags up where you’ve squandered time previously. So don’t be surprised if you free up a ton of time you used to waste!
Zero-hours scheduling also promotes work-life harmony. With personal time planned in the same way as work commitments, you make fewer sacrifices. It’s how daily scheduling helped repair Kirsten’s marriage and gave her back the time with her kids they all desperately needed.
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2. Prioritize your workload to make the biggest dent
Each day, there are a million things you could do. Because you can’t do it all you have to work smarter. You have to identify and prioritize the tasks that will make the biggest impact.
Don’t set yourself up for failure by taking on more than you can realistically do. Instead, focus on the THREE things that create a win (even if there’s a ton of stuff you leave for another day).
A simple way to prioritize is to choose the three tasks that move you closest to your goal.
It’s why Kirsten started writing out her goal daily. Clear on what she wanted to achieve, it was easy to decide which tasks to prioritize and which tasks to leave.
When chosen schedule these priorities on your timeline first – and then fit everything else around them. The difference is clear! When you know exactly what to do (and why you’re doing it), there’s no excuse to faff or procrastinate. Instead, you’re motivated to get your head down, concentrate, and get things done.
That’s what happened for Kirsten, and it will happen for you too.
3. Reflect on today for a better tomorrow
Highly productive days don’t end with prioritization and zero-hours scheduling.
You can’t be your best if you don’t know what best looks like. That’s one reason why reflection is a core component of a game-changing schedule.
Each day brings an opportunity to learn and grow. When you capture what you’d do differently next time, today’s lessons become tomorrow’s leverage. But many of us miss these important insights because we don’t write them down.
It’s the same with your wins. Write them down and use them to stay motivated when you hit a roadblock. It’s the same reason gratitude features in a high-performing daily schedule. Bookend your day with gratitude and you unlock a flood of positivity to help you thrive in discomfort and stretch your limits.
Kirsten was surprised at the impact daily reflection made. She learned more about herself, and importantly, realized how many wins she’d overlooked. By acknowledging her successes, her confidence and self-belief soared – a change that impacted all areas of her life.
Get the tool built around these three elements and set new productivity records for yourself
If you’re overwhelmed, frustrated with your progress, and desperate to see a change in your life, the SELF Journal is for.
Used by Kirsten and thousands of high-achievers from around the world, this productivity tool contains the structure for a high-performing day. Featuring a daily template for zero hours scheduling, prioritization, and reflection, you too can get more done in less time.
Take a look inside the daily scheduling tool that helped Kirsten reclaim her life HERE.
Such good tips! You had me at the point of being neither lazy nor incapable; it’s so hard to remember sometimes when “busy” takes over! Will definitely be incorporating these ideas 😊