We are living in times of stress over getting more done in less time. Plus, the pressure to do all the things, to say yes to everything. I'm guilty of this too. Having some simple core values established, having a great planner, and creating a to do list can be really helpful.
5 Steps to Simplifying Your To Do List with Sarah Dalton of the Peace and Productivity Podcast
Sarah Dalton is a productivity expert and the host of the Peace and Productivity Podcast and creator of a Peace + Productivity planner that I definitely need for myself!
Like so many of us, Sarah’s journey started when she had her first son 10 years ago…
Sarah: When I came into motherhood, I was also a new wife and new stepmom all within six months of each other so that was a lot right up front. I had these expectations of what motherhood looked like, how I was supposed to show up in motherhood and do ‘all the things’. It was a struggle and I definitely burned myself out. My focus was on getting the perfect systems and really getting the perfect planner so I could organize all the things I had going on. It took me a while and a lot of planners, experimenting with different things to realize that the answer wasn't coming from the outside, it was an inside job. Yes, it's amazing to have the tools and the strategies and the systems, we need those. But we also need that clarity of who we are and what we want, because it is super easy to get off track and to lose sight of that, especially when we become moms, because everybody else's needs are front and center. So I hired my own life coach. I was introduced to core values, which is now a central piece of what I teach and really where we start with the Peace and Productivity method.
Megan: I love that you just created your own planner because you couldn't find one that really spoke to what you needed. I'm gonna maybe tap into your knowledge and expertise here. So just a little backstory, at the end of 2020, I quit my full time job and started my business, which is podcasting and that involved a lot of other marketing, like social media and emails. I also have my online store and sell a line of toxin-free skincare and makeup. Then at the end of 2021, I realized I still need something more, I need a little bit more expected cash flow, because sometimes income from your own business isn’t always consistent. It ebbs and flows. I took on two extra jobs that are kind of part time jobs which I really love and am really enjoying so I've been putting more effort into those two jobs, but at the same time I have these wins with my business. Like, I'm in the top 100 podcasts in the US and Canada so obviously, my podcast is making a difference and people are listening and I really want to continue doing that, but I'm just feeling really lost on how to fit it all in.
Sarah: I love that so much. There's so much on our plate and it can be all good. It's not so clear cut. It’s not always easy to edit something out because it might still be serving me. That’s kind of why I do this work on the front end and I look so much at seasons. That's how the planner’s broken up as well. Going through, every 90 days, our core values. So getting back to who we are at the core of us, what are our fundamental beliefs of what's most important. What do you actually want? What's that picture of how you're spending your time? Checking in every single season, because it's going to look different. There's going to be different things going on in our marriage, with our kids, with our business and with our health. I think that's the most grace filled approach for ourselves. That it’s ok if we need to let go of something, at least for this season in order to let these other things bloom because it aligns even more with our goals and our vision in this season. Doesn't mean it's forever.
Megan: I think this season thing really hits home. I probably am not going to do one of the part time jobs forever but I'm having fun doing it now and it’s good income. And so I’m just embracing that. So one quick question before we kind of dive into the process a little bit more is just your take on the whole hustle culture for moms?
Sarah: We're the first generation where we are trying to do it all and we think we see everybody doing it all. Let's just debunk that right now. Nobody’s doing it all. There's something that's not getting full attention. Because the reality is, that's not how life works. What we see on social media, that's unattainable. Even if we're trying to be authentic and have integrity with what we're posting, it's not the whole picture of our day of our week. We're connecting, what we're doing, and how much we're doing, how much we're checking off every day, to our worth. How worthy we are of anything. Of love, rest. If we've done enough, then we're able to rest. It's so skewed, and it's so not helpful. So this idea of really pulling back the lens and going through the high level process of who you are and how you operate. What are your strengths? What are you going to really focus on instead of all the things because not everything is for us. I think this is why it's beautiful to keep having more of these conversations that we can all just really see that that's the truth, that we're not doing it all. And we're not meant to. The guilt of not doing it all will dissipate a lot if we are really leaning into and feeling like we're fully showing up for the things that matter most. Because when you're trying to do all the things, the truth is you’re not showing up fully for anything.
Megan: Yeah, I think delegation is a big key piece of it, too. I feel like a lot of moms feel bad delegating. For example, your girlfriend says, ‘Hey, I'm going to Trader Joe's, can I pick anything up for you?’ You feel bad saying yes. But what you don't realize is that your friend is getting joy out of doing a service for you. Yep. And next time around, you can help her out with something. I learned that in a parenting class when my girls were little and I was like, what I don't have to do it all? It was a huge relief to me.
Sarah and I are both productivity junkies and could have talked for hours about tasks and to do lists. But let’s get to it and share Sarah’s framework for simplifying YOUR to do list.
Collect: The mental load that we have as mom's constant. Email this person, pick up the dry cleaning, send a text to this mom. We're going literally all day every day. I realized that I had sticky notes all over the place, and a note app in my phone, and then a piece of paper somewhere else, so it was in all different places. Then I forgot about half the things you took note of. So having 1-2 central places where we are collecting all of those ideas and tasks is critical . For me that is Trello which is a project management app and then the planner. Those are my two places that I have brain dump lists.I just put everything in there and I don't try to organize it.
Edit: We have these million thoughts, and we put them on our brain dump list, and then before we move them into any other category, or move them to the actual to-do list we have to edit. What can you delete? What can you delegate? What can you minimize or simplify? For example, I had getting my daughters bigger ice skates on my brain dump list since the beginning of this winter. We went ice skating twice at a new place and really didn’t need new skates. So I deleted that. It didn’t have to take up space. There's so many things taking up that prime real estate in our brain that do not need to be there.
Sort: This is the meat and potatoes. From the brain dump you’re sorting tasks into different lists. Recurring, Projects and Master. What are the recurring tasks, the things that we're doing regularly? Laundry, cleaning, meal planning. It doesn't even have to be every week, maybe it's once a month. Eventually it becomes either a system or routine, it's something that we don't have to think about, that doesn't take up space on the to-do list eventually. But for now, it's just a recurring task. Then we have Projects. And this one can be tricky. I think we put down, ‘clean the basement’, or ‘organize and declutter’ as a task. Our brain doesn't know what to do with that. We're overwhelmed immediately. So we do nothing. That's a big thing to notice. Is it a larger project, or is itr one task within a larger project. Then the Master tasks. You've already done the editing and decided it needs to get done and it needs to get done by you. We're not talking about deadlines or anything like that, but it's your master tasks.
Weekly Refresh: Plan your week, I'm a big proponent of getting that bird's eye view. That's the magic right there is that you've already edited and sorted, you've already done the homework on the front end. So now you can just take from your master task list. What is essential this week? So many of us fall into that trap of our whole to do list is what's urgent. Ideally you're going to have a good mix of the urgent because there's a deadline, but also work on the things that are going to move you towards your goals. This is where you would look at your projects and your recurring tasks to pull in some of those into your week. Pay attention to your schedule and your energy capacity when you decide on the essential tasks. Honestly, my lists for the essential tasks each week are typically less than 10 things. The reality of trying to do more than that is that analysis paralysis, it's that all or nothing mindset. We see all the things, we don't know where to start, so we do nothing, we end up feeling like a failure, which we absolutely are not. We just didn't set ourselves up for success.
Pick your top 3: Each day in the planner I have, what are your top three most valuable tasks. This is what I'm doing. These are the three things that I'm doing today. Clearly, we're going to be doing more than three things, but if I get these three things done, I will feel like a success and it was a productive day.
If you want to find out more about Sarah and streamline your to do list listen The Peace and Productivity Podcast, check out her awesome website and get your hands on that planner and her course at www.yoursimplybiglife.com, join her Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/yoursimplybiglife, or follow her in Instagram @your_simplybiglife.
As always, I thank you for listening. I encourage you to share this message because we as women, we create that community and we learn so much from our friends. So I really encourage you to share this with a friend who you think would love to hear it. I know that there's somebody out there that is wondering about how to be more productive, and how to simplify their to-do lists. I’ll be sharing this episode on Instagram and Facebook and I hope that you will share it too and make sure to tag me @themeganmikkelsen. Let's start making this planet happier and healthier. One step at a time.
