Stop Sweating the Small Stuff

How are the small to-dos on your list interrupting and distracting you from your larger life purpose? This month in the Women of Consequence community I’ve been coaching clients on how to tackle their to-do list effectively so they can knock out the solvable problems occupying valuable mental space in their lives. When we’re trying to live on purpose, we often get derailed not by the big stuff, but rather we get caught by the small foxes that interrupt our daily rhythms and scream for our attention. Before we can get to our larger life purpose, we need to take care of the smaller areas of our lives so we can engage our purpose with our full creativity and energy. Clearing space gives us the momentum we need to have energy to take action against our larger life mission.

If you want to grab an effective task management system to execute your to-do list, catch the replay of the Re-Direction Workshop in the Women of Consequence community. There, you’ll be able to get my Life Assessment Worksheet that outlines how to wade through everything that’s currently on your plate.

In the meantime, here are some tools and items I’ve been using lately to help me block out the noise:

1. WISDOM FROM DOLLY PARTON

I love this quote from Dolly Parton about setting the direction of your life. She says, “Figure out who you are and then do it on purpose.” Doesn’t that pretty much sum up our search for life direction? When we talk about living lives of consequence we are saying that we want to be the kind of women who know who we are and intentionally live into that identity each day.

I posted this quote on my wall for the week to keep me focused on my primary tasks. With so much of my time spent online it’s easy to fall into a comparison trap and follow the little fox trails of other people’s interests and obsessions. This quote is a reminder to go back to my core purpose and then do that over and over again.

2. COFFITIVITY SITE

Let’s get practical. I have desperately been searching for a tool to help block out the background noise of my son’s virtual Kindergarten class and all the routine distractions that come with working from home. Today I broke down and bought the uber expensive version of Apple AirPods Pro because I needed the noise-canceling feature to help create a little digital sanctuary for myself. But pairing my AirPods with the Coffitivity website has been a game-changer for me.

Working in a coffeeshop or a hotel lobby has always been my go-to. I love the hum of glasses clinking, strangers chatting and life happening around me. So public spaces like this are the perfect environments for me to write or dive into a good book. I’m not the only one. Research shows we need a bit of noise distraction to help with our creativity. Now that I’m working from home, I’ve enjoyed reproducing the ambiance of my favorite coffee shop by playing background noise from Coffitivity. The site recreates the sound of a coffee shop from the comfort of your own home office. Throw in a homemade pumpkin spice latte and it’s like I’m at my local coffee shop.

3. THE YELLOW TABLE WEEKLY

Can I make a confession? I’m sick of cooking. I have lost all creativity for how to make a meaningful and nutritious meal for myself or my family. In 50 years when my grandchildren ask how I spent the Great Pandemic of 2020, I’ll tell them “trying to figure out what to have for dinner.”

I’ve been losing hours to meal-planning and I can’t take it anymore. This is one of the tasks that sits in my planner and is completely stealing my brain power for the other things that matter.

But luckily my dear friend and chef Anna Watson Carl has saved the day for me! She recently brought back her Yellow Table Weekly recipes and menu planning service when I need it most…for FREE! Bless her. Each week Anna sends out a menu and shopping list so I don’t have to get lost in a shame spiral over how bad my family’s diet is. I’m back to being Chef Girl-ardee and spend a fraction of the time thinking about food. Which means I now have more time to focus on my focus. You can get a free trial access to The Yellow Table Weekly online now at her website so don’t miss it.

Favorite Meal: Naan Bread Pizza with Ricotta & Shaved Asparagus
Somehow Anna has managed to make raw asparagus delicious and my five year old will eat it. This recipe is like magic and it takes like 10 minutes to make which is about all I have the bandwidth to give right now.

4. CLIENT LOVE

This week I am working with a new client to help her discover her life purpose. She works in the corporate space and part of distinguishing herself from the team will be unlocking her unique talents and wiring.

Whenever I’m about to work with a new client, I like to listen to past clients talking about what the experience meant to them. It helps to center me on what’s most meaningful in the two-day intensive. You can listen at the right to my past client Kristin who really leaned into the idea that we’re all uniquely gifted to do something in the world.

This is a bit of a pro-tip for you as well. If you’re wading through a bunch of tasks and finding it hard to focus, it’s often helpful to reconnect to moments of excellence from the past. Jot a quick list of 4 things you did well in the past and write down how you felt. This helps to shift your energy from “I’m overwhelmed” to “I can do this!”

5. UNDERSTANDING SURGE CAPACITY

*Click to read the full article on medium*

This article has been making the rounds for the past couple months, especially after Brené Brown mentioned it as a helpful framework for 2020. In a piece for medium’s Elemental property, Tara Haelle introduced the idea of people reaching the limit of their surge capacity to describe why we might be feeling so miserable and out of sorts.

At the beginning of the pandemic, circa March 2020, you might have felt oddly “okay” given the gravity of our circumstances. You may have even been better than okay, churning out work like never before and providing surprising stability for those around you in the midst of change. But as the month’s have drawn on, maybe you’ve become increasingly exhausted, burned out and “over it,” unable to pull it together to execute on even the smallest tasks of your life.

If you have a bunch of things suddenly hanging around on your to-do list and you can’t quite seem to muster the energy to focus and execute, reading “Your ‘Surge Capacity’ is Depleted—It’s Why You Feel Awful” might be useful. Haelle talks about how with surge capacity, we draw on our short-term survival instincts to manage in stressful situations. However, since it’s impossible to keep up with that level of intensity, eventually you need to stop and get some replenishment. Haelle points to some helpful actions you can take for renewal. I’d add some others to the list that I’ve found to be more helpful for my clients. You can get access to these in the community.

By the way, if you want a dose of replenishment, join the Women of Consequence before the month ends. Next month our community is going to beat distraction by building healthy life rhythms that keep us centered on our unique life purpose. If the world around you is constantly derailing you from your purpose, you’ll want to join us for the November #reclaimmylife Challenge.

Want regular inspiration to keep you focused on your life purpose? Join the Women of Consequence community to discover your big life purpose statement and create a plan to live into your purpose.

Helpful Tools to Beat Distraction and Get Stuff Done