EP 6 - Simplicity to Dull the Overwhelm

Episode 6 talks all about organizing yourself so you can avoid overwhelm. 

Talking points and takeaways:

• My top Tips for organizing yourself including: trying different ways to find what works best for you, keeping your system simple, and the importance of keeping a calendar.
• Why it's important to book appointments with yourself and why you need to follow through with them.
• The importance of delegating tasks and asking people around you for help to avoid becoming overwhelmed. 
• Why you need to schedule time to unwind. 

Soul Rhythm Activation (Homework/Practice):

• Be open to trying new ways to organize yourself! And start to find a routine that works best for you. 
• Create a calendar, and schedule out appointments with yourself! And Follow through!
• Take some time for yourself to unwind.  

Full Episode : Simplicity to Dull the Overwhelm

Hello hello! In this week's episode of the Soul Rhythm Podcast we talk all things calendar, organizing yourself and how to juggle everything you've got going in your life so you can feel centered and clear and avoid your overwhelm. Because at the end of the day overwhelm is a mindset that is within ourselves. So I'm going to give you my top tips on how to organize and schedule yourself!

 If you follow me on social media, you probably know that I have my family business, my own business, I'm a partner and a lover, I'm planning a wedding, I'm a dog mom, and I keep a pretty busy social calendar. So how do I do all these things? It's first important for me to say that this is not one size fits all because after all we are all our own unique selves. So tip number 1 is to try different things and see what works best for you. I'm going to share what I've found works best for me, which I've tried a million different things so don't be afraid to get creative. 

 Tip number two would be to keep it simple, nothing over complicated ever works long term. You always have to keep things simple in your life, in your business and in how you organize yourself. Then tip Number three is going to be something that I have shared on social media for years, And that is to set up a calendar. And if it's not in the calendar, then it does not get done. That's what works best for me. Back in the day when I was the overwhelm queen, I used to have multiple to-do lists on my whiteboard on little sticky notes in my kitchen, in my office, in my other office, all over the place. Which was so overwhelming in itself because the lists kept piling and piling, and before I  knew it I was drowning in all these tasks. So ultimately  I've found that to-do lists are not effective for me. However, what does help is if on either a daily basis or on a weekly basis, depending on how busy my life is, I sit down with a blank piece of paper and I brain dump all of the things that I think I need to do. Notice how I said, Think and not need, that's because  so often we also add tasks to our lives that are not really necessary.

 After I write this list which can sometimes be quite long, I analyze it, and I ask myself, what is the most important thing that I need to do out of this list?  What is super time sensitive? What is my priority? What is a non-negotiable? Those are the things that get added to the calendar. (If you need guidance on what kind of calendars to use: My favorite is Google calendar, because you can color coordinate, and it's super visually and user-friendly.)

The things that are non-negotiable that need to happen that week or that day, depending on how I'm looking at my life, get put into time blocks.Then i think of that time block as an appointment, and just like any other appointment with someone else we need to follow through with ourselves and make that appointment happen. So if I time block, let's say 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM tomorrow, it is scheduled to write out my content for the next two weeks. It needs to happen and it's not going to be canceled because just like I wouldn't cancel my doctor's appointment, I'm not going to cancel the appointment that I have with myself. I feel like 99% of the time we rarely keep promises with ourselves. It's just  so easy to say, Hey, it's no problem. I can do that some other time, because it's not like I'm letting anybody down… only you are. You're letting yourself down.. 

 Once I've scheduled out all of my priorities I take a look at the lesser tasks and ask myself What items in this list can I ask for help on? And what do I need to do? So I know that not everyone has his luxury, but I have a VA now. And it's been such a game changer for my business because there are so many tasks that I was doing that were consuming my day to day, and not allowing me to grow my business. And so allowing myself to give tasks that I am not the best at or that I don't love allows me to use my time to do the things that are in my zone of genius is a game changer. So what are the things that you can delegate? Delegation is huge, especially as you're building your business or as you were wanting to become a leader in your community or whatever it is you're doing, you always have support. And the only way that you can receive that support is by being open to receiving the support. So whether it is in your household with your spouse or with your roommates, Asking for help is so important and then being ready to receive it. When I started working with my first VA, it was hard for me to release control of the things that I cared for.  I know it can be so hard to release that control especially if you're type A like me, but I'll tell you something, once you release the control, it's like you get into this flow because you're no longer controlling the things that you can't control. And you're also welcoming that help, you're opening up your schedule to do the things that are truly in line with what you're here to do with your magic. And that's why you enter into the flow because you're not trying to juggle things that are out of your genius.

Once you release that control it's really empowering. So I highly recommend it, make sure you look at this list and ask yourself, what can I delegate? And so this is what I call the macro part of scheduling out your time so that you get things done without feeling overwhelmed. You want to make sure everything's in the calendar, including leaving space in between tasks & calls. Just so you can breathe and so that if anything unexpected happens then you have somewhat of a time cushion.I used to schedule things back to back to back, and there was actually a time in my life before COVID, in 2019 where I was working full-time in my family business, I would get home and I would work on my business after dinner. So let's say like from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM, I would work on my business. Then I would wake up in the morning, do some yoga, do a little bit more then go to work. Then on weekends I would wake up early and work from 8:00 AM to noon. I would always be grumpy, and did not want to go out because I was so obsessed with trying to do everything myself.

 It wasn't until I released that control and asked for help, but then also realized that I can't be grinding because it's not in the doing, but more in the being. Which is a topic that we'll talk about in another episode. But when we are in that hamster wheel, trying to do everything ourselves, we leave very little room for the universe. God, whoever you believe in to do their magic. And we also leave very little room to create because we don't create when we are in the do, do, do mode. We create when we are in space. And I'll explain.I know that sounds really far out there when I say space. I mean, when you're taking a bath, when you're taking a long shower, when you're having fun, when you're dancing is when you can have those creative downloads. And when you can really feel balance between your male and female energies. Female energy, your divine feminine is your creative flow. And it's also what likes to be in like the fun and the spacious inside expansiveness. Whereas your masculine energy, your divine masculine is the do, do, do lead, stand up, move forward, continue. 

So In avoiding overwhelm, we want to balance these two out. So creating space in your calendar is going to be a game changer. So how do you do this? My mornings, I would literally block out two hours for myself and whether this would mean I would sleep in or preferably I would do a morning meditation breath work, and then one hour of working out again. That's what I love. That's what fills my cup and feeds my soul. I left that space open and it was my time. And I tried to wake up before Brian and Swayze so that way it's, again, my time nobody's expecting me to show up, I'm showing up for myself. So I begin my day in my own time creating for me. Then as the day goes by, I definitely had a non-negotiable from noon to one blocked out. There's no responsibilities there. I'm preparing my food, eating, and having some space again, to anchor myself down, to just breathe and be.

Then between tasks, you want to have a little buffer, right? And then let's say something does come up and you can't do that task that you had assigned in your calendar, then you can reschedule it. And so not being super rigid with it, but also everyone's different. So if you're the kind of person that it's constantly self-sabotaging and pushing the busy work that you're avoiding, because you're probably afraid of actually doing the thing. Because the perfect excuse is that you just didn't have time then definitely stick to your guns and follow through with what you say you're going to do. But if you're on the other side of the spectrum where you're super rigid, you always follow through, then also give yourself a little bit of grace. So you have to know where you land, right. Everyone's different.

 Another thing that you're definitely going to want to schedule out is time to relax, unplug, and fun with family. It has been a huge game changer for me to be able to turn my phone off and disconnect. I know that while running your business it can be hard to turn your computer off and stop the grind, but it's essential to do to avoid overwhelm.

So I take that time to focus on nurturing my relationship with Brian, enjoying time with Swayze and just being in this beautiful space with my family. And that also allows you to unwind, to go to bed. Since we're talking about overwhelm, I thought it's super important also to have unwinding time at the end of the night. And so creating that space at the end of your day is also really important. 

 So summing it up, creating space in the morning to fill your own cup, creating a buffer in between your appointments and in between your tasks, staying a little bit flexible, but also following through with what you  say you're going to do. And then also creating space in theEvening for yourself to connect With your roommates, with your partner, with your spouse,Whatever it is, even to read a book and again, to fill that cup. So that way you're living a more balanced life instead of just go, go, go. And that allows you also to be in that creative flow. I would say the similarity between everything that I've mentioned is keeping it simple, make sure you keep it simple. And I would say, make sure you're trying it for at least 22 days to a month because a habit takes about 22 days to stick. And so make sure you're giving it a real try before you give up on it.

XX,

Carla Marconi - @carla11marconi 

Holistic Business Coach || Mindset & NLP Expert 

Breathwork & Yoga Facilitator || Hypnotherapist