Episode 31: Ever had a week that went wrong?

00:00 Before we get going, I have an invitation for you. If you're ready to find out how much easier it becomes to get things done when you have Make It Happen Club in your life? The doors are open to new members right now and i would love for you to join us! So Make It Happen club is a calm quiet sanctuary where you get the clarity focus and motivation you need Hello and welcome to Unfrazzle with me Louise Miller. If you're a solo business owner and you have a big exciting vision and loads of ideas that you want to get out in the world but without drowning in a sea of overwhelm, then this is the podcast for you. Each week I'll be sharing bite-sized insights to help you stop faffing and stay focused so you can make your brilliant ideas happen and make a bigger impact in the world It's time to step away from the hustle and find a kinder more sustainable approach to productivity So grab yourself a cuppa and let's get started

01:31 Have you ever experienced a week where everything seemed to go wrong? If you're human, I'm guessing the answer is a resounding yes because life has this terrible habit of conspiring against even the best laid plans. So i'm pretty sure we've all been there and I thought it might be useful to share what went on during one of my own weeks that went wrong how my productivity was impacted and what I did about it so if you find it hard to adjust when things don't go according to plan I really hope that this will help So, a little while ago I cleared my diary for two whole weeks so that I could work on some projects that needed my attention and that I was really excited about.

02:11 But in the very first week, in fact before the first week even started things went a bit squiffy. So it all started on the Sunday evening my phone had been playing up and after some web-based research I realised that I needed to plug it into my laptop and five minutes later all the USB ports on my laptop stopped working meaning that I no longer had use of my mouse or keyboard which was not ideal But it was Sunday evening, I didn't want to stay up all night trying to fix it and so I went to bed. And then Monday morning came around and of course the problem hadn't magically fixed itself! So I spent several hours trying to fix the USB ports...and that didn't work.

02:56 Tom and I decided to take a break to construct some IKEA furniture. So our intention was that we would return to work later on in the day, so is it just me who always underestimates the amount of time it takes to assemble flat pack furniture? I don't know how many times I've done it will I never learn! You know even though we started in the afternoon with the intention of coming back to work It was actually about 9pm by the time we'd finished so no more work got done that day So then Tuesday rolls around and Tuesday morning I got a call from my parents and I unexpectedly needed to go an help with the family situation which meant postponing the calls that i'd got booked into my diary for that morning, and actually being out all morning. And my phone on my laptop were both still playing up

03:43 So, Wednesday rolls around and I jumped in the car and took my laptop in for repair. And thankfully they were able to fix it but obviously I was having to hang around while they were doing that so that was a load more time than I wasn't able to use in the way that I'd intended And then on Thursday I decided that i was going to try and fix my phone again. So, I plugged my phone into my laptop again and the same thing happened... The USB ports on my laptop stopped working again! At this point obviously I was annoyed at myself like why did I do that again? Obviously that was gonna happen again so I was getting annoyed with myself. I was starting to feel a bit frustrated and although you know I'd been using the mantra Breathe & Let Go all week

04:28 That Thursday tipped me over the edge and I could feel the lump in my throat which is my standard physical response to agitation and anxiety. And, I really just wanted to cry from frustration because of the beautiful spacious week that I'd got planned was slipping through my fingers! My laptop and phone were both still not working properly and I had hardly done any of the tasks that I had been so looking forward too. So what did I do? Well the first thing I did was have a mini strop because i think we've all allowed a bit of a tantrum from time to time and I obviously needed to get that out of my system. And then, I spent a moment thinking about what I had been able to achieve during my week and the things that I was grateful for about my week and that helped me to feel so much more grounded and get me out of the negative spiral that I was falling into. From that much more grounded place I figured that I had three choices

05:25 To help me move forward. Choice number one was to watch Netflix for the rest of the day, to just take my mind off it. Second option would be to ignore the broken technology and find other things to do so that I could end the week feeling a sense of accomplishment and the third choice as i saw it was that I could spend a bit more time trying to fix my laptop and my phone much as I didn't want to... And that was the moment that made all the difference realizing that I had those three options Right, because it helped me to see that I got to choose and actually which option i chose didn't really matter. If I'd have wanted to watch Netflix for the rest of the day because that's what I felt I needed... That would have been fine there was no right or wrong what mattered was that I was taking myself out of victim mode and making an intentional choice

06:17 And what I actually chose to do was option three, to fix the problem. Because i knew that the tech wasn't going to fix itself and I really didn't want to allow all of the frustration and all of the irritation that I'd felt that week to creep into the following week too so I chose that day not to run from the discomfort but just stay with the problem and to fix it So that I could have a really fun productive week the following week. So, I doubled down and spent the rest of that Thursday on the phone to the laptop repair people and doing all i could to resolve the tech problems And then once that was sorted I was able to recalibrate reset my expectations because you know at the end of the day The reality was that my two glorious weeks to work on my exciting projects had kind of turned into one

07:06 So instead of trying to squish everything into one week or feeling bad about what had happened, I remembered that I got to choose. So I took some time to decide what was most important and to decide what could wait. Did everything get done? No! But that doesn't mean that I can't acknowledge and celebrate everything that I did achieve. The moral of this story is not about whether I made the right choice of those three choices I suggested earlier as I say none of those choices were right or wrong The moral of the story is that even when things go wrong, you get to choose. And years ago I would have felt like an utter failure if that week had happened to me! The inner critic that lives in my head would have been having an absolute field day telling me how useless i am and i probably would have worked into the night because back then sticking with the plan would have felt more important than my own self-care and i'd have ruined my sleep and become increasingly wound up and cranky as a result

08:04 But as it happened, I got through those two weeks relatively unscathed. And yes, I may have felt sorry for myself a few times along the way – I think they call that being human? – but those moments were actually really short-lived and acknowledging the good things and remembering that I am the boss and get to choose how I respond made such a big difference to me! So what is your usual response when you have a day or week that goes wrong? Is there something you would like to do differently next time? I hope this helps and look forward to seeing you again soon. Thank you for listening to Unfrazzle, sharing is caring so if you loved this episode please share it on your socials or head over to Spotify iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts and leave me a review not only will i be hugely grateful your ratings and reviews will help others to find this podcast so that even more people can make their ideas happen thanks so much and see you next time