Episode 55: A tip on prioritisation. Sort of.

00:49 Welcome to Unfrazzle, a podcast for solo business owners with the big vision who are ready for a kinder more sustainable approach to productivity. I'm Louise Miller and each week i share bite-sized insights to help you step away from the hustle stop faffing and stay focused so you can make your brilliant ideas happen and make a bigger impact in the world So grab yourself a cuppa and let's get started I was recently asked to share a tip on prioritisation and allocating time effectively for a conversation that was being recorded for an online community of around 350 business owners.

01:26 And this is a really bad habit that I need to try and break but whenever someone asks me a question like that, i often start my answer by saying that they probably won't be happy with what I'm about to say. Because in my head I'm thinking that people want a really straightforward just do this and everything will be fixed kind of an answer but as you'll know if you've been in my world for a while that's not how I do things So whilst I can share thoughts around what to do in the moment, and more on that in a second. I'm actually way more interested in what you can do ahead of time to avoid getting into a pickle where your stressed about your priorities day-to-day in the first place So I know that when things get busy there are in the moment decisions to make about what to do first and what can wait. And i know that when you're feeling up against it and you're a bit frazzled those decisions can start to feel impossible, kind of paralyzing so if you do find yourself in that situation then my number one piece of advice would be to step away for a moment and breathe

02:20 To literally get up, walk away and change your view. To settle your nervous system, get out of panic mode so that when you go back to your desk you are more able to think straight and I've got a free resource that can help you with that will help you get out of frantic and frazzle mode i'll pop a link in the show notes incase it's something you need right now But the thing is, in my experience prioritizing and deciding how to allocate your time is always going to be harder when you're doing it on the fly. So I'm just going to hit you with some science that I learned recently that helps to explain why that is. Apparently we all have two neural pathways underlying our executive function systems and those are a set of cognitive processes that allow us to plan, prioritize focus our attention and juggle multiple tasks

03:06 We have a hot executive function system which takes over when emotions are high, you know in the heat of the moment. And then there's the cool executive function and that's what's in charge when things feel calm and the stakes are lower we can quickly switch between the two but one usually overrides the other as you can imagine most people don't make logical decisions or problem solve effectively when their hot executive function system is dominant so when things are feeling a bit frantic and the emotions are high So if you're only ever thinking about what to prioritise when you're in that situation, when you're in a rush, when you're feeling up against it chances are you won't make the best choices. Which is why it's far better to decide ahead of time when your call executive function is in charge and the best way I know to get your call executive function online is to step out of the chaos and take a pause and as I've said you can do that in the moment when you are feeling up against it but if you take that pause proactively

04:03 Before things start to become stressful, you know whether that's the start of every quarter, start of every month, every week, every day. If you can take that pause then to think about what's important, to make some intentional choices about where you want to invest your precious time energy and attention then you will know ahead of time what you want to prioritise on what can wait And it will be so much easier. So that's not to say that you will always be able to stick to the plan that you made when you were feeling calm and in control, because life happens tech breaks new opportunities appear out of the blue You will need to shift and adjust your priorities from time to time and that doesn't mean that you've done anything wrong but when you stop to pause regularly or when you've got a plan that you can refer back to you'll soon start to notice if you're allowing other people's priorities to override your own

04:51 You'll be able to spot when you're allocating time to things that actually weren't all that important. And if the things are important to you keep not getting done, you'll notice that too and you will be able to do something about it So as you can tell, this isn't really a quick tip on prioritisation and allocating time effectively but is something that you can do starting right now That I know could make a big difference when it comes to actually getting the important stuff done so 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