Episode 72: Piles of paper, post-its and panic (aka my past life)

00:51 Welcome to Unfrazzle, a podcast for solo business owners with a 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 Before we dive into today's episode, if you enjoy what I'm sharing here on Unfrazzle and you'd like to support the podcast. You can buy me a cuppa by going to BuyMeACoffee.com slash Louise Miller and making a one-off donation. I'll pop a link to that in the show notes. Okay grab yourself a cuppa and let's get started!

01:31 The year is 2015 and I'm working for a university managing a team of administrators and generally running around like a headless chicken. And dashing into my office after a meeting, i dump a pile of papers on my desk and gather what I need for the next thing then someone appears in my doorway asking if I could do them a quick favour so I grab a scrap of paper to scribble down what they're asking me to do that I don't forget And then as I quickly check my emails, I try desperately not to look at the post-its that are stuck to the screen. Some have been there so long i don't even really see them anymore and the fluorescent glow of others makes me feel a little bit nauseous

02:08 There are so many things I need to do buried in the pile of papers that i've just added too, but now is not the time to think about that. I have somewhere I need to be! So I grab my notebook lock the door behind me and rush off again ask anyone around me at that time and they would have described me as organized reliable in control and capable...and they were right I was great at getting stuff done. An expert juggler of a bazillion different things and i very, very rarely dropped the ball so from the outside looking in everything appeared absolutely fine but I knew better. I knew the toll that this was taking on my well-being. I felt exhausted overwhelmed and terrified of forgetting something or letting someone down and it really wasn't fun

02:52 So as you listen to that, you might think that the tasks were to blame for how I was feeling. That i had too much to do and not enough time but that wasn't the whole story! The problem wasn't how much I had to do...the problem was having no idea how much I had to do. The problem was having actions tasks and reminders scattered all over the place on those post-it notes stuck to my screen buried in the pile of paper that I just kept adding to And the overwhelm and the fear that plagued me during that time came from the not knowing. It came from the niggling feeling I'd forgotten something, that i was going to let someone down or drop an absolute clangor that would result in a world ending So at the root of the problem wasn't how much I had to do it was that I had no way of managing my to dos. Once I realised that and figured out what to do about it everything changed

03:46 I changed the way that i worked and suddenly, I felt super organized and could clearly see all of the things that I needed to do. Was there still too much to do? Yes! But now I felt empowered to say no or not now when someone asked for my help and I could see that I didn't have the capacity to take on anything else Now that I could see everything clearly, I could make decisions about what to do and what not to do. I finally felt in control and could focus on what was most important all because I found a way to structure my To-Do's so that they were no longer on a massive list that just kept getting longer... ...on scraps of paper buried under piles of paper or on post it stuck all over my computer Instead i'd found a way of getting them all in one place and into a system that would support me in actually getting stuff done

05:12 If that sounds like something you're interested in, I will pop a link to find out more in the show notes so you can go and check that out there. But whether or not you choose to join me for that adventure, I have a quick exercise that I would like to share with you today So what I want you to do is grab a piece of paper and pen And write a list of all of the places where you would need to look To get a full picture on your plate In your business and in your life So examples might be a paper diary, maybe you've got a family calendar post-it school trip stuck to the fridge. You might have lots of different apps on your phone that have got all of this stuff in maybe some project management systems on your computer I want you to list out all of the places that you would need to look to get a full picture of what you have on your plate and then notice how many places do you have on that list?

06:00 And I just want you to remember that when you can't easily see everything that's going on, it is overwhelming. When you have no clear overview it's really hard to know whether you should say yes or no to new opportunities that come your way and then you might find yourself over committing which can end up leading to stress and overwhelm so if you have a long list of places that you would need to look to find out everything that is on your plate just have a little think about what you could do to consolidate that And as always, I hope that this helps and I look forward to seeing you again soon. Thank you for listening to Unfrazzle. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend who needs a dose of calm productivity in their life and I'd love it if you could leave me a rating and a review as that will help more people discover this podcast. If you'd like to hear more from me to help you stop faffing and take back control of your time, you'll find a link to join my mailing list in the show notes and I would really love for you to join us so thanks so much for your support and I look forward to seeing you next time!