Ashley Brown 0:00 [Intro]
When you have a lot to do prioritization doesn't have to be hard. In this episode of the routine and things podcast, you'll learn three important questions to ask yourself when deciding your priorities. Listen up. Here's how to decide what to do when you have much to do.
Ashley Brown 0:33
Hey, girl, listen to this. You can't enjoy life if you're stressed from managing it. This is why I am so excited to share the great news. The routine and things planner is on presale. The routine and things planner is not your average planner. It goes above and beyond to help you get organized and in routine, so you enjoy the heck out of your life. If you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed and looking for a simple way to get organized, you're going to love this planner. The routine and things planner will help you organize what matters while also helping you incorporate healthy routines into your life. This planner is different than anything you've experienced. It uses routine blocking a planning method where you organize tasks into routine categories. It's a very simple planning method for organizing your week with ease, staying focused on your priorities. And keeping top of mind what matters including you imagine enjoying your life because you're able to manage what's on your plate without feeling overwhelmed by it. The routine and things planner is the solution. The planner will be on presale from now to July. But listen to this. If you order your planner in the month of May you get the early bird special, which includes 10% off the planner and free attendance to all of my 2023 routine classes. This is only available during the month of May. So don't miss out to be the first to order the routine and things planner, go to routineandthings.com/plan or click the link in the show notes.
Ashley Brown 2:15
H ey, Hey, and welcome back for another episode of the routine and things podcast. Okay, so in today's episode, we're talking about one of my favorite word's prioritization, because I think being able to prioritize things in your life is one sure way that you can ease a lot of stress and overwhelm is when we're able to decide what our priorities are and what do we need to do first, second, third, that's really helpful. It eases a lot of mental overload a lot of mental anxiety. And so today's episode, I think it's going to be really great for you, if you're struggling with deciding what to do, when you know you have a lot to do.
Ashley Brown 2:55
So let's dive into it. This one is going to be a quickie today. And so here's how you can decide what to do. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna preface this by saying these are questions I'm sharing with you. And these questions. I asked myself all the time, every week, even sometimes every day, depending on how my day looks, if it's going to be a little bit busy. I like to ask myself these questions. Often. I came up with these questions when I was a stay at home mom, because I was trying to I was using a planner, and the planner was just blank. You know how a lot of planners are blank, they leave the planet up to your interpretation.
Ashley Brown 3:34
Well, in that point in my life, that wasn't helpful for me. I'm like, wait, hold up, like what do I need to be thinking about? So then I started jotting down questions that I wanted to ask myself, and these are the three questions I came up with. And they are absolutely helpful when it comes to prioritizing because what I want to share with you is that prioritizing is all about making a decision. That's really all it is. Because where we struggle, this is where we struggle is when we have competing demands that are not that important. But we know we still need to get things done. What I mean by this is, you don't struggle with prioritizing the things that you know, gotta get done. No, you're gonna go to work, you're gonna feed yourself and the kids, you're gonna do those things, right?
Ashley Brown 4:18
The thing- you're gonna go to your child's game, you're gonna you're gonna go to that appointment, you do not struggle with things that you know you have to do. Because like these things are gonna get done. They have to get done, right? Where we struggle with prioritization is the things outside of what we have to do. And I'm putting 'have' in quotations. That's where we struggle with prioritization things like Oh, am I going to do the laundry? Or am I going to organize the pantry or am I going to start this project that I've been saying, I'm wanting to start? That's where we get into trouble with prioritization. Am I going to exercise today? So prioritizing is all about making a decision.
Ashley Brown 4:19
And moving forward with that decision, saying this is what I'm going to do first is what we do second, and that's it. The quicker you can make a decision, the quicker you can move forward in your life, you will hear me say that over and over again. But here are the three questions that you can ask yourself if you're struggling with prioritization, and you just need to make a decision and really think about what needs to happen and what you want to happen. The first question is, what's coming up that I need to prepare for? You ask yourself that question. What's coming up that I need to prepare for? This is a really great question that will help you with being proactive, not waiting to the last minute not procrastinating.
Ashley Brown 5:41
What's coming up that I need to prepare for? Maybe you have one of your children's birthday that's coming up, you want to prepare for that in advance. Maybe you have a work project that's coming up, you want to prepare for that in advance, maybe you have where I don't know you have an appointment that you need to go to you need to do something before that appointment that's coming up, you need to prepare for it. This is a really great question that will help you to stay proactive in your life. Because as I shared in a previous episode, being proactive will help you stay organized and on top of things.
Ashley Brown 6:16
Number two, second question, you can ask yourself, what have I been putting off? That must be done this week? What have I been putting off? That must be done? Now this is a question that will help you to catch up. Because for many of us, we have to catch up on things even myself, because I'm notorious for being like Yeah, I'm gonna make the appointment and I'm gonna make the appointment. Girl the appointment, ain't been made. And you need to make the daggone appointment. Child the appointment has not been made. So I will be like, Okay, what I've been putting off? Yeah, I need to make that appointment. Okay. And so this can help you catch up and stop procrastinating and just get it done. I love this question. Maybe what you've been putting off is cleaning your frigerator. That's disgusting. Maybe you've been putting off? I don't know, like I said making the appointment.
Ashley Brown 7:11
Maybe you've been putting off doing the laundry, not actually doing the laundry, but folding the clothes and putting them away. Maybe that's what you've been putting off? This question is super helpful. The last question to ask yourself that will help you with prioritization is what would make me extremely happy to do? What would make me extremely happy to do? This about you, girl. This is about you. What what makes you extremely happy to do? I love this question because it centers self care, which I think is really, really important. And you can answer this question in multiple ways. Maybe what would make you extremely happy to do is going to get your nails done this week? Maybe? Maybe what what make you extremely happy to do is doing a little bit of spring cleaning. It's up to you. It's about you girl, what would make you extremely happy to do?
Ashley Brown 8:10
But this question is awesome because it keeps you front and center. It centers your joy, what's going to bring you joy? These questions can be asked whenever you need for them to be asked. So monthly, weekly, daily, it doesn't matter. They are just great prioritization questions. And guess what? These questions are a part of the routine and things planner. They are questions that you will consider every single week when you go to plan. And one thing that these questions do is they help you to not forget certain things that's coming up. To not forget that you, yeah, you said you were going to do that thing and didn't do it is going to help you not forget about what's going to make you happy. I love these questions and you're going to consider them every week in the routine and things planner, this is the final week.
Ashley Brown 9:02
The final week that you can get the early bird special on the planner which is 10% off as well as free attendance to my 2023 routine classes. Don't miss out on this because especially if you're like you know what I really believe this planner will help me get it now. It's still going to be on presale in June and July is just not going to be the special on it so if you want to get in June July, be my guest. But if you know you've been looking at it or you go look at it today and you're like I truly believe this will be helpful get it while you can get it with this special. I know that you're gonna absolutely enjoy using this planner. It is awesome. If you want to get organized get into a routine so that you enjoy your life more so that you aren't as stressed that you are managing your stress managing your anxiety that may pop up every now and then that you want to have a plan in place that's simple to put in place the planner is very simple to use.
Ashley Brown 10:02
And what's so different about it is the routine blocking. The planning method where you organize tasks into categories, so that you keep things top of mind that matter, including yourself that you stay focused on your priorities and you organize your weeks with ease. Go check out the planner, go get it today,and I'm just so excited about it. Thank you for joining me today about thank you for joining me. If you want to check out the planner, read all about it, see what the planner is about. You can go to routineandthings.com/plan or click the link in the show notes. This was fun today. I hope you enjoyed it. But until next time, continue to enjoy wherever you are, whatever you're doing, Stay happy, and I'll talk to you soon.
Ashley Brown 10:46 [Outro]
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today's episode, take a screenshot and share it on social I would love to know you're listening. And for tools to help you start maintain and enjoy your routines. Be sure to head to routineandthings.com Here's to staying happy.