When it comes to reducing stress that comes from feeling disorganized in life, many of us turn to planning as the solution. However, why is it that you’re still overwhelmed although you plan on a consistent basis. In this episode of the Routine and Things Podcast, I share what is truly contributing to the stress you feel and what to do about it. Tune in to learn the reason you’re still stressed after planning.
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Ashley Brown 0:00 [Intro]
When it comes to reducing stress that comes from feeling disorganized in life, many of us turn to planning as the solution. However, why is it that you're still overwhelmed although you plan on a consistent basis. In this episode of the routine and things podcast, I share what is truly contributing to the stress you feel and what to do about it. Tune in to learn the reason you're still stressed after planning.
Ashley Brown 0:39
Reduce daily stress and keep overwhelm at bay using the routine and things planner, our one of a kind planner merges routines and planning to help you get organized and stay organized, you'll build and incorporate routines into your life little by little, and using the signature routine block planning method you'll organize your weekly tasks into four routine categories to maintain a strong foundation for your home and your life, the things that typically get lost in the day to day shuffle will now be brought to the forefront every single week, which will help you lessen stress and avoid becoming overwhelmed. To get your very own routine and things planner. Be sure to head to routineandthings.com or click the link in the show notes.
Ashley Brown 1:22
Hey, hey, welcome back for another episode of the routine and things podcast. I'm your girl Ashley. And so thank you for joining me today. Alright girl, before we even get into today's topic, which is I feel like so juicy. This is a topic that is really close to my heart. This is something that I'll always try to stress to women who are feeling disorganized in their life or feeling like you're not managing life. Well. This is something that I constantly want to stress to you. And so I'm just super excited to dive into it. But before I get into the reason why you're still stressed after planning, I want to share with you that the morning routine show is currently in effect it is going on right now over on Instagram at routine and things. The morning routine show is a show that I do every single week up until December 21, where I'm going to be giving you a holistic view of routines, what they are, which ones are really great for you to have on board, how to stay consistent because I know this is what many of you struggle with and people struggle with when it comes to routines.
Ashley Brown 2:26
And so I want to be able to give you some information on that and some insight and perspective about it. And this is also to gear us up for the routine and things accelerator which is going to be coming back starting January 1. And so if you want to catch my Instagram lives and catch the morning routine show, be sure that you're following me over on Instagram at routine and things. And if you also want to learn more about the routine and things accelerator be sure to go to the link in the show notes as well as you can check it out at routineandthings.com/accelerator is an amazing program. And I'm not just saying that because I'm the host of it, it truly is and will change your life. So if you want to learn about the routine things accelerator be sure to head to the link in the show notes. Alright, so let's go ahead and get into today's topic, which is the reason you're still stressed after planning.
Ashley Brown 3:17
And what I mean by this is maybe when you plan you're like my life still feels overwhelming. And like I'm planning on a consistent basis. I don't understand why I'm still stressed people say this is going to help me not be stressed. Right? People say this will help me to organize my life planning if I just plan out things is going to help and I won't be as stressed, especially when feeling disorganized. And so I'm sharing with you today and giving you huge insight and perspective about why this is still occurring. Like why you are still stressed and overwhelmed. Although you plan on a consistent basis, because I'm pretty sure that if you're listening to this, you are still feeling stressed and overwhelmed. And you probably just sat down and planned sometime this week. So or you're about to so I want to share this perspective with you. And here's the thing, you know, just if you've been following me for a while my perspective about reducing stress when it comes to feeling disorganized, and that is that you need planning and routines in synergy.
Ashley Brown 4:25
Like that is the basis of routine and things is that it's not just planning is not going to save you like you need routines on board. And so I'm sharing this IG live to give you that perspective and to dive deeper into this conversation so that you can understand what's truly needed for you to really shift your life in a way to where you're avoiding overwhelm and where you're reducing daily stress consistently. So let's go ahead and get into this IG live which I think you're going to absolutely find super duper helpful. Today we are going to be discussing why planning is not your only option. Let's talk about this today. I think this is a great conversation to have. Because if right now you are in a season of life where life feels a bit overwhelming for you, and you're looking for options and solutions to remedy this, I want you to know that planning is not your only option. And I say this, I want to have this conversation because I'm always thinking about y'all. I'm always like, what's gonna help my women bring about more ease, what's going to help women live lives that they truly enjoy, because we do a lot in our lives, let's be honest.
Ashley Brown 5:39
And I want to be able to help you move beyond the stress and the overwhelm, and the business that we can feel so much in life that weighs us down. And so when I was thinking about this one thought came to me, it's like many times when we are looking for solutions to get organized to stay organized, we first want to go to planning. I mean, can you attest to that? I know that that was for me, at a certain point in life. Do you have a planner right now? Is that the way that you're like, This is how I'm gonna stay organized in my life? If so just put me in the chat. But that's the first place that we typically go is, oh, I need to go get me a planner, I need to go to Target real quick. Let me give me a planner. Let me research the best planner out here. And I don't want to I don't want for you to think that I don't love planning because I sell planners. That's not the thing, planning is an option. But what I want for you all to realize is that planning is an option. And planning depending on what season of life that you're in is not the best option. Okay?
Ashley Brown 6:46
Yes, I have said that planning depending on which season of life that you are in what you're going through in that season planning is not always the best first option for you to take when it comes to getting organized. And even staying organized. Because planning is only a plan is not you taking action. And in order to make progress. And to get to a space where you feel like you are able to manage the things on your plate, you are able to manage all the moving parts in your life, you have to take action and planning is not action oriented. It's a plan that you intend to take action on. But as you already know, and as I am well aware of just because we make a plan doesn't mean that plan is going to come to fruition, right? And so that's where sometimes we struggle with this thought of but I'm planning Why do things not feel better, if you've ever thought that that that makes sense. It's like I'm doing something that people say can help me in my life, I'm doing something that people say if you plan, life is gonna get better for you.
Ashley Brown 7:49
That's not always the case. And it's not always true. Because in order for you to feel the effects of planning, like in order for you to feel the effects of planning, you need two things, you have to be able to carry out your plan. And you also have to be able to stay consistent with your planning. Let's be very clear. In order for planning to help you get and stay organized. You have to be able to carry out that plan and stay consistent with planning. And if you have ever struggled and if you're struggling right now with carrying out the plans that you say if you're struggling right now with staying consistent with your planning is not helping you is it, right? Because that's what we need. And so that's why I say it's an option. But depending on your season of life, it is not the best option for you. It's not the best first option. If you don't know my story, I was a stay at home mom for two and a half years. And I eventually went back to work. I was nurse educator for over six years during the transition of me being a working mom to a stay at home mom, when I transitioned to that role of stay at home mom, it was super rough for me.
Ashley Brown 8:50
And so I'm speaking about this today because one of the options are the first option I went to in order to feel better in my life as a stay at home mom and in order to get my life together because child it was was in shambles. Honey, it wasn't shambles. And I was type A and I was an overachiever. And I was like, Wait, what's going on? Because if I was able to handle being a working mom, why is it stay at home mom life not working out for me. So my first option, the first option that I went to was planning that was the first thing I decided to do is start planning because it had always worked in my life, like planning has always worked. But at that moment in time in that season of life when I was in the thick of it when I was really trying to get things together and really manage what was on my plate, a high stress season overwhelming season. Planning did not work for me. Planning did not work for me. Now it works in a moment in certain ways, right? Because planning does help in certain ways.
Ashley Brown 9:47
It helps to give you clarity because you get to get what's in your mind onto paper. It can help to ease a little bit of stress in that moment. And it can also help to ease a little bit of anxiety in the moment but that's only in the moment. So it was helping me in that moment. But as I would go throughout my week, I'm like, wait, I planned and I'm not feeling better, though I planned but my mornings are still chaotic. I plan but I'm still going to sleep with random thoughts in my head. I planned but I still can't keep this laundry washed, what in the world is going on? And when I started to question, that's when I came upon the fact that I needed routines more than planning. That's how this business got started, I started building routines one by one, a bunch of trial and error to figure out what works and routines were the thing that helped in that season of life. Because I was able to build routines to help me with my morning flow, I was able to build routines to help me brain dump at night and journal so that I was not going to be able all these racing thoughts.
Ashley Brown 10:51
I built the routine around my laundry, I have shared it here on this platform on Instagram, my three day laundry routine, that was a godsend. And I built a routine around my planning. That's the thing about routines. That's why routines are a great and amazing option when you are in seasons of overwhelming seasons of busy and seasons where you are like, Why does my life not feel good? Because routines can solve almost any problem. And they're gonna help you consistently get to the outcome that you desire in your life where it's planning is only in the moment that is helping you routines have a ripple effect in your life that can help you more after that routine is even done. Because when my mornings flow well, the rest of my day flows well, right? Yeah, we might have some tiny stressors that come up. But I'm like, You know what, I can handle this because my morning started off great. You know, when I get enough sleep, I am prepared for the next day, I can wake my butt up instead of pressing snooze five different times, right?
Ashley Brown 11:52
So routines have ripple effects in your life that planning doesn't have. So when you are in overwhelming seasons, if you're in a season right now that feels like that, I want you to know, there's an option for you to move beyond that. And that's routines right now, planning still can help you. But when you are stressed, sometimes it can be hard to even carry out the plan. And it can be hard for you to stay consistent because life is up down up down constantly. So when you're looking for options and solutions to managing the things on your plate, to managing all of the moving parts in your life, I always want you to consider routines always hands down, I had to let y'all know about that. Because the one thing that I consistently think about is how in this world, the first thing that's really thrown out to us and what we have knowledge about is planning. And I do think that planning is helpful. It is a powerful tool. But planning only works in certain ways. And in the moment, if you are not consistent with carrying out your plans, and you're not consistent in planning in general planning is not going to be helpful for you.
Ashley Brown 13:03
But the thing that routines do is build and strengthen your consistency. So if you even struggle with being consistent with planning, having a routine that you can do around planning can help you become more consistent. Even the fact of you having another routine that's not planning for example, you may have a morning routine or exercise routine that you do that strengthens your consistency. Consistency is consistency doesn't matter how you're strengthening it. So if you strengthening it through your exercise routine, it can also be transferred to helping you build consistency with something else for example, planning. So that's what I love so much about routines and why I am always a proponent of build you a routine. Learn how to build and maintain routines. Because once you know and you have mastered the art of building and maintaining routines, girl you can change your life and you have the solutions like you have the solution your back pocket.
Ashley Brown 14:00
Something come up and you're like, Oh, we haven't a problem with this consistently. I know what can help with this a routine and because you have mastered building and maintaining a routine, you know how to solve problems. Life is about solving problems that arise and if you want to solve problems in your life routines are the bomb.com Hands down. Okay? So I wanted to just share that with you today and get you to really thinking about how planning is not your only option is an option. But if you're in a season where you're in high stress, and you just are not feeling good in life because it's unmanageable, right now, don't go to planning first. Yes, you can still plan still do it. Get to a routine as well. Start building and maintaining your routines. Okay, that's it for today. Enjoy the rest of your day and I'll talk to y'all soon. Bye.
Ashley Brown 14:57
Girl. What did you think about the IG live? I mean, did it not just help you get your life I remember when I did the IG live and I knew when I did, I was like someone is going to get their life, they're going to gain some perspective, that's going to be super helpful for them right now. And I really think that was doing this live was a reason why many of the women who join the accelerator actually joined is because they started to understand Oh, that's the issue. That's the reason why I'm still overwhelmed and stressed is because oh, I need better routines in my life and so coupled with planning, so I'm super excited that I was able to share that with you. And hopefully that did bring you a certain perspective that will shift the way you think about saying organized your life and reducing stress and overwhelm on a consistent basis.
Ashley Brown 15:46
And so hopefully that was helpful for you and gave you some perspective about what's really needed to shift your life and reduce stress and overwhelm consistently and like I share that's having planning and routines that work in synergy with each other. As I stated at the top of the episode, the morning routine show is going on right now over on Instagram at routine and things. Be sure to follow me over there if you want to catch me live. While I talk about routines in a really holistic way and share some perspective and insight with you there as well as the routine and things accelerator you can request to join right now.
Ashley Brown 16:28
You can learn more about it by going to the link in the show notes or go to routineandthings.com/accelerator to request to join doors are going to be opening January 1, and I don't want you to miss it. Especially if you feel as if you need these core routines up and going in your life in order to bring about less stress and more peace of mind and having the supportive practices that will give you a foundation and a place to land in your life consistently. So that is there for you. But hopefully you enjoyed this episode. Until next time, continue to enjoy wherever you are, whatever you're doing, stay happy girl and I will talk to you soon.
Ashley Brown 17:06 [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