Do you have a neverending to do list that constantly stresses you out. Maybe you’re wondering if it is even possible to keep up with your to do list. In this episode of the Routine and Things Podcast, I’m sharing 3 ways to get through your to do list with more ease and less stress. Let’s get into it.
Word for Word
Ashley Brown 0:00
Do you have a never ending to do list that constantly stresses you out? Maybe you're wondering if it is even possible to keep up with your to do list? Well in this episode of the routine and things podcast, I'm sharing three ways to get through your to do list with more ease and less stress. Let's get into it
Ashley Brown 0:36
back in 2018 When I was a stay at home mom struggling to manage my household and my sanity, I decided to use planning to get more organized. I went to the store, I grabbed a really simple planner. When I got home, I opened it up just to stare at the lines on the page for 10 minutes. Then after some time, I decided you know what, let me plan based upon the areas of my life I was constantly thinking about in managing Long story short, I stumbled upon a new way of planning that changed the way I organized my days. It's called the routine block planning method, which helps you simplify your planning by organizing daily tasks into four routine categories, self care, family, cleaning, and cooking. And lucky for you, I put together a free training that tells you all about it. In this free 15 minute video training, you'll learn how to get organized using the routine block planning method. You'll learn how it works, and why is the solution to living a more organized life. To start watching head to routine and things.com forward slash training or just click the link in the show notes. Hey, and welcome back for another episode of the routine and things podcast I am your girl Ashley Brown. And I am very excited to be able to talk to you today about how you can keep up with your to do list. But before we get into today's episode, I do want to share that the routine and things planner is coming back September 25. Girl almost here is right around the corner, the planner will be out for you it will be up for grabs and we will have a limited supply. So if you want to get a routine and things planner this year, they are the bomb.com Definitely make sure that you notify yourself by either putting a reminder in your phone or adding it to your calendar so that you know September 25, the routine and things planner is back in stock.
Ashley Brown 2:35
This planner is amazing because it merges the art of planning and routines. And when those two organizational tools are working in synergy when they're working together, it can really impact the way that you live out your life, it will impact your to do list in such a beautiful way you will feel as if you are not getting behind as much that you're able to keep up with the things that actually matter to you. And that you feel good in your life. Because that's super important. A huge mission here at routine and things is to help women stress less and really live more and live life with more ease. And when you feel good. The world is better for it every single time. And so yeah, so that will be out yet again, September 25, the routine and things planner, you can check it out at routine and things.com forward slash plan. Or you can also check it out at the link in the show notes.
Ashley Brown 3:39
Alright, so for this episode, like I said, we're talking about how to keep up with your to do list. And I wanted to bring this back. I feel like I've talked about this multiple times on the podcast. But I think a refresher is still valuable. I think that sometimes we have to hear I don't even think I know that we have to hear things multiple times in order for things to really sink in. And also every time we hear something we can gain something maybe different from it or have more of a different perspective or get a piece of insight that we didn't get the last time and so I'm going to be talking about how to keep up with your to do list sharing three ways that will help you to keep up with your To Do lists. And so I am hoping that this is very very helpful for you because it is fall right going into Fall season which means life gets a little bit busier with kids being back in school and extracurricular activities and you working either working in your home or working outside of the home or working you know with your kids in the home whatever.
Ashley Brown 7:22
Like if I made an appointment, and I put it in my calendar on my phone, I'm not putting it on my paper to do lists is no need, right, because now I'm creating this long list or I have this long list and the things aren't really necessary to be on that list. And my brain starts to perceive that I have so much to do. And here I go getting overwhelmed and stressed right. And maybe you have experienced this for yourself. So you really want to identify what really needs to be on your to do list. And this is one thing that I love about the routine and things planner is I really help you capture what really needs to be on your To Do lists and a very simple and effective way through the routine block planning method. That is intentional for you to not overcrowd your day or overcrowd your week, because it's not helpful. And you want to make sure that you are actually putting the things that matter most on your to do list that things are actually needed to get done. Versus just all of the fluff. Okay, so that's the first way that you can keep up with your To Do lists is by identifying what really needs to be on your To Do lists like home stuff, stuff for the kids.
Ashley Brown 8:41
things for yourself. For the routine block planning method, there are four key categories for routine categories, self care, children cooking, and cleaning. And those are like hallmarks of your life. Those are key areas in your life that are constantly going to need to be tended to. And so those things matter when you're talking about what you're going to accomplish throughout your day or throughout your week, those four things really matter. And so you really want to get really familiar, not even familiar, you really want to capture that on your to do list. What matters what really needs to be there, cut out all of the fluff. Okay, the second thing while the second way to keep up with your To Do lists, this can be really helpful and that is highlighting three things to accomplish each week.
Ashley Brown 9:43
So of course you have a list of things that you need to get done whether you're putting on a sheet of paper, whether you're putting inside of your planner, whether you're typing in your computer on your phone, you probably have a list of things you need to get done for any given week or even you You may have to do lists that you add to throughout the year. In any case, when we're talking about like getting things done throughout the week, and like a weekly to do lists, what can be really helpful is highlighting the three top things that you want to accomplish by the end of the week. And making that a focus for you. What this really does is it helps you chip away little by little at your to do list, instead of feeling like you're such in a rush to get the to do list checked off. Let me just say right now, no need to rush checking off a to do list, because I'm going to let you know right now the things that are very important that you need to get done will get done, they always do. If you look at this past, like even few days or the past week, the things that really needed it needed to get done, got done. Like for example, in this past week, my girl started back at school and we needed to get school supplies and shopping done. I got shopping done probably about four days before they started school, my partner got shopping done, their father got shopping done, probably about two days before they started back, the things that need to get done are going to get done, the things that are super important are going to float to the top. Typically, it is the things that aren't super critical, that kind of gets pushed down on the bottom of the list. And so in knowing this, you can every week, take three things, highlight three things on your list that you want to make sure you accomplish. And some of those things can be like the low bearing fruit.
Ashley Brown 11:52
Because like I said, the priorities are going to get done. If they are critical they're going to happen. But maybe it's the low hanging fruit that just keeps getting pushed down at the bottom. And maybe that can be a method or something that for you to think about is let me take at least two of the things that are low bearing, let me take these two tasks, and really focus on getting these two low bearing fruit tasks done. And then I can put a priority on there too. Or you could choose three of the low bearing tasks, or low bearing fruit tears, you get what I'm saying. So that is that can be something for you to think about and start to implement. When it comes to keeping up with your To Do lists, I think it could be really, really helpful, because you probably have heard of like the top three per day, like choose choosing three things each day to accomplish. If you do this each week, and you choose three things off of your to do list to get done, when you have more time to get it done. So it's more than likely going to get done. And each week, you're just chipping away at that to do list. And before you know it, much of the things that were low on your to do list are getting checked off, they're getting removed from the list. And what you'll find is that the only things that are typically left on your list are the things that you're already in routine with, or the things that you just need to be reminded of like appointments, and so on and so forth. So that's the benefit of this. So definitely try highlighting three things to accomplish each week when you are putting together your To Do lists. Last but certainly not least, is Do not stress, keeping up with your To Do lists. And this is more of mindset work. I know that you probably love the really tactical, practical things, right? The practical application of things, what can I actually do because it feels good for us to have tangible things we can accomplish and do. But I'm telling you right now, if your mindset is not in the right space, if you don't have a certain perspective about your to do list is going to hinder you from keeping up with it.
Ashley Brown 14:16
So the one thing I don't want you doing is stressing keeping up with your to do list, there's no need to stress about it. Like I said, the things are going to get done. Okay, instead of thinking how will I get all of these things done on my list? Think was one thing I can check off of my to do list today. That's all you have to do. It doesn't have to be this stress and like oh my gosh, I have so much to do. We all have things to do. All of us, every single person you go near and you go past got things to do. We all have a full to do lists, whether it is in our heads on paper or on a computer. We all have things we have to accomplish and get done in this lifetime. Right? That's the journey we're on. So no need to stress if we know It is what it is, it is what it is. Don't stress getting a to do list checked off. And one thing that you can do if you're finding that that perfection is Brian is really getting to you, where you want to really like check off these things and it's really overwhelming you and bringing you a lot of anxiety and causing you to just not feel good is I would say remove even you know, if you put checkboxes next to your things, remove those, if you are really kind of addicted to that rush of checking off things. And that's why you're feeling anxious when you can't check off things, stop checking off things, I don't know, started scratching it off, just don't don't even touch it, trying to like trick your brain in a way. So that is not the stressor for you. But that this is actually just a part of your life. It's a part of what you do is just a natural part of you live in life is having a to do list that probably won't end and it won't to be honest. our to do list the things we need to get done never ends. And that's another thing for you to think about is that it's not going to end that's not the goal. Our goal is not to check off everything on our to do lists. Our goal is to accomplish the things that are important to us right? In our lives during our days during our weeks. That's what's important. Not so much of oh, I just have to get all of these things done.
Ashley Brown 16:26
Because they nobody coming around handing out no trophies or money. If you get it done, let's remember that. It would be nice if you could give me a good hefty bag of money. If I got my To Do Lists accomplished by the end of the week, when we all have our things done, right. So yes, just remember, don't stress, don't stress things are going to get done. But if you have stress that is hindering you that for me, it really does. It hinders you from getting your to do list done, it hinders you from getting things accomplished when your mind is foggy from stress. So just don't stress, Don't stress it. Alright, those are the three ways. And how you can keep up with your To Do lists is really, you know, identifying what really needs to be on your To Do lists, highlight and three things to accomplish each week. And then also not stressing keeping up with your list is not it's going to be a never ending list. And that's fine. That's a part of life. Mindset matters. Don't overcrowd your to do list to please what really needs to be on there and tackle little by little.
Ashley Brown 17:42
Hopefully this was helpful. As I talked about in the beginning of this episode, the routine and things planner will be back in stock September 25. I'm super excited for this restock. And hopefully you're able to grab one you can read all about the routine and things planner at routine and things.com forward slash plan or click the link in the show notes. Thank you for joining me today. I've really enjoyed talking to you about this. And also make sure you check out the podcast as other episodes there are about getting your To Do lists together and making sure that you're able to keep up with things in your life. If you're feeling stressed right now deep breath girl is going to be it's going to be fine. It's all going to work itself out. I'm even telling myself that okay, but until next time, continue to enjoy wherever you are, whatever you're doing. Stay happy girl and I will talk to you next week.
Ashley Brown 18:37
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 routine and things.com Here's to staying happy
Do you have a never ending to do list that constantly stresses you out? Maybe you're wondering if it is even possible to keep up with your to do list? Well in this episode of the routine and things podcast, I'm sharing three ways to get through your to do list with more ease and less stress. Let's get into it
Ashley Brown 0:36
back in 2018 When I was a stay at home mom struggling to manage my household and my sanity, I decided to use planning to get more organized. I went to the store, I grabbed a really simple planner. When I got home, I opened it up just to stare at the lines on the page for 10 minutes. Then after some time, I decided you know what, let me plan based upon the areas of my life I was constantly thinking about in managing Long story short, I stumbled upon a new way of planning that changed the way I organized my days. It's called the routine block planning method, which helps you simplify your planning by organizing daily tasks into four routine categories, self care, family, cleaning, and cooking. And lucky for you, I put together a free training that tells you all about it. In this free 15 minute video training, you'll learn how to get organized using the routine block planning method. You'll learn how it works, and why is the solution to living a more organized life. To start watching head to routine and things.com forward slash training or just click the link in the show notes. Hey, and welcome back for another episode of the routine and things podcast I am your girl Ashley Brown. And I am very excited to be able to talk to you today about how you can keep up with your to do list. But before we get into today's episode, I do want to share that the routine and things planner is coming back September 25. Girl almost here is right around the corner, the planner will be out for you it will be up for grabs and we will have a limited supply. So if you want to get a routine and things planner this year, they are the bomb.com Definitely make sure that you notify yourself by either putting a reminder in your phone or adding it to your calendar so that you know September 25, the routine and things planner is back in stock.
Ashley Brown 2:35
This planner is amazing because it merges the art of planning and routines. And when those two organizational tools are working in synergy when they're working together, it can really impact the way that you live out your life, it will impact your to do list in such a beautiful way you will feel as if you are not getting behind as much that you're able to keep up with the things that actually matter to you. And that you feel good in your life. Because that's super important. A huge mission here at routine and things is to help women stress less and really live more and live life with more ease. And when you feel good. The world is better for it every single time. And so yeah, so that will be out yet again, September 25, the routine and things planner, you can check it out at routine and things.com forward slash plan. Or you can also check it out at the link in the show notes.
Ashley Brown 3:39
Alright, so for this episode, like I said, we're talking about how to keep up with your to do list. And I wanted to bring this back. I feel like I've talked about this multiple times on the podcast. But I think a refresher is still valuable. I think that sometimes we have to hear I don't even think I know that we have to hear things multiple times in order for things to really sink in. And also every time we hear something we can gain something maybe different from it or have more of a different perspective or get a piece of insight that we didn't get the last time and so I'm going to be talking about how to keep up with your to do list sharing three ways that will help you to keep up with your To Do lists. And so I am hoping that this is very very helpful for you because it is fall right going into Fall season which means life gets a little bit busier with kids being back in school and extracurricular activities and you working either working in your home or working outside of the home or working you know with your kids in the home whatever.
Ashley Brown 7:22
Like if I made an appointment, and I put it in my calendar on my phone, I'm not putting it on my paper to do lists is no need, right, because now I'm creating this long list or I have this long list and the things aren't really necessary to be on that list. And my brain starts to perceive that I have so much to do. And here I go getting overwhelmed and stressed right. And maybe you have experienced this for yourself. So you really want to identify what really needs to be on your to do list. And this is one thing that I love about the routine and things planner is I really help you capture what really needs to be on your To Do lists and a very simple and effective way through the routine block planning method. That is intentional for you to not overcrowd your day or overcrowd your week, because it's not helpful. And you want to make sure that you are actually putting the things that matter most on your to do list that things are actually needed to get done. Versus just all of the fluff. Okay, so that's the first way that you can keep up with your To Do lists is by identifying what really needs to be on your To Do lists like home stuff, stuff for the kids.
Ashley Brown 8:41
things for yourself. For the routine block planning method, there are four key categories for routine categories, self care, children cooking, and cleaning. And those are like hallmarks of your life. Those are key areas in your life that are constantly going to need to be tended to. And so those things matter when you're talking about what you're going to accomplish throughout your day or throughout your week, those four things really matter. And so you really want to get really familiar, not even familiar, you really want to capture that on your to do list. What matters what really needs to be there, cut out all of the fluff. Okay, the second thing while the second way to keep up with your To Do lists, this can be really helpful and that is highlighting three things to accomplish each week.
Ashley Brown 9:43
So of course you have a list of things that you need to get done whether you're putting on a sheet of paper, whether you're putting inside of your planner, whether you're typing in your computer on your phone, you probably have a list of things you need to get done for any given week or even you You may have to do lists that you add to throughout the year. In any case, when we're talking about like getting things done throughout the week, and like a weekly to do lists, what can be really helpful is highlighting the three top things that you want to accomplish by the end of the week. And making that a focus for you. What this really does is it helps you chip away little by little at your to do list, instead of feeling like you're such in a rush to get the to do list checked off. Let me just say right now, no need to rush checking off a to do list, because I'm going to let you know right now the things that are very important that you need to get done will get done, they always do. If you look at this past, like even few days or the past week, the things that really needed it needed to get done, got done. Like for example, in this past week, my girl started back at school and we needed to get school supplies and shopping done. I got shopping done probably about four days before they started school, my partner got shopping done, their father got shopping done, probably about two days before they started back, the things that need to get done are going to get done, the things that are super important are going to float to the top. Typically, it is the things that aren't super critical, that kind of gets pushed down on the bottom of the list. And so in knowing this, you can every week, take three things, highlight three things on your list that you want to make sure you accomplish. And some of those things can be like the low bearing fruit.
Ashley Brown 11:52
Because like I said, the priorities are going to get done. If they are critical they're going to happen. But maybe it's the low hanging fruit that just keeps getting pushed down at the bottom. And maybe that can be a method or something that for you to think about is let me take at least two of the things that are low bearing, let me take these two tasks, and really focus on getting these two low bearing fruit tasks done. And then I can put a priority on there too. Or you could choose three of the low bearing tasks, or low bearing fruit tears, you get what I'm saying. So that is that can be something for you to think about and start to implement. When it comes to keeping up with your To Do lists, I think it could be really, really helpful, because you probably have heard of like the top three per day, like choose choosing three things each day to accomplish. If you do this each week, and you choose three things off of your to do list to get done, when you have more time to get it done. So it's more than likely going to get done. And each week, you're just chipping away at that to do list. And before you know it, much of the things that were low on your to do list are getting checked off, they're getting removed from the list. And what you'll find is that the only things that are typically left on your list are the things that you're already in routine with, or the things that you just need to be reminded of like appointments, and so on and so forth. So that's the benefit of this. So definitely try highlighting three things to accomplish each week when you are putting together your To Do lists. Last but certainly not least, is Do not stress, keeping up with your To Do lists. And this is more of mindset work. I know that you probably love the really tactical, practical things, right? The practical application of things, what can I actually do because it feels good for us to have tangible things we can accomplish and do. But I'm telling you right now, if your mindset is not in the right space, if you don't have a certain perspective about your to do list is going to hinder you from keeping up with it.
Ashley Brown 14:16
So the one thing I don't want you doing is stressing keeping up with your to do list, there's no need to stress about it. Like I said, the things are going to get done. Okay, instead of thinking how will I get all of these things done on my list? Think was one thing I can check off of my to do list today. That's all you have to do. It doesn't have to be this stress and like oh my gosh, I have so much to do. We all have things to do. All of us, every single person you go near and you go past got things to do. We all have a full to do lists, whether it is in our heads on paper or on a computer. We all have things we have to accomplish and get done in this lifetime. Right? That's the journey we're on. So no need to stress if we know It is what it is, it is what it is. Don't stress getting a to do list checked off. And one thing that you can do if you're finding that that perfection is Brian is really getting to you, where you want to really like check off these things and it's really overwhelming you and bringing you a lot of anxiety and causing you to just not feel good is I would say remove even you know, if you put checkboxes next to your things, remove those, if you are really kind of addicted to that rush of checking off things. And that's why you're feeling anxious when you can't check off things, stop checking off things, I don't know, started scratching it off, just don't don't even touch it, trying to like trick your brain in a way. So that is not the stressor for you. But that this is actually just a part of your life. It's a part of what you do is just a natural part of you live in life is having a to do list that probably won't end and it won't to be honest. our to do list the things we need to get done never ends. And that's another thing for you to think about is that it's not going to end that's not the goal. Our goal is not to check off everything on our to do lists. Our goal is to accomplish the things that are important to us right? In our lives during our days during our weeks. That's what's important. Not so much of oh, I just have to get all of these things done.
Ashley Brown 16:26
Because they nobody coming around handing out no trophies or money. If you get it done, let's remember that. It would be nice if you could give me a good hefty bag of money. If I got my To Do Lists accomplished by the end of the week, when we all have our things done, right. So yes, just remember, don't stress, don't stress things are going to get done. But if you have stress that is hindering you that for me, it really does. It hinders you from getting your to do list done, it hinders you from getting things accomplished when your mind is foggy from stress. So just don't stress, Don't stress it. Alright, those are the three ways. And how you can keep up with your To Do lists is really, you know, identifying what really needs to be on your To Do lists, highlight and three things to accomplish each week. And then also not stressing keeping up with your list is not it's going to be a never ending list. And that's fine. That's a part of life. Mindset matters. Don't overcrowd your to do list to please what really needs to be on there and tackle little by little.
Ashley Brown 17:42
Hopefully this was helpful. As I talked about in the beginning of this episode, the routine and things planner will be back in stock September 25. I'm super excited for this restock. And hopefully you're able to grab one you can read all about the routine and things planner at routine and things.com forward slash plan or click the link in the show notes. Thank you for joining me today. I've really enjoyed talking to you about this. And also make sure you check out the podcast as other episodes there are about getting your To Do lists together and making sure that you're able to keep up with things in your life. If you're feeling stressed right now deep breath girl is going to be it's going to be fine. It's all going to work itself out. I'm even telling myself that okay, but until next time, continue to enjoy wherever you are, whatever you're doing. Stay happy girl and I will talk to you next week.
Ashley Brown 18:37
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 routine and things.com Here's to staying happy