Ep #27: Planning: Reduce Overwhelm & Get More Done

Welcome to Empowered Wellness for Leaders, a podcast that teaches CEOs, entrepreneurs and sales leaders how to deal with the unique challenges of balancing a high-stress career, family, AND their own health. Here’s your host, Certified Executive Wellness Coach, Diana Murphy.

Oh good morning, I had the most amazing weekend. I did one of my favorite, favorite things. I held a retreat at my home and once again, we all learned something, because there?s so much to learn from each other, and really set our minds ? like I?m going to share with you a little bit today ? on what we want to be doing in the next 30 days.

So you?re going to get a little bonus today because that?s what I created for these amazing clients on Saturday and it just naturally came out of the podcast today. And so that?s one of my planning tools for you.

Another thing that I really am reminded, and I bet there?ll be a podcast soon for this, is how I gave myself permission on Sunday because I had worked so hard all week getting that event put together in addition to all the other regular work I was doing. I took an entire day to do whatever I wanted.

And what?s so fascinating is I did all those things that you think that a girl might do on a weekend. I had retail therapy, I read my favorite magazine. It?s interesting, I did not watch television, but I got a healthy walk to go out for breakfast. I got really creative about how I wanted to spend my time.

And as a result, I did pay my bills, I did write my podcast, a lot actually got done. And I only did it if I really felt like doing it, so it really was a great experience. So I was able to take that amazing day off and still get so much done last week because of what I?m bringing you today.

Alright, so what I?m bringing you today is an opportunity to be a really good strategic planner in some very simple, simple ways that can really give you a powerful result; that is my goal.

Alright, I might have been teased a bit during my life by my family because I can be a bit of an over-planner, but it did not come naturally. Left to my own devices, I?m distractible and planning has become a power tool for me to get more done, to honor how I most want to be spending my time, and to be living in a way around wellness, my diet and exercise, in a way that I know really works for me.

And I know it has made a huge difference in helping me to grow in my business, to hit mu goals there, and at the same time, really resting, playing, having vacation time, hitting goals. It all has come around being very different in how I?ve been planning.

So I want to share with you what I?ve learned, what I?m learning from others, of these things I?m still learning and it?s this outcome I want for you. Planning decreases overwhelm, it will help you to hit new goals and it will bust moments of resistance when you?re out of energy or when you?re tempted, like weekends when everything?s about play.

Planning ahead of time really can help you be much more consistent around all the things you want to be doing in your life. And of course, I focus on wellness, my friends, because that is my gig. But I also know that how we do one thing, it will really release you and help you to do it in many areas of your life.

I have three powerful planning solutions that are not only for those small moments, but for handling those weeks that can be really ? I call them on-steroids ? your big weeks that are overwhelming when you have so much to get done. The tools that I?m offering you today can help you there as well.

The reason that I know that this is so important to our health is ? and correct me if I?m wrong ? when you travel, when you have a really big deadline, when you?re growing in your business or have some really new goals in front of you, what is the first thing to go? Yep, eating lean and green, buying fresh food, cooking, working out, shopping fresh, resting, planning, doing the things that are really important in your life.

We kind of get in our life, our wellness usually is the first to go and as your coach, I know that there?s so many times, if you?re that type-A person like myself, that you put yourself last in the self-care category. And you know, in the end, your business will suffer and sometimes your health.

Let that not be our story by doing just some of these small tweaks. So I?m going to give you a 30-day mini-habit focus. I?m going to give you an opportunity to plan your week by popping into your calendar twice a week and to look at your night before planning in a new way by just giving it 15 minutes ? just 15 minutes people.

Alright, so the 30-day mini-focus, it?s taking one small habit and do it for 30 days. So is there just one small focus that you want to change in your health? There?s a lot of ideas, we want to do it all because we think we have to work out all the time or we have to eat right all the time. I want you to just stop and take a breath.

What is one small thing around food that you could shift for 30 days? Could it be just watching sugar? Could it be just watching your alcohol intake? Could it be just being mindful of exercise? I want to share with you a story, and this is how I work with clients that are working to lose weight permanently. And it is around one of the tools and this can be your small thing, choosing one part of a tool that really works for you, one small facet.

I was working with a client. He?s a sales guy. He calls himself the salesperson since birth; my favorite. And during our work together, he wanted to do it all. He?s not a perfectionist but really a high achiever and, ?Wait, I can do it all, Diana, I can do it all.? And I helped him to break it down so he could really dig in on one small facet of the hunger scale.

So when we started working together, he did notice that he was overeating a lot and so what we first started on was the top side of the hunger scale. I helped him to focus just on practicing for 30 days and really almost for two or three weeks to just focus on the plus side of the hunger scale; just that side.

So if you like my tools, if you?ve worked with me before, what is one small facet that you know will make a difference this month? And so that?s what he did. And before you know it, he wasn?t really overeating very much. That became an intuitive skill.

Well then, after looking in his journal together, he realized that I noticed that he wasn?t eating very much at all on Fridays and he was kind of saving for weekends. I used to do this all the time. And so I knew that if he started honoring the negative side of the hunger scale, that he would eat more during those days and not put it off. Like a lot of times, we put off eating in the afternoon and then we work out and we?re famished and we overeat at night.

So if this is you, how could honoring just hunger, am I hungry, and kind of check in during the day, and for 30 days, that?s all you practiced. And he did that and literally changed his weekends because what was happening for him, he was going to almost minus five on the hunger scale on Fridays and then overeating mostly Friday night and maybe most of the day Saturday. And that?s really our body going, oh my god, you have been depriving me so now I?m going to make up for it.

And by focusing on this very small side, he changed everything. So what is it for you? Pick one very, very small eating tool and just honor that for 30 days. Or is it on exercise. For you, what are just some activities you?d love to plug into your calendar? What do you love to do? What is your body craving to do?

If you?re not moving at all, I encourage you to pick something very, very simple. Again, you?re going to be doing this for 30 days. And then one thing that you can do 20 minutes at a time, just two times a week, that?s it, for 30 days. That?s eight workouts this month. It probably will be more. But answer those questions, what do you love to do, what are you craving to do? Is it fresh air? Is it one more sweaty workout? Is it getting some weight-work in?

Again, if you?re not moving at all, just get moving. Make it very simple; walk and maybe one exercise class a week. And then for those that are really, really active, take one small addition that you know you want to do. Maybe if you?re running a lot, you want to get a yoga in, even if it?s just a 20-minute video.

And for the next 30 days, focus on that one new thing during the week, at least a couple of times a week, for 20 minutes to get some consistency. Alright, or for you, is your 30-day plan where you want to focus your attention, where you want to be planning around your work?

What is one small consistent thing that you can do to grow your career or your business? Is it reading more? Is it reading about leadership? Is it having mentor conversations? Is it picking up the phone more if you?re in sales? Is it getting out there more, attending networking events? Is it preparing proposals to speak at more events? Is it reading more? Is it engaging more with people if you?re on Facebook, if you?re an entrepreneur and you have a tribe?

Just pick one small thing and over the next 30 days, point your brain in that direction. This is one of the most powerful ways that you can create an amazing, either an intuitive way of taking care of your body, around food or exercise, or hitting a new goal in your business. I can?t wait to hear what you do, but one small thing for 30 days. So that?s the 30-day plan.

My next planning tool is called the Sunday Thursday Flyover. This has two purposes. One ? it helps us take control of our week and manage the week as well as it really busts that resistance we feel making decisions at 5pm, around food and exercise. And this is what I mean. It?s very, very simple.

Every Sunday, I want you to pull out your calendar and choose one workout time and one healthy meal. And those don?t have to be cooked at home. And then every Thursday, do the same thing. Look at your weekend, look how busy you are, look how social you are, choose one healthy meal and one healthy workout.

This is a way to schedule ahead of time and just take it out of your brain space. And before you know it, look at this, you?re going to have two healthy workouts and two healthy meals every week and it will build a momentum that will create more than that; trust me.

So where this really, really helps us is on a heavy deadline week or a travel week and it helps us to just not get to Friday and realize we have not had one workout and we?ve been eating kind of fluffy ? what I call fluffy ? all week. Do you have this scenario ? this is happening to me pretty consistently; every third week of the month, everyone in my life ? I?m not kidding ? my neighborhood, my book club, my church, my work, networking, plans all of their events in that third week.

It?s really pretty consistent and it?s driving me crazy because I want to go to everything and if I don?t look at my calendar in this way before I know it, I haven?t done anything towards my wellness. I?ve been eating out a lot and drinking and having a lot of fun at all these evening events and then I have not worked out because that?s my workout time.

So by looking at the calendar Sunday and Thursday, I really have to get creative, so that?s the week I might become a morning exerciser. I don?t really do mornings with working out. I might take a walk, but that is when I have to really get creative and those other weeks that I show up at my gym at 6am instead of 6pm.

But what doesn?t happen to me anymore is I get to Friday and I?m really discouraged. So this is a way to really maintain some healthy momentum and really not let the week happen to you; you plan the week in the most strategic way possible. It?s not doing it perfectly, again, it?s picking one workout, one meal, in each of those blocks.

Now another reason that this can be so life-changing is that we begin making decisions ahead of time. You?re deciding on Sunday, a nice afternoon, you?ve got just a few extra minutes to look at your calendar, you?re deciding Sunday when to work out, not at 5:30 when you?re racing out of the office and decide to give it up.

You?re deciding ahead of time when you?re in this great motivational space, not when you?re tired and worn out and your willpower is at zero as you?re leaving the office. That?s never a great time to decide what am I going to eat and am I going to work out.

So this is the resistance buster. This is absolutely deciding ahead of time of what you really want to get done. Sunday Thursday planning, this flyover concept, can also bust that play on the weekends work hard during the week. It really evens out our wellness routines and I know it really made a difference for me.

I was one of those people that would lose weight during the week and truly gain weight on the weekends. And I can?t think of anything that?s more unhealthy than that and I really don?t do that anymore. It?s not that I don?t wake up on a Monday and have had maybe a little too much wine or a little too much fun, a little too much joy food on the weekend, and really look at my week and see how I can dial that back and eat more lean and green, but I truly was punishing myself during the week and then playing all weekend.

This Sunday Thursday flyover really can disrupt that, so let your brain go to work. Just trust me on this, that Sunday Thursday look, just five or ten minutes planning each week.

So we all know that doing things the night before can really make things easier during the day and do really do believe that. And what I have here is what I call the top three plan. Look at your calendar and pick the top two or three things that are absolutely key for you to finish during the day. And as you close up your day, take only five minutes to make the coffee, set your alarms, set your clothes out, set your work bag out, sign up for a workout. Whatever you need to do, just take five minutes to make that morning so much smoother.

And there?s a really key reason why this is so important. I work a lot around mindset and what I learned is that, that like I said, I?m a planner so I would set this massive to-do list, especially on Sunday night. And I would think that each and every item was just key for me to get done and I never got more than four or five of those things done. And I was just heartbroken.

I wanted to get it all done. So I started using a planner ? it?s called the day designer, that really made a difference in working through this. What I did is that I choose ? I literally take out my Google calendar, look at what?s on for the next day and I choose my two or three things and I write those down in the planner and then write down all my other to-dos on the side so I don?t forget them.

Now, those aren?t have-to get dones, they are like, if I get to it get dones. And by choosing that top two or three, I focus my mind?s attention on what?s most important for the day. And actually, it sets my mind to them, you know, by doing this the night before, my mind goes to work and I actually wake up ready for what my day has in store for me.

So this is what I?m saying. I want to give you a really powerful example. There have been nights that I have gone to bed saying I cannot wait to work on that important proposal. And I would literally go to bed so excited about all these ideas I had and my brain, almost in the background, was going 50 miles an hour and could not wait. I?d wake up the next morning and I would open my calendar and realize I had five coach calls.

I?m like, I?m never going to get a chance to plan what I wanted to plan and write what I wanted to create, and my brain is confused because I set it on the path of doing this work, like a mindset focus, and then I just put the brakes on it and it?s like, ?What, I thought we were doing this today??

Seriously, it created so much stress in my life and by planning the night before, then whatever I set my mind to, it really is what I?m going to be doing the next day. And I find that especially on those days when I have a full coaching calendar, I literally am waking up in the morning as I look at those names on my calendar. And if you?re one of my clients, this is literally what I do for you; I put your name there and then I know, the questions kind of come very easily as I take that five to 15 minutes before each call and I plan what I?m going to do in that session. It is life-changing.

I?m sorry, I?m using that word too often, but it is really so true. I am strategically setting my mind in the right direction and great results are happening because of it. So if you just could think every night what your top three is and just make a scratch to-do list, you don?t even need a planner for that. it has really made a difference in my business life.

Again, the resource here is called the Day Designer and she has free PDFs ? we?re going to have the link for you in the show notes ? but she gives you free PDFs of the pages that come in her beautiful planners. And she has planners that you can write the dates in yourself or it has the whole year planned out. And I have like two of them right now and I love them. They?re a gift I kind of give myself, but you can do this in a very simple way by downloading those PDFs.

And Michael Hyatt also has what?s called the Focus Planner. The link will be in the show notes. This is not an affiliate. These are just me sharing, like Oprah?s favorites, like these are the things that I love working with. And you may even have others. You can even share those with me and on another podcast, I?ll share those with my other listeners.

Alright, so I hope you enjoyed the way that you can interrupt resistance and overwhelm by planning more strategically, and it can be by choosing. Remember these three things, one simple thing to do for 30 days ? just set your mind on practicing and set your mind?s attention on it. Create a habit ? star your calendar on Sunday and Thursday and do a Sunday Thursday flyover. One workout, one healthy meal, that?s it, every Sunday and Thursday. And last but not least, take 15 minutes every night to pick your top three, write down a to-do list and as you go to bed, take five minutes for yourself, what is going to make that morning easier.

Planning strategically like I?ve mentioned here today is literally helping you to decrease the resistance of making decisions when you really are tired and worn out, either in the end of your day or the end of your week, but also setting your mind where you want it to go.

This is how we do new great things in our lives as well as become healthy, lean, fit and a top producer in our lives and in our businesses. I have a handout for you, as always. I love making these for you. So I have a very simplified way of asking you these questions so that you can just go quickly to the show notes, dianamurphycoaching.com/27 ? you?ll find the link to the resources I mentioned as well as a very, very simple handout.

Thanks so much for listening today. I have a little something more. Have you ever taken some time to think about your life with a life coach on the other end of that conversation on the phone, with that coach listening just to you and then asking you great questions; questions that you didn?t even know you had about your life? Well I have some spots open on my calendar for just that and I would love to give you this opportunity.

All you have to do is hit me up on the connect tab on my website and set up a time with me. And a reminder, this is a no-sales zone. It?s a comfortable space that if you are loving this podcast and you want just a little more, join me there.

This is one thing I?ve learned; we are so in our lives. And no matter how much great self-coaching you do, if you are someone that has really taken a part in coaching or you are a coach like I am, when we stop and take a little bit of time to think about our life with someone that can help reflect and notice the way that we?re talking about our life and walk away with clarity and confidence about what to do next, it?s a powerful thing and I want to offer that to you today; again, at dianamurphycoaching.com/connect.

Thanks so much for being a listener. I love having you on the other end. Make sure to be in touch if you have any questions and have a great and empowered day.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Empowered Wellness for Leaders! If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, download our Free Video Series: Empowered Wellness Now. Visit?dianamurphycoaching.com?to sign up today!

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