Month: August 2023

Categories
Uncategorised

Why it’s so hard to say no, stay motivated, and get it done

And what to do about it…in these challenging times.

Welcome to lesson two out of three of ‘Managing your time as a distracted entrepreneur’. 

The first lesson helps you take your big idea, dream, or goal and utilize the  productivity success cake (a whole e-book!) framework to achieve it. You have seen this lesson.

NOW, the second lesson we’re going to talk about diving deeper into what’s behind the Cake Process. 

  • Why is this so important- right NOW??
  • What kinds of problems does the cake-process solve -so that you can have the life and business that you actually want to have?.

NEXT, lesson three is the live lesson on Tuesday September 5th 11am to 1pm EST, and you’re going to want to sign up for that. That’s where it all comes together.

For the purposes of this article, we will stick with highlights only. To get the full benefit you will want to download and read the full .pdf. 

So….it really * IS * hard to say no, stay motivated, and get it all done.

I know for me, motivation lately has been really hard. There just have been a lot of things in my life. I’ve got aging parents with major issues. I’ve got teenager issues. Home and car stuff.  And a new relationship. My whole life feels like a fall swirl. The economy’s being weird, and people seem to be kind of funky and non-committal.  It hasn’t been the same in my business as it has been before. That can feel strange and uncomfortable. So if any of this resonates with you, stay with me. We will get through these times together. I have been through a lot of difficult times and I have always emerged stronger and wiser. You will, too. Stay with me.

How about YOU??

Here are some reasons you may find yourself becoming un-grounded and scattered.

  • Inflation;
  • Housing shortages;
  • Prices, escalating prices;
  • Job shifts;
  • Covid has returned.

When I say job shifts I mean, you go to a restaurant and it’s not open on a Tuesday or a Wednesday because nobody wants to work there anymore. That’s where we are in 2023.  There’s things that are going on in the world. So that’s why I’m offering these lessons right NOW…about 100 days before this year comes to an end.

In fact, there is an anxiety explosion and a fun deficit. And COVID..just when we thought it was done, so it just kind of keeps coming up and slapping us in the face. It’s crazy. 

It’s really causing a new level of anxiety. Our cortisol, that stress, that thing that kicks us into gear, just keeps coming and we are experiencing too much cortisol. With that, our sympathetic nervous system goes into overload. 

When our sympathetic nervous system goes into overload, we start to jump around and we might be jumping around from thing to thing. 

When we’re jumping around from thing to thing, guess what? We get scattered. 

THAT is what the cortisol and the craziness of stuff that’s going on right now externally and internally has to do with you and your time management. 

However…there’s great news. There are things that you can do about it. 

Here are the steps… 1) reassess, 2) prioritize, and 3) consciously decide.

How do I reassess?

Let’s go behind the scenes. Go deep within yourself and ask,

  •  “What’s going on in my life and what do I want?”
  •  “What do I want in my life to be different?” 

Within that question, the productivity success cake process is invaluable.

The above is a great taste of lesson 2, so…download it now.

Then…come along Tuesday 9/5 to the Live Lesson 3 where we tie it all together.

Now, you can do it on your own, but let’s get real.  People don’t often do the things that they maybe “should.” When you can do it with other people and you can really get clear on your priorities and really get clear on your time management, your cortisol levels are going to go back down. You’re going to be able to think clearly. You’re going to be able to focus, and that scatter is going to be greatly diminished.

So- that’s just a little peek into your second lesson. Comment below and tell me: what’s going on for you and your life that you really want to shift? I want to know.

Just imagine,  at the end of this year, ringing in the new year saying, “I’m so glad that I took that time management workshop! It went so much deeper than I ever imagined.”

Get your seat while you can. I have 3 places left.

Categories
Get Organized More time in my day Organization Planning Productivity Time strategies

What to do when time blocking does not work

Quick solutions to daunting issues

Today I am going to talk about time blocking, but not in the way that you might think I will be talking about it. Instead, I’m talking about it in terms of when you time block a task and yet time after time it doesn’t get done, and what to do instead. 

There are many possible reasons for this. However, today we are zeroing in on the Environment Layer of the Productivity Success Cake. Here is the link for you to download the Productivity Success Cake ebook – the brand new and improved version! 

FIRST: We need to move away from “right and wrong” when it comes to managing our time, managing our tasks, and getting things done. When we move away from “right and wrong”, we stop the guilt, the shame, & the self-deprecation. Rather than going into a negative spiral, we can flip our mind around and say to ourselves, “Okay, this works for me”,  with zero judgment, that’s a game changer. 

Read on or watch the video

I invite you to do one of the strategies that I spoke about on Lori Kennedy’s podcast: to focus on the the circle of support piece of cake on the Environment Layer.

As a quick Cake Review,  we THINK we need to deal with JUST the productivity layer, as that is where the time and tasks piece lives. In fact, that layer is held up by ‘health’, and ‘environment’ too. By addressing the bottom 2 layers first, the productivity strategies work well. 

So, let’s focus on ‘circle of support.’  Say that there is a task that you may put in your calendar and you may time block it, but yet you find yourself not doing it.  I invite you to consider a beautiful strategy called body doubling. Lori Kennedy explains this one in her podcast – she said that if she has a task that she knows she’s really not going to do, she will make an appointment with somebody on Zoom in order to actually get the task done. Let’s say it’s something rather mundane and boring like receipts. Doing such a task does not elicit a lot of dopamine. It’s not that fun! Yet, it has to get done. That’s a really great way to get things done and to allow your time blocking to work for you!

I’d love for you to let me know what works for YOU to make your time blocking WORK. Remember: there is no right and there is no wrong. Hit reply and let me know!

And, REGISTRATION IS OPEN for the  ‘Time Management for the Distracted Entrepreneur’ workshop.  Spaces are limited, so get a front seat! We will be rolling up our sleeves and getting stuff done during this two hour workshop.

Please email me with questions about any of this, or want to chat about the workshop: carol@unscatterme.com.  You’re the reason that I do this after all, and eat cake with no calories. 

See you soon!

Categories
Balance Boundaries Get Organized More time in my day Organization prioritize Time strategies

What’s your biggest challenge as an entrepreneur?

Time Management – Sleep

“What’s your biggest challenge as an entrepreneur?”

This question was asked recently in one of my groups. I was looking at the responses, and what I was noticing was there was a very large percentage of answers having to do with time management, focus, consistency, and believing in ourselves.

Some of the responses were….

  • Balancing family time and business time;
  • Just plain old time management;
  • Managing my own time, not enough time in the day, 
  • Getting rest; I never sleep.  

For this article, I am focusing  on time management: sleep because several people brought up SLEEP in their responses. In this series, time management for the distracted entrepreneur, this week we are  in the health layer. Next week I’m going to move up to the environment layer, and today I’m going to stay in the health layer with a focus on sleep.

Many times I hear: “ I want to get more things done in my day.” When I’m coaching people, whether it be in my Discover Your Greatness through the Productivity Success Cake program, or high level one-to-one, what ends up happening is an “unpeeling.”  We peel back the layers of what is going on. So for example if my client wants to get up earlier….we have to start with bedtime.

Get a slice of your Productivity Success Cake here

Now you can see that time management in the day actually begins the night before. Since we are talking about the night before, we want to talk about Sleep. So today, that’s why I want to focus on Sleep. 

I’d like to leave you with a practical tip and a thought provoking question. First, the question.

If I say I’d like to go to bed by 10:30 PM, for example, what’s preventing that? And usually the answer is “things that are important” to you. So maybe you are spending time with loved ones watching TV or maybe you are doing projects late at night because it is light out later. Whatever it is, you value THAT THING in the moment over getting to bed. 

Now for the practical tip.

You can do this with an Android, or with an iPhone. If you take that home button on the right hand side, and you do three clicks, you get a red tone to your screen, and that red tone blocks out the blue light.

The blue light keeps us awake at night. It lights up a certain part of our brain that doesn’t allow us to rest. So if you are  looking to get more sleep, focus on sleep for the next week or two…the SLEEP slice of your cake.

Try it, and, if you’re having trouble with it, you can always send me an email.  You can also join the UnScatterMe Facebook Community and say, Hey, I’m having trouble with the sleep slice. Does anybody want to  join in with me and we can support one another? 

We are all in this together…. baking our cakes! If you are REALLY  interested in getting faster, consistent results, please know that there is an opportunity coming up to go even DEEPER into the cake process so you can truly level your life up beyond what you might have imagined.

So, if you are wondering “how do I really get more support with this?”

Mark your calendars for the 5th of September, because we are going to be doing Time management for the Distracted Entrepreneur in a workshop format from 11:00 to 1:00 Eastern. There is a fee for this meaty opportunity. And half goes to my favorite charity!

I will be putting the link in the comments below and you will  want to sign up for that and you can start now. So start with your sleep. Try out the red light idea, and let me know your results!

If sleep is not your issue, try something else on the health layer of that cake, and see how you do.

Start with a strong foundation of health, so that I can help you with your time management. See you Sept 5!

Book your space on the Time Management Workshop here

Categories
Decluttering Get Organized Productivity productivity in the workplace Time strategies Wellness

How badly do you want to prioritize it all?

What do to when you feel squirrely

You know you love a lot of things.

You know you have a hard time deciding what to do…how do you prioritize it all?

Great news!

For the next 4 weeks, starting now, I’m doing a series. It’s Time Management for the Distracted Entrepreneur.

Recently, I polled my community (people just like YOU! Maybe YOU, actually!) Here is what you said. You want more Income. You want consistent routines. They want to be able to block your time in such a way that yo

u can spend time with your family -and also with their work- in  a way that really feels good to you.

One person said that she wants “a solid foundation”. That sounds phenomenal. It sounds like the Productivity Success Cake! And there it is. Today we will begin with that first layer of your solid foundation: the beginning of your Productivity Success Cake.

Productivity Success Cake, get your copy here

Don’t forget…

Managing your time, time blocking, etc…. is actually on the third layer, your Productivity layer.  YES this is a series on Time Management (layer 3). 

However,  your first layer, the foundation, which is what many people said they wanted: a clear foundation and consistency. That’s the Health Layer.

Another colleague asked her community “what helps you” with any kind of scatter or distraction that you have, whether you have a neurodiversity or you don’t.

Here are the answers people gave to “what helps me with the scatter?”

Meditation 

Tapping 

exercise

getting outdoors

lion’s mane supplements

vitamin B12

Adderall 

journaling

Cannabis mushrooms

CBD oil

binurial beats 

being sugar free

being vegan

having no Alcohol

focusing on really good sleep. 

***Do you see a pattern here?***

Right. They all live on the bottom: the Health layer. 

So imagine that these are answers from people that either have a neurodiversity or maybe had a traumatic incident, whether it be childhood, partnership, whatever the case may be, that is creating a scatter in their lives. And they are all saying that one of the most powerful things they can do is right here on that Health layer. So I’m going to ask you, what would you like to focus on, on your Health layer? You can do it right in the unScatter Me community.

So if you’re not a part of the UnScatterMe community, please join HERE.  You can jump in say, for example, “hey, this, this week I’m going to be meditating some more.” Or “ I’m going to try that Lion’s Mane.” It’s YOUR community…lean in and be with one another!

In the coming weeks, I’m going to be releasing some new resources. 

Your first one is: Productivity Success Cake.

It’s going to lead up to a really big release the very last week of this month. So pay attention!

However, you don’t need to wait until the end of August. You can start moving ahead right now! It’s Summertime, it’s August, and I don’t know about you, but for me, I have more free time in August,, and I get to think bigger.

 So- do yourself that favor.

If you are in a slower mode, maybe going to the beach, maybe taking more walks, etc. ,do yourself a favor and take advantage of this time.  What better time to take care of your whole cake – and especially that Health layer? It is the first big step to calming the squirrel-scattter.

And that way you will be ready for your Fall. 

Start here: GRAB YOUR COPY OF THE SUCCESS CAKE GUIDE!

Categories
Uncategorised

This is the first thing you should do when you feel inbox overwhelm

How to slow down the continuous demands

Today’s problem: the tyranny of the inbox. 

So many people say their inbox is driving them crazy, how they have too many emails, and that the demands are always coming at them. They are at the mercy of that inbox. 

Well, I have news for you. You may not like this. Ready? It’s probably NOT your inbox. To address JUST the inbox, there’s lots of programs where you can go to inbox zero and you can have this system and that system and have it filtered, etc. Those things are really good to do. However, the problem is much bigger and much deeper. I say this with love: the problem just might be you.

It’s not that you are a bad person. I believe that we are all made in the image of the divine and that we are all amazing.The problem comes in when we sometimes overdo ourselves, get distracted, and we overfill our lives to such a point where we are so overloaded that all we can do is look at our inbox. 

Think about a river, a river that is getting polluted. Sure, you can pick up the trash at the end of the river. That’s like dealing with “inbox zero”. Or you can go to the source and say, what’s happening? That’s what we’re doing today: getting to the SOURCE.

Let’s discuss three ways that you can look differently at your inbox.

  1. Dial into the FEELING of the inbox tyranny. If you feel that all you’re doing is reacting and all you’re doing is being in that inbox and dealing with that inbox, that is your sympathetic nervous system going full blast. Great news: you can reverse this.

We have four energy systems in our bodies, and the first energy system and the most powerful one is the sympathetic nervous system. That system is what keeps us safe. It’s why we run out of burning buildings without thinking twice about it. You are living with it and it is creating cloudiness in your executive function brain, so that you feel as though you are under attack. Just the anxiety level of it is big. So know that the sympathetic nervous system is on overload. 

The way to calm it is to breathe and to give yourself grace and to do things that will calm you so that your sympathetic nervous system calms down and that your executive brain actually functions. 

2) When you’re in Overload, you are in firefighting mode (this is related to number one). Firefighting mode feels really good, because who doesn’t love a good firefighter, right? He or she puts out the fires in the building. We love firefighters. However, if we are in firefighting mode all the time, guess what we’re not doing? We’re not doing our big, important work that requires that deep thought. What we get, however, in firefighting, is “wow, thanks very much for responding right away”. And that dopamine comes in, it’s like, woo, I’m a hero, I’m a firefighter and I’m doing it. And that’s addictive. We get this false sense of “I’m getting it all done.”

3) Remember, the inbox is the presenting problem. It seems as though that’s all you’re doing. And guess what? It’s because you are, that’s what you’re doing. You do have the power to decide. You get to decide to do something differently.

You get to decide whatever you want for your life. You get to decide not to “squirrel” in your inbox and go to other people’s problems (AKA Your Inbox) all the time. You get to be the king or queen of your own darn life. DECIDE is a big topic…bigger than this article. Read more on that here:  UnScatter Your Entrepreneurial Life Guide.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e_YV-Jx-eXK9iTwWOxUZjTALryxd4s3W/view?usp=sharing62Y/view?usp=share_link

Download and print that, and read it through. More importantly, do the exercises because it will help you DECIDE. Most of the time when we’re in our inbox, it’s because we haven’t decided to say yes to ourselves and our own priorities. 

And please let me know what you think of the guide! Email me carol@unscatterme.com. 

So, rise above your inbox tyranny and decide. Another way to move out of the chaos, with your friends, is to attend Wisdom Warriors.

In fact, tomorrow (Monday) is our Wisdom Warriors (the free monthly version of the UnscattereMe community on Facebook), where we will be addressing our issues with SQUIRRELING and how to turn that around!

I will teach, live,  how to trust your gut when all you can think about is your failures, to capitalize on that last minute energy even when it’s not the last minute, and to really chase your dreams, not your squirrels. 

Looking ahead, in September, I do have a paid workshop. So come on in while you get in for free! You can ask anything you want and it’s an amazing deal. https://eps-time.com/wisdom-warriors-welcome-new.html

It’s the best “lunchtime” hour of your life….or at least the month!

  • © 2024
  • Productivity Success Cake