Well Planned: Overwhelm vs. Laziness
On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m back with my friend Megan Flatt for Well Planned, the series where we answer your questions about planning. Megan is a business coach who focuses on business growth strategies for female entrepreneurs — specifically mama entrepreneurs—women who are running thriving businesses while still maintaining the “home fire” so to speak. She Post-it notes and planning as much as I do.
Today we have a question from Maggie, a mom of four small kids who has one side business with her husband and is trying to start another one. She asks about the difference between overwhelm and taking on too much versus just feeling lazy about getting stuff done.
First we want to take out the idea of being lazy. As a mom you are taking care of people, that’s not lazy. Megan reframed the issue as: Is this a situation where I need to get my act together and put a plan in place and take action—or am I overwhelmed because I just have too much going on? So often we tell ourselves we need to be better at time management or be more productive, but really we just literally have too many things happening.
We dive into getting clearer on what you feel and why, plus tools for dealing with the feeling that you just can’t get stuff done.
We talk about:
- Checking in with your body and trusting your intuition
- Knowing your stress or overwhelm triggers
- The power of doing a brain dump, but not making it your to do list
- Getting really clear on the end goal so we know why we’re pushing to do something—and how this helps us take down time (which by the way doesn’t mean you are being lazy!)
- How to use Post-it notes to stay focused on our end goal (or as Megan likes to say, Do less better)
- Checking in on basic self-care like sleep, food, hydration
- Not letting overwhelm be a habit
Doable Changes
KNOW YOUR STRESS TRIGGERS. Look back on the last few times you felt stressed or overwhelmed. (Do this at a time when you are not in the thick of feeling that way.) What really caused you to feel that way? Were you over tired? Had you skipped lunch or had too much coffee? Were you afraid you were forgetting something? Was your to do list too long? Had you been bombarded with needs as soon as you walked in the door? Was a messy space causing you stress? Knowing what causes you stress helps you find the tools to defuse it. Megan gets stressed when she feels like she might be forgetting something or doesn’t know all the things she needs to do, so she does a big brain dump. Somebody else might get stressed when they skip exercise, so they know they need to get to the gym or go for a run when things start pressing down on them.
CHECK IN ON BASIC SELF CARE. There are a lot of things that come under the umbrella of self care, but soo many times we miss the basics. Next time you are feeling overwhelmed or like you just can’t motivate to do something, check in on the basics. Ask yourself: Have I slept? Have I eaten? Have I had enough water? Have I moved my body today?
POST-IT NOTE PLANNING. Try Megan’s practice for doing less better with Post-it notes. Start by defining the results you want. I could be the amount of revenue you want to earn from a launch or how you want to feel at the end of the weekend with your family. Think of three things that need to happen to get you to that result. Then do a brain dump putting each idea on a separate Post-in. Once you have all your ideas down, you start to organize them under your three ideas. If any of your Post-its don’t fit, put them to the side. These are things that you may want to eliminate, delegate, or save for another time.
ABOUT
Megan Flatt is a Mama CEO and a business growth strategist. She’s been working with clients for years to create strategic growth plans in their business that allow them to scale while still being present for the important moments in their families’ lives. She shows Mama CEOs with big vision and great ideas how to get those big CEO ideas into a day-by-day plan where they actually happen.
