How to deal with massive to do lists that are ruining your sleep
It’s back to school time, and it’s back to business as usual. Well, probably not completely this year, but people are going to get active again. They're coming back from their summer houses and they're starting to work again. With that transition, our to-do list starts to pile up and can really mess up our sleep because we go to bed and our mind is spinning with the things we have to do. So here are a couple of tips that you can use in order to not go crazy and to heal better with all of those things.
How to deal with massive to-do lists that are ruining your sleep
Number one is to strictly prioritize, and that includes your mindset. Prioritizing as such is pretty easy. Most of us are pretty good at making to-do lists and giving items a ranking. What we're not so good at is actually not following through with all of the items on the list. Even if #8 hasn't been done during the day, it stresses us out. That's where mindset comes in. It's about giving yourself permission not to do the things that don't need to be done. I love the freedom of just saying, "I don't feel like this today. I'm going to do it tomorrow because it's not an emergency." Obviously, you still have to feed the kids and pay your bills and things like that – but even with paying your bills, if you do it a day after you get the bill, it doesn't matter. It's still fine. Usually, it shouldn't make too much of a difference.
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So just be okay with cutting yourself some slack. It doesn't mean that you're a flake. It doesn't mean that you're an irresponsible citizen. It doesn't mean that you're lazy. (And even if you are, who cares as long as it gets done?) Sometimes it's just really okay not to do everything on the same day. Giving yourself that permission brings a whole lot of freedom.
Number two is to outsource. If you have the finances, then you should outsource because what's the point in working like a crazy person, making money, but not even having time to enjoy the time that that money could potentially buy you?
So get a housekeeper. How else can you just throw money at a problem? Get an accountant, a bookkeeper. These things don't cost the world, but they will free up so much time, and there's no price tag on time. So be okay with that. It's your life. You only have a certain number of days. If you can get some of those days back, then please, please, please consider it as a great option. It's changed my life forever. It's given me more energy to be creative, to put into my business rather than wasting it on things that are not of my designer genius or that simply make me miserable.
Number three is that sometimes the to-do lists can be so overwhelming that they define us as people. Basically, we measure ourselves by how well we completed all our items or how many we did. Again, that’s a mindset thing that I want you to work on, to really see where that expectation has come from. Where did that originate, that idea that your to-do list is basically defining you as a person? Is that the way you were brought up? Is it just you who came up with it? What is it connected to? Is it connected to the idea that a successful person has to be organized, for example? What kind of beliefs are coming up when you have that to-do list?
It's very easy to identify them. If you notice that you won't be able to get everything on your to-do list done, write down whatever stats coming up.
What kind of thoughts are coming up? Write the thoughts down and then make an arrow and try to figure out where they originated. Write down the names, and then analyze whether those statements are actually true – or did you just adopt them as taken truths that don’t actually coincide with your particular private values?
This is a psychological exercise, for sure, but it's really going to be helpful in cutting yourself some slack and taking things a little bit easier.
