Transform Overwhelm Into Action With These Productivity Tips

Dr. Christine Li [00:00:00]:
Welcome back to the Make Time for Success podcast. This is episode number 280. I have a feeling you're gonna like this episode because if you're like me, you like taking action and you like the feelings that taking action tends to kick off. Things like relief, things like momentum, things like pride in yourself, things like, ah, things are getting better from here. I hope all those feelings come to you as soon as you finish listening to this episode, in which I'm going to share with you a quick technique for getting into action when you've been feeling a little stagnant. Okay, let's go listen to the episode together now.

Dr. Christine Li [00:00:47]:
Hi, I'm Dr. Christine Li and I'm a psychologist and a procrastination coach. I've helped thousands of people move past procrastination and overwhelm so so they could begin working to their potential. In this podcast, you're going to learn powerful strategies for getting your mind, body and energy to work together so that you can focus on what's really important and accomplish the goals you want to achieve.

Dr. Christine Li [00:01:14]:
When you start living within your full

Dr. Christine Li [00:01:17]:
power, you're going to see how being productive can be easy and how you can create success on demand. Welcome to the Make Time for Success podcast.

Dr. Christine Li [00:01:30]:
So I'd like to start this episode off with a little personal story. A few weeks ago, couple of weeks ago, I had a three day run where I just was not getting anything done. The same 5 or 6 to do list items were staring me down, would not budge off the list. I don't really even know what happened to those days, but I felt myself as time went on feeling more and more irritated. I just don't like the feeling of having my to do list items rule me. Rather than the reverse where I feel like I'm on top of what's going on and I'm in process and I'm in some sort of feeling of flow and I just was not there a couple of weeks ago. And on the fourth day I decided that I was definitely going to do something about this situation. And that is how the content for today's episode got created.

Dr. Christine Li [00:02:31]:
What I did was I met with my members inside my program, the Success Lab. The Lab is a membership program where my members and I gather twice a week live to talk about different issues related to productivity and wellness and habits and routines and clutter and things that make us stuck. And I do some quick coaching and then we do a work sprint where everybody gets off the video, I might grab a little bite to eat and then everybody does Their chosen work for the day. And on that day, which happened to be the fourth day of my feeling a little bit stagnant, productivity wise, I decided to make my personal difficulty with these stagnant to do list items. The issue of the program that day, and what I instructed everybody in the program to do was to listen to the idea of making one of two lists. And I'm going to share this strategy with you here because that session of the Success lab was so much fun. And it felt like everybody on the call really got something out of the strategy, out of the feeling of, oh, there's a way out of feeling stagnant when you find yourself in that predicament. So here we go.

Dr. Christine Li [00:04:03]:
The first of the two lists is very simple. It's a simpler of the two. And all it is is I want you to make a list of five things, things that you feel are open loops right now, loose ends, open loops,

Dr. Christine Li [00:04:18]:
whatever you want to name them. There are things that are unfinished.

Dr. Christine Li [00:04:22]:
There are things that are maybe nagging at you. There are things that maybe need to

Dr. Christine Li [00:04:27]:
get a registration form signed and mailed in. Whatever it is for you, I think

Dr. Christine Li [00:04:32]:
you know in your intuition on your

Dr. Christine Li [00:04:37]:
to do list, it's that thing that just maybe boring or mundane, maybe not too flashy, maybe not too creative, but it's just staying there waiting for you

Dr. Christine Li [00:04:47]:
to get it finished. Make a list of five of those things and you've completed the technique. Okay, so then the second list, what is that? The second list is a little more

Dr. Christine Li [00:04:59]:
diverse, and this may be your chosen

Dr. Christine Li [00:05:03]:
list of the two. The second list consists of five different things to put down. The first of the five is, I would love for you to do something

Dr. Christine Li [00:05:14]:
to declutter or tidy your space.

Dr. Christine Li [00:05:17]:
The reason that's first on the list is that when we mindfully declutter even

Dr. Christine Li [00:05:24]:
one to three items of stuff, we change our energy, we change the energy within ourselves, we change. We change the energy of the clutter, and we change the energy of our space. And I have found that it is

Dr. Christine Li [00:05:38]:
the simplest, easiest, quickest way to turn

Dr. Christine Li [00:05:43]:
your direction, to figure out a new way through, and to just brighten things up a bit. It's a really great way to get yourself started. The second thing on the list is to figure out what you need to upgrade or fix.

Dr. Christine Li [00:05:59]:
So let your intuition remind you, what

Dr. Christine Li [00:06:03]:
have you been meaning to upgrade lately? Is it your way of dressing and grooming yourself? Is it the way you set your living room? Is it the way you conduct yourself in meetings? Whatever it is, mindfully choose something that you're specifically going to upgrade or fix.

Dr. Christine Li [00:06:25]:
The third item on the second list is, I would love for you to

Dr. Christine Li [00:06:28]:
do something that you have been resisting. This is smack dab in the middle of the list of five things, and I think it's probably the core of the list.

Dr. Christine Li [00:06:40]:
It will help you to review all the things on your list and see what is the item that keeps making me feel stuck, that keeps making me feel like I don't want to move, that keeps fighting me when I feel

Dr. Christine Li [00:06:59]:
like I want to be productive, and it keeps not cooperating. That's resistance. And I think it's very important to very periodically and often, as often as you can, address the things that you're feeling resistant about.

Dr. Christine Li [00:07:14]:
Because guess what resistance is? It's us fighting with ourselves. It's us resisting the life that we want to lead.

Dr. Christine Li [00:07:24]:
It's us resisting things that are both

Dr. Christine Li [00:07:27]:
mundane and also super exciting but feel

Dr. Christine Li [00:07:30]:
super important to us. Whatever it is, get in the habit of reading your resistance. Well, get in the habit of taking

Dr. Christine Li [00:07:39]:
resistance as a cue or a clue

Dr. Christine Li [00:07:43]:
that something needs to be explored, that something needs to happen, that something needs to be addressed and something needs to move forward.

Dr. Christine Li [00:07:52]:
And I think you'll find that when you do this, you will feel like you've gained knowledge, you've gained traction, and you're making progress again. The fourth thing on this list is

Dr. Christine Li [00:08:05]:
to do something to replenish your situation.

Dr. Christine Li [00:08:09]:
For me, my example to my success

Dr. Christine Li [00:08:11]:
lab members was socks, right?

Dr. Christine Li [00:08:15]:
We buy socks, we use them for a while, they can last a really long time. But inevitably there comes a time when you need to replenish your supply. And then all of a sudden, you're walking comfortably again, those socks are supporting you. So what is it in your life?

Dr. Christine Li [00:08:31]:
What area do you need to replenish

Dr. Christine Li [00:08:34]:
to help every day go a little

Dr. Christine Li [00:08:35]:
bit better, to make things go faster,

Dr. Christine Li [00:08:38]:
to make things go more smoothly?

Dr. Christine Li [00:08:40]:
Whatever it is, think about it.

Dr. Christine Li [00:08:42]:
Maybe it's in your kitchen, maybe it's in your pantry, maybe it's something that's not in your house. But what do you need to replenish? Maybe something in your purse or your car. You get to decide. But replenish your supply. Item number five on the list is do something to refresh.

Dr. Christine Li [00:09:01]:
And this can be a very broad feeling.

Dr. Christine Li [00:09:03]:
It might be garden planting time. So what are you going to do to refresh your garden? What's coming in? What can you expect? But also, what can you put in brand new this year in your garden? For me, my example, this Time when I was making this list was pillows. It was high time I replaced my bed pillows. Believe me, they were worn out, they were tired, they were not really fully making me so happy when I was trying to sleep. I've got the replacement. They're brand new pillows. I kind of like them, but I also feel like I've got that done. I've got that taken care of.

Dr. Christine Li [00:09:43]:
So give yourself that feeling of completing the loose ends, tying everything up, just five things at a time. And there's a reason I chose five that's on purpose too, because we do

Dr. Christine Li [00:09:56]:
not want to overwhelm ourselves.

Dr. Christine Li [00:09:58]:
The fact that you may have been stagnant like I was a week or two ago is just an indication that you've been working hard, that you've been really using your energy, that things maybe have been going beautifully, but that your body is saying maybe you need a rest, maybe you just need to downshift a little bit. Maybe just do two or three things, maybe not even five. But know for real that even if you do one or two things on either of these lists, you're going to feel like your momentum is up. You're going to feel like you're not stagnant. You're going to feel like you have protection against overwhelm instead of sinking deeper into overwhelm. And that's what I wanted to avoid on that fourth day. And I did that. And my members just recently told me that that was a really effective planning session for them.

Dr. Christine Li [00:10:55]:
They really enjoyed the list. So what are you going to do with your list? What is on your list right now? If you'd like to share the results with me, I'd love to hear what you're planning on doing and the results. You can reach me by direct messaging me on Instagram. I'm Rocrastination coach there and I'd love to have a conversation with you about how you're making plans for the future. It's a wonderful place to be. Envisioning and thinking of yourself as being in flow instead of stuck, instead of pessimistic, instead of feeling like there's no hope because there's always hope and you've always got more energy in you. And these lists can help with the feeling of being re energized, of feeling like there are options and feeling like this is no big deal because we don't want to scare ourselves out of the lives that we really want to enjoy and have be top notch. All right.

Dr. Christine Li [00:12:00]:
I wish all the best for you. Whether you're doing the list or not. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day. And if you would like a free downloadable guide to making these two lists, I invite you to go to maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com/lists with an S. Again, it's maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com/lists, L I S T S and that download will help you to get your thoughts clear, to get your energy in line with the thoughts that you have and the actions that you plan on taking. And that's going to make everything a lot easier for you. I look forward to seeing you next week when the next episode drops on the Make Time for Success Podcast. I look forward to seeing you then.

Dr. Christine Li [00:12:49]:
Bye.

Dr. Christine Li [00:12:51]:
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Make Time for Success Podcast.

Dr. Christine Li [00:12:56]:
If you enjoyed what you've heard, you

Dr. Christine Li [00:12:58]:
can subscribe to make sure you get notified of upcoming episodes. You can also Visit our website maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com for past episodes, show notes, and all the resources we mention on the show. Feel free to connect with me over on Instagram too. You can find me there under the name Procrastination Coach. Send me a DM and let me know what your thoughts are about the

Dr. Christine Li [00:13:21]:
episodes you've been listening to and let

Dr. Christine Li [00:13:23]:
me know any topics that you might like me to talk about on the show.

Dr. Christine Li [00:13:27]:
I'd love to hear all about how

Dr. Christine Li [00:13:29]:
you're making Time for Success.

Dr. Christine Li [00:13:31]:
Talk to you soon.