10 Tips to Help You Hustle Sanely | Part 2
Does your day-to-day life have you feeling burnt out, overwhelmed, or straight up exhausted? Let me tell you - you actually were not created to live that way! I’ve spent the last few years honing in on strategies that have allowed me to be peacefully productive so that I make real progress toward my goals WHILE I take care of my mental health and relationships.
In today’s post, I’m sharing the habits 6-10 to help you HUSTLE SANELY!
In case you missed last week’s post, click here to read habits 1-5!
Habit 6: Choose a daily Focus 3 so your best energy goes toward important tasks.
In case you’re new here, let me give you a super quick summary of what Focus 3 is - so it’s 3 tasks that you choose each day that you want to get done no matter what - these are the most important tasks for you to accomplish for the day. These tasks should be things that align with your goals - aka action steps that actually get you closer to said goals.
Choosing 3 tasks to give your best time and attention to every day helps keep you from feeling overwhelmed from an alarmingly long to-do list. I don’t know about you, but when I stare at a long AF to-do list, I panic. I get anxious thinking about where to start and I stress about not getting it all done before I even do the first task.
Having a Focus 3 has helped my mental health and my productivity levels. I know that if I get my Focus 3 done, it’s been a productive day, even if nothing else gets done. Now usually, more things get done BUT some days my Focus 3 is all that happens and I’m able to lay my head down at the end of the day feeling accomplished and not scatterbrained.
I try to get my Focus 3 done earlier in the day because that’s usually when I have the most mental clarity PLUS knowing that I have those important tasks done allows me to operate from a place of peace instead of scurrying at the end of the day trying to cram in important tasks after having squandered all of my time on things like checking Instagram DMs 800 times. All tasks are not created equal. Is checking your email 50 times a day moving the needle toward your goals or just fooling you into thinking you’re being productive?
Habit 7: To avoid overwhelm, create habits + routines instead of having a long daily to-do list.
This is one of my favorites because it’s one that has really skyrocketed my peaceful productivity. Creating rhythms and routines for my days and weeks has allowed me to get more done because I know what to expect each day. I’m not sitting down with an alarmingly long to-do list in front of me trying to figure out how to fit all the moving parts together on the fly.
I teach all about how to create habits and routines in the Hustle Sanely Program but I want to break it down briefly here:
Habits: Something that you do regularly without having to think about it - like it’s kind of pre-programmed in your day
Examples: Brushing your teeth is an example everyone can relate to, then a more dream-specific example - let’s say you want to be an author so you’ve created the habit of writing every morning.
Routines: A sequence of actions regularly followed - okay cool but let’s talk about what that really looks like with some
Examples:
Here are my daily routines:
Morning routine
Workout routine
Lunch break routine
Evening routine
So like I have regular steps that make up each of these routines. I also have some weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly routines too! I think a buzzword right now for routine is “rhythm” - like creating rhythms. Which I totally love that word, but to me, rhythms are more so how your day flows - like how it feels transitioning from one part of your day to the next. Which is also important!
Habit 8: To avoid exhaustion, pair high energy tasks with low energy tasks.
So habit 7 helps avoid overwhelm and habit 8 helps avoid exhaustion. Just like we talked about when choosing our daily Focus 3 - all tasks are not created equal. Not only are some tasks more important than others in the pursuit of accomplishing your goals but they’re not created equal when it comes to how much energy they require of you either.
When I’m setting up my weekly and daily plans, I always make sure not to cram too many high energy tasks into a single day because that is what pushes us to exhaustion and exhaustion over time can lead us to burnout, right?
Let’s chat about some examples of high and low energy tasks: now keep in mind, these will differ from person to person - something that is low energy for me, may be high energy for you and vice versa.
Low energy tasks:
~ Responding to emails
~ Scheduling social media posts
~ Most admin-style work
High energy tasks:
~ Creating new products
~ Writing podcast scripts
~ Meetings/presentations
~ Most creative-style work
I try to not put more than 2 high energy tasks in a single day. And if I do have to have 3 or 4 one day, I take brain breaks and I schedule in low energy tasks between the high energy ones to help with that fatigue and exhaustion. Ideally, start your day with a quick low energy task to get the ball rolling, then tackle your high energy tasks while your mind is sharp.
Habit 9: Remember to serve toward your goals instead of striving toward them.
I’ll keep this one short and sweet but please know I think it’s the most important one of the 10. When it comes to dream work, I feel like our heart can be positioned one of two ways:
1 ) Striving
2 ) Serving
Striving looks like: hustling yourself into the ground because if you don’t get ALL THE THINGS DONE yesterday then you’re not going to achieve your goals. It looks like looking over at what that girl is doing and quickly rerouting your whole plan to look like hers because omg what if she gets all the customers? It looks like stepping on whoever you have to in order to get ahead. It looks like gripping your finances and resources as tight as you possibly can because you don’t want them to disappear. And you know how it usually leaves you feeling? Burnt out, overwhelmed, and straight up exhausted.
Serving looks like: peacefully working toward your dreams as you sow into the important relationships in your life and keep your mental health a priority. It looks like linking arms with other babes - some ahead of you and some behind you - in order to learn and grow together. It looks like being confident in who you are and what you bring to the table, knowing that no one else can do what you do how you do it. It looks like investing time, money, and other resources into your business wisely. And you know how it usually leaves you feeling? Fulfilled, focused, and aligned.
As you get clear on your vision and go after it, remember to position your heart in a place of service, girlfriend! As a follower of Jesus, living from a place of service is a non-negotiable for me!
Habit 10: Use your schedules and routines as tools not chains.
I seriously need to put this on a mug or something because I say it just about every single day to babes in the community! And fun fact: I actually squeal when I see y’all saying this phrase on social media!
So what does it mean? Use your schedules and routines as tools not chains? It means that you are not a robot. It means that everything is not going to go perfectly according to plan every minute of every day. So don’t panic when that happens. Instead assess:
~ Why there is a breakdown in your schedule or routine
~ How you feel mentally, emotionally, and physically
~ What needs to be adjusted to accommodate for the above
So 2 examples of this played out:
1) Focus 3, for example, is meant to be a productivity strategy that lessens overwhelm, not causes more. Some gals in the Hustle Sanely Squad choose to have 2 sets of Focus 3s every day: so 3 Focus 3 tasks for personal to-dos and 3 Focus 3 tasks for professional to-dos. That doesn’t work for others and they just one one all encompassing Focus 3 list for the day. This is making the strategy work for you instead of hold you down - it’s a tool not a chain.
2) A perfect real- life example of using your schedule and routines as a tool and not a chain: Let’s say your best friend calls you and tells you that she just found out that she got a promotion that she has been prepping for. She asks if you can go out for dinner to celebrate with her tonight! But you already have your schedule perfectly planned and dinner with your BFF is not on said schedule - girl, this is where your priorities come in. You are not going to say, “Oh sorry I already have my schedule planned for the day and at 7:30 I’ll be painting my nails so sorry can’t make it.”
I know you - I know you want to be a supportive friend who shows up for her people when it matters so this is one of those times when you want to be flexible and adjust your schedule so that you can make dinner happen. Paint your dang nails tomorrow right? This is using your schedule as a tool instead of a chain.
Okay so I’m going to quickly recap all 10 habits that help you Hustle Sanely:
Habit 1: Start each day with gratitude.
Habit 2: Fill up spiritually, mentally, and physically with a morning routine.
Habit 3: Have a clear vision of your values and goals.
Habit 4: Define your priorities so you know where to spend your time and energy.
Habit 5: Use batching, grouping, and automation to get things done efficiently.
Habit 6: Choose a daily Focus 3 so your best energy goes toward important tasks.
Habit 7: To avoid overwhelm, create habits + routines instead of having a long daily to-do list.
Habit 8: To avoid exhaustion, pair high energy tasks with low energy tasks.
Habit 9: Remember to serve toward your goals instead of striving toward them.
Habit 10: Use your schedules and routines as tools not chains.
And that’s a wrap - I’d say you’re ready to Hustle Sanely, girlfriend!
If you enjoyed this post, tune into episode 050 of The Hustle Sanely Podcast to listen into this topic!
