Blog Post 19: 2 simple strategies to make sure you WIN every single day 🙌
My husband and I had just put the kids to sleep.
It was 7:30pm and I had hit a wall. I was SO exhausted.
I opened my to-do list and noticed that it had actually become LONGER, not shorter. 🤦🏻♀️
I felt like I had failed at the day. I thought I did so much though?
I looked at my calendar for the next day and saw several client sessions and meetings. I saw barely any white space. Not much time to do all the other things on my to-do list.
I felt overwhelmed. I knew the next day would be just as busy, if not busier than today, and my to-do list would likely get bigger once again.
The never ending to-do list of life as a Mum…
Does this sound familiar to you?
So many of us Mums feel this way. Our to-do lists seem to be ever-expanding, and often at the end of a day we are so exhausted, but then notice our to-do lists not getting any smaller.
Many of my clients really struggle with this and they think they are unproductive, drowning in all the ‘things’ they have to get done (and seemingly not getting done). They tell me that they feel like they are failing as a Mum. They are failing as a worker, employee, business owner. That they are kind of ‘failing at life’.
I used to be one of those Mums but then I learnt and implemented a few game-changing strategies that I now use daily, that have turned every single day into a win. Into a success. Into a productive day.
I wanted to share two of those strategies in this blog post.
3 Daily Done Wins
This strategy is deceptively simple, but so effective.
At the end of each day, all you need to do is write down 3 wins that you had during the day. Three things that you accomplished in the day. These can be big wins or small wins. They are wins nonetheless.
Dan Sullivan, one of the elite coaches for entrepreneurs says that “the past is your property.”
The most amazing thing about our past is that, if you think about it, it really only exists as a memory in your mind.
The event or situation happened, and it’s what you are making it mean now that is determining how you feel about that past event or situation. And it’s entirely within your control to determine what you’ll make that past experience mean.
So why, at the end of the day, do we look back on our day and think of all the things we haven’t done, rather than all the things we have done?
Allowing myself to reframe my day by looking at what I have done vs what I haven’t done has completely shifted my mindset. At first I admit it was difficult to do. My brain tried to revert back to its default negativity bias, looking at what hadn’t been done.
But instead of beating myself up for doing that, I gave myself compassion. My brain has done that for 35 years, of course it’s going to try to go down that path, it’s so used to it. It unconsciously thinks about it. And those things I ‘haven’t done’ are also still on the to-do list, so I don’t need to really give them another worrying thought. All I need to do now is practice reframing the day that’s just been by consciously and deliberately thinking about three wins - three things I did do and accomplish.
Even if you consider the wins to be ‘small’, remember that every incremental step takes you one step further. All big things come from small beginnings. Small steps lead to extraordinary outcomes.
Acknowledging your wins, no matter how small you perceive them to be, gives you momentum and motivation to move forward.
To make this exercise even more effective, I encourage you to write them down. Just create a GoogleDoc or a new Notes document in your phone, write the date, and bullet point 3 wins that you had each day. It’s amazing how good you feel after doing this one simple thing.
2. 3 Daily To-Do Wins
My next strategy is for you to think about 3 wins you’ll have the next day, ahead of time.
Not only will this help you become more organised, it will also help you focus on what you most want to achieve.
And write down no more than 3 wins.
Have you ever looked at your to-do list, seen that it had at least 8 big tasks on it, knowing it would be physically impossible to get them all done in a day, so you just end up feeling overwhelmed and not doing any?
Doing this sets yourself up for failure. You’re overcommitting your future self. You know that you won’t be able to get everything done. You’re not going to miraculously get 5 more hours in the day, so why set yourself up to only beat yourself up for not achieving everything on your to-do list at the end of the day?
There’s a quote I love that says “if you have more than 3 priorities, nothing is a priority.”
I’ve done a lot of research and coaching on personal development and productivity, and most psychologists and successful entrepreneurs agree that you should only put 3 things on your to-do list each day.
This was a VERY hard pill for me to swallow, but as I started following this advice, I noticed my productivity, effectiveness and success in my business exponentially increased.
It also massively increased my confidence and helped me lean into a growth mindset.
I hope these two simple strategies help you become aware of how much you ARE actually doing in a day, and help you plan intentionally for the following day, whilst being kind to your future self and not overwhelming her.
You want your present self to have your past self AND future self’s backs. After all, all those ‘selves’ are you.
And know that you are doing amazingly Mama!
Love Loren x
