PP 269: This OR That

Kim Sutton: On past episodes of the Positive Productivity Podcast, I have shared with you that my cooking skills are, let’s just say subpar. By subpar, I mean that I burn more food than is actually edible. And on the evenings when they’re home, my 15-year-old son and or my husband prefer to cook just to ensure that the family eats something edible. I have to confess that the reason why so many of my meals are getting burnt, is because I have a hard time deciding this or that. While I’m cooking, I’m often sidetracked chasing around children, doing work, trying to do dishes, queuing up the next movie or the Roku that the littles want to watch, or any number of other things that are taking me away from whatever is cooking on the stove. And that’s what I want to talk to you about today. We need to stop trying to do everything and decide this or that before we burn ourselves out. This episode is also going to come with a disclaimer that I want you to please do as I say and not as I do, because as with every other episode of the Positive Productivity Podcast, I am on this journey right along with you and I am still learning. I am continually on a personal development journey as well as a professional development journey, and I don’t know that I’ll ever reach the end. Honestly, I think I’ll be bored if I do. So I can almost guarantee you that at least once in the next week, dinner will be burnt. And I’ll be eating the charred gunk from the bottom of the pan just to make sure that the rest of the family has something edible. If we’re not looking at the big picture and deciding what’s most important from this or that, often we get sucked into my new details and end up making the wrong choices. I know I can often get pulled into client work when I know that there was an important call that I needed to make for my family. For example, a doctor’s appointment for myself or a dentist appointment for somebody else. But unless I take a look at the big picture, and have all these minute tasks written down, then I often lose sight of what’s really important. And I also lose sight of what the repercussions could be if I don’t make the right decision now. Positive productivity is not about perfection. And sometimes even when I think I made the right decision, disaster will strike. Maybe disaster is not the right choice of word. But let me give you an example. We have to acknowledge what our body is telling us that it needs, including using the restroom. And just a couple of months ago, there was an evening where I realized while I was cooking dinner, that I needed to go pee. I know this is not very appropriate. But I ran quickly to the restroom, came back out. Dinner was miraculously okay. However, they’re standing in the living room, I found my three-year-old daughter, Zelda, with her whole face decorated with a green sharpie. We can’t be everywhere all the time. And even if we could be, I don’t know that we would want to be. I can’t imagine how exhausting it would be. And while sometimes I joke about having clones made of me just so everything can get done and get done on time. I know I would miss out on a lot of amazing life experiences if there were other me’s handling some of those tasks. It’s crucially important that every single day we’re looking at what our top priorities are in both our personal life, as well as in our professional life. We need to be looking at these top three priorities from not only the perspective of our short term goals, but also from our long term goals. If we don’t do this, what’s going to happen to that. So if you’re not doing it already, tonight, I want you to commit to start laying out your next day ahead of time.

Look out your goals and figure out your this is or thats. What are the tasks that only you can do and are critical to ensuring a better future? What are the tasks that you can delegate to somebody else? And what are the tasks that don’t need to be done at all. Take the top three tasks, call them this is and put them at the top of your list for the next day. You might have two separate lists, one for personal and one for professional and that’s okay. But by the end of the day, commit to having all of those tasks completed. And only then will you add more tasks to your list. If you’re looking for a planner that will provide space for you to write down your this is and that’s, I strongly encourage you to sign up for your own free copy of the seven day positive productivity planner, which you can get at thekimsutton.com/sevendp. And once again, remember you can’t do everything. Don’t stress yourself out by thinking that you can. Just commit to doing your best and taking steps forward every day toward reaching your final goals. Now with all this said, go forth and make it a positive and productive day. Have you requested your seven day free version of the positive productivity planner yet? If not, I want to encourage you to go over to thekimsutton.com/sevendp and pick up your copy today. This free version of the planners can help get you on track of leading a more positive and productive personal and professional life. Again, you can get your copy at thekimsutton.com/sevendp.