Laurie's Blogs.

For this week’s blog, I searched other blog posts, and journal articles for inspiration.  No such luck!  The truth is, I have so much on my plate right now, that I’m not doing a very good job of ‘getting out of my head’.  My brain is spinning with ‘To Do’ lists.  Worse yet, my attention is like a ping pong ball bouncing around all over, leaving me feeling like I’m not accomplishing any ‘big picture’ goals!

So, I thought I would write about keeping calm while in the state of chaos!  When things go sideways, when a whole pile of commitments get dumped on your lap, when other people change their plans, commitments, availability… YOU need to have a plan for dealing with it all!

Here’s what I’ve found:

When I have too much to do, I find myself doing stupid little things (like filing papers), which don’t really matter at the time, but are easier to do than diving into big projects.  I’d be better off to let my brain rest completely and start into something in a refreshed state a few minutes later.  Taking a proper brain break is super helpful!  One thing I’ve come across in an App called Headspace.  It’s a very nice, calming meditation app.  Nothing too complicated, nothing too ‘airy-fairy’… just a guided meditation that really does help to get you centred and calm.  (If you are looking, just use the ‘free’ App.  It will cover you for just about anything you need, and you can pick a shorter or longer sessions.)  I must do a better job of meditating more often.

Don’t beat yourself up.  I am terrible for getting upset with myself for not accomplishing more in a day!  However, feeling bad about what I haven’t done just makes me stressed about how much I still have to do.  And we all know that a stressed mind doesn’t accomplish very much.  So, I feel much better when I actually spend a little time reminding myself of what I have accomplished and reminding myself of how important it was that I got those things done.  Sometimes I actually say out loud, “Good job Laurie!”  I know, it sounds stupid… but it helps to calm the anxiety.

Take small pieces of a bigger project.  There is a saying, ‘How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time!’  (I don’t want to eat an elephant… but the visual, does give you perspective on tackling a large task!)  So, right now, I have a total of 817 e-mails in my inboxes (of 5 different e-mail accounts).  Some of them are just ‘held there’ for future reference, but some are things I really need to get back to!  (Like some of your e-mail questions!!!)  So while, I want to put as a  task is “Read, Respond, Deal with, & Delete E-mails”… really, what I should make as an actionable goal is something smaller like “Respond to 4 e-mail case questions”, “File e-mails / e-mail attachments pertaining to the pipeline”, etc.  Those are smaller, ‘bite-sized’ goals that I could actually get accomplished AND feel good about.  I’ve found that feeling good about what you accomplish is a key component to mental sanity!!

Decide at the beginning of your day – are you going to accomplish many little things in many different areas?  Or dive deep into one (or two) areas, and make a bigger dent in a larger project.  Honestly, it doesn’t matter, which you choose… but making a decision about which you will do in a day, and then doing just that, help with the feeling of accomplishment.  Again, I can’t be the only one that beats themselves up for not getting more done in a day… so, this is just one ‘mindset trick’ that I’ve found useful.   Another like-minded topic, is that of ‘cutting yourself some slack’ when you’ve had a busy day.  For example, when I have a full day of patients, all scheduled back to back, there is no way that I can answer e-mails, plan any marketing, write a blog, pay bills, etc.  But if I tell myself that what I did was important and made a difference in the big picture of my clinic, then I can put my mind at ease despite not getting other business matters done on an otherwise very busy day.

And walk.  This piece of advice, I need to take more often.  Walk!  Go outside and walk.  Get out of the house, office, clinic, etc, and just walk.  And folks, that’s where I’m heading now as I finish writing this… because I have so much to do, and I need to re-group in my brain.

So, until next time…

Cheers!   ~ Laurie