From Overwhelmed to Organized: Design Your Daily Simple Structure with Notion

1. Introduction: After working with people worldwide, it became evident that our work and creative processes can significantly influence our health and well being, often leading to unnecessary stress. The pre existing traditional structures were optimized for objective results, not for having a human experience while working. We've stripped the joy of working for fast results as a society, and I want to change that. My name is Sarah Edwards. I am a creative success coach, professional art director, mental health advocate, and a happily imperfect teman being. I've honed my craft at renowned advertising agencies, creating diverse digital and printwork. However, most importantly, as a creative success coach, I empower creative women globally, guiding them through entrepreneurship and healing and serving as their supportive creative BFF, like the older sister, I always wanted. My interactions with individuals from South Africa to Mexico to Washington State. Reveal shared struggles in creativity, such as procrastination, self doubt, overwhelmed, perfectionism and the need for structure and confidence. My mission to help people shift their mindsets and find weightlessness in creating and working came from surviving seasons of life that honestly made me really lucky to be here today. As a neurodivergent, I experienced the world differently and late diagnosis of physical and mental conditions brought significant suffering, burnout, confusion, and pain, and I had to rebuild my life, which unveiled a brand new perspective. Everyone has limitations, and working within those limitations can be one of the most powerful skills you can learn. Embracing personalized structures allows us to liberate ourselves from standard rigid systems that may not nurture, balance or bring joy to authentic creativity. And I want to invite you to rebel with me today. Today's project involves customizing a pre existing notion template to optimize your daily routine, making productivity a natural part of your workflow through simple systems. We will showcase how to define and pursue identity based goals aligned with your personal and professional aspirations, for lasting fulfillment, and a bunch of success. Learn to leverage your limitations as strengths to enhance your creative process. Break free from procrastination with proven techniques empowering you to progress purposely and confidently, use these techniques with all these other creatives across the world. I'm really excited to share those with you today, and then identifying the most impactful activities in the business and life, enabling focused efforts for greater success. And embracing a more adaptable approach to deadlines, aligning with your creative rhythm by letting go of frigid timelines. You do not need to know a single thing about notion, by the way. We'll leverage the most basic functions. The final product is super minimal but super intentional and impactful and not complicated, which really excites me, and I hope it excites you. I want to reduce resistance today. I'm so excited. Let's get started and do this together. 2. The Power of Simple: Creativity is more than just the project you're working on. It's your entire day. It's messy. It gets derailed. It has unexpected joys. So when we plan our creative project, we need to be thinking about the ecosystem of our day, not just the morning or mastering one routine. I am tossing out what many people view as important in the success process. Life can be overwhelming and stressful, especially in a world that seems to be getting more complicated and full. However, I want you to know you're not alone and feeling this way. Many people struggle with the same emotions. But what if I told you that keeping things simple can make a huge difference. We'll explore crafting simple systems that streamline your workflow, setting and achieving goals that resonate with your personal and professional identity and discovering how to work within your limitations to enhance your creative process. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information and tasks vying for our attention. Our phone is always ringing. Our notifications are always going off, our app is getting our attention. Our notes out is scattered, our text are overloaded and folders are messy in her desk as a pile of papers and a bunch of half finished journals. You know who you are, As anyone relating to this, this can lead to resistance regarding our ability to take action and willingness to embrace change. However, reducing resistance is crucial to both personal and professional success, and we need to embrace this on our path to simplicity. Many beautiful and unique trends like applications and bullet urnals and entire digital systems are laced with intricacy, detail, tracking in depth. However, this class is taking a different approach. We're tossing all of those things out, and we're focusing on three things defining objectives and outcomes, essential items for success and easy to navigate with minimal distractions. Those are three things, guys. I've discovered and mastered this after working with many students and coaching creatives from across the world, and as a personal cheerleader to a bunch of different creatives and different seasons in life and ages, I really noticed that these three things can contribute to the same road blocks we're all facing. I can't stress enough to you that systems are the key to someone's success and peace of mind. And we love that guys. We love peace of mind while working. Focusing on the essentials and stripping away unnecessary complexity makes achieving desired outcomes easier and enhances productivity overall. The top is the psychology of human behavior by promoting a sense of control and autonomy, leading to increased engagement and motivation. These systems can be beneficial for individuals with mental health limitations or anxiety like myself. I would know I am someone with these disabilities and disorders, and trust me, this is the path guys. In a world filled with uncertainty and complexity, simple systems can provide a sense of structure and predictability that reduces stress and overwhelm, and I came up with this after years of life experience as someone who is still in recovery for those conditions. These things can help individuals with limitations of all kinds resource limitations, family limitations, geographical limitations, the more simple you make it, the more space you leave for allowing your limitations to live and breathe, which will enhance productivity as your daily go to. Creating a simple system requires careful planning, which we're going to do in this class, and of course, intention. But it's not impossible, and it's not meant to be for one type of person or thinker. As a neurodivergent, I've learned that the key to success is customized processes of being intentional and design our way of thinking to accommodate ourselves instead of forcing ourselves into a box, which many people do. As you know, I've crafted a done for notion template. The link is in the description, you have to build nothing, guys. We're just going to be plugging in information, and this template is intentional with its minimal customization. It's not going to be the prettiest thing you've seen every day. And I'm going to show you why that's actually pretty important. I know how hard this is for us creatives, after working intimately with students over the years. I often find creatives knowingly or unknowingly, self sabotage and procrastinate by trying to perfect their systems, make things look nice or overload themselves with worry about how things appear on paper. So by stripping away unnecessary complexity, Simple systems focus on the essentials and our template focuses on the essentials. Studies have shown that when people are faced with complex systems, individuals feel overwhelmed and that leads to resistance. On the other hand, simple systems are intuitive and user friendly, and this lowers the learning curve and increases user acceptance. So yes, we're doing notion to gay guys, but there is minimal learning curve of what we're covering because I want to make this simple and accessible to anybody of all backgrounds, ages, and tech experience. By decluttering our minds and focusing on what's truly important, we're going to overcome those resistance and face those goals together. Simplifying our lives, we'll reduce the amount of mental clutter and distractions that prevent us from focusing on what's truly important. This can involve decluttering your workspace or minimizing your commitments. This simple system that we're going to set up for your day to day check in, it's going to allow you to say, uh. I think I'm overloading my plate, and that my friends is the key to success. 3. The Notion Basics: If you haven't already, create a free notion account at notion SO. Don't worry, regardless if you've ever used notion before or your P, this template is absolutely made with everybody in mind. This template includes a variety of elements. The first being what we call a top sheet, and that is basically the home or landing page of your template. This guy is something I want you to see every single day, if you're focusing on productivity, when you open your computer up, say, you know exactly what you should be focusing on and giving all your attention to. And then in notion, we have what's called sub pages. And that is different pages embedded in top sheet, so you can navigate around keeping it really clean and simple. So to start, if you're not familiar with notion or if you haven't already, I would love if you could go to notion SO. And whenever you're ready, you're going to want to create a free account. The good news is that most likely you're only going to need the free version of notion. You already have an account. Go ahead and log in. Once you have an account and you're all set up, you're going to want to head over to the link that I provided for my personal notion site, which is how in notion we actually have templates. So if you're not familiar with one of the great features about notion is that you can take any notion document template thing that you create, and you can upload it to your notion site, which will allow others depending on your settings to also take that template for their own. So because this template is set to allow others to duplicate it and take it into their own notion account. All you have to do once you're on my site is head over to these two squares over here, and that is your duplication tool. Once you click that, my template will be added to your personal notion workspace, which is where you're going to want to navigate to in the future, to be able to edit and customize it for yourself. You're going to notice a few different functionalities on the left side. Box is a great tool if you've set up reminders in your notion template, which is something I strongly recommend. Things for deadlines and due dates, which we'll talk about a little bit later, settings and how to control members and people that are on your account. Then anything that you have shared or private shared implies that you've published it to your site or you've shared the template with others or other members of your account. For now, we don't have to actually worry about any of these things. We can actually jump right into the template and direct our focus on some of the notion basics. It's totally understandable that notion at first can seem like Wild West. It's designed to have a free flow mentality, but also in a way that is familiar to a lot of our pre existing knowledge based stuff. I'm thinking about Grigledcs and Word and things like that that we are already very acclimated to. So the beautiful thing about notion is that it's intuitive, it's new, but it's also familiar. Now, the beautiful part of a template is that a lot of the things are already ready and done for you. And the whole point of this template and this course is so that you have a lot less to worry about. And so for that exact reason, and leaning into the power of simple for our productivity, I'm not going to tell you about how I put these things together. I'm only going to tell you how to make the most of them and to edit them yourself. So to start off here, the main thing is obviously plugging in different sets of information and navigating around the template. So in this template, you're actually looking at the top sheet. To be, this is the most important. Here, we've got a to do list for the day. We've got the growth zone, which is the sub pages that I will walk you through. And then a couple of other things that I found really helpful. In this case, I really like having a weekly notes section, and it functions just like any other sticky note. So, for example, if you're going to put in your top priorities today, you can just click. Type, which is amazing for any row. Now, what you're seeing here labeled as tasks, this is actually a notion table. And notion tables are very powerful because you can plug them into different data systems. But like I said, we're only going to talk about exactly what you need to know. You'll notice a notion that there are six dots, and that's in your grab and play tool, as I like to call it, which essentially allows you to click and see any other pieces of functionality or to move the table itself. This table can be edited, anything you want it to be, so you can change this from goals to tasks to to do, and you can also add additional rows, which I think is really powerful if you'd like to get a little more specific with your to do list. What this does is it allows you to create a new row and you'll notice a side page here, open up, and this is actually something that I would like to draw our attention to because it's something that oftentimes confuses a lot of users. In this case, you can add in different titles or commentary or assets within each column here and it populates into the table. But for me, I actually find it most beneficial just to click and type. So all I want you to do with your today's to do list by practicing is clicking on each of the rows here and just typing in a few things that you can get used to that functionality. You're going to notice in notion that there's multiple ways to achieve something, so you'll also see the new here, which is a quick way to add fast rows without additional information. The first thing to draw your attention to is actually the properties. Essentially, it is assigning a certain type of goal. To that object. Now, we don't have to worry too much about what this is, but I would like to show you an example of what that means. When you have a table, you have different properties that you can edit these properties allow you to have different functionality within the table. Let's say that you want to make a column, have a date fality. Maybe you select the date, and you can adjust these smaller settings here. But my recommendation, as always, is to keep things simple and I'd actually prefer it if you don't include those elements, so you can focus on what matters the most. Another quick tip in notion is while you're playing around and getting to learn the software, which you totally should, the command Z if you're on a Mac or the undo command on Microsoft computer, is a way to quickly do anything that you just did if you don't want it, such as the column here. The growth zone is something that I created to really house the main sub pages that we have here in this template. The really cool part about this is that it opens up a sub page here in notion. I love this because it allows us to keep us organized. If you want to find your way back to the page that we were on previously, that top page, you can use the upper section here to navigate back, or you can use your side tabs as well to get back to that top sheet. We have our notes section and you can see I have a pre made bulleted list here that you can add things to, which is really exciting as you take some notes and ideas. I've also added a sticky note here so that you can have some random sts that you can plug in, which is really, really fun. Now, if you want to make more bullets, just like in another processing document, all you have to do is enter and you're going to have more bullets available to you. And if you hit enter twice, it will take the bolt away, no different than in another document like Word or Google doc. I will give you this one, guys. If you really want to make it your own branding or style. And as you scroll over it, you'll notice a pop up here. It's just change cover. You can easily change it to any of the gradients, any of the free images that notion provides, or you can upload your own. If you'd like to keep your branding and your business, top up min. So now we're going to hop into our other pages here. Identity based outcomes. This is a section for our journaling to continue deepening and understanding of our goals. This is a great space to capture any Now I strongly recommend that you keep everything in the same space, how we manage your day to day structure, as well as your responses to these specific and pertinent questions are really going to set you up for success. What that means here is that you can easily just start typing your response in without having to worry about again any deep functionality. Now, what you will know here is if I am to highlight the text that you get your standard different functionalities that you're probably used to in other processing tools. You can link something by making a link, which is great if you'd like to link something specific, like a mood board or something from Pinterest. And you'll also notice here that we have our property again. This allows us to change this from standard text which I'd recommend keeping because, again, that makes the most sense if we're journaling. Two different types of things like bulleted lists, toggle lists, to do list with check boxes, as well as different headings. Feel free to mess around with that if you'd like to figure out what you'd respond best to visually. Next, we're hopping into our vision board. Now, this is a space where I'm really excited about because I want us to lean into focusing on our future selves and really imagining that ecosystem. Now, this can get a little more tricky. This is a little more advanced, but don't worry. We're going to keep it simple. What you're looking at here is actually a gallery functionality. If you want to keep things as simple as possible, all you have to do is click on the pre made place holders that I've provided for you. And you can actually just swap out the information here. Let's say you have a new image, you'd like to pop into this vision board or a link. You can delete what's already there, and now you can populate it with what you want, say a single image, something you've screenshotted from Instagram and things like that, if you'd like to. That way, it will populate here when you're ready. Lastly here, you're going to notice the weekly self check in, same functionality elements here, guys, where we are typing things into sticky notes into our bulleted lists, and really filling out what we need to fill out. Something to note here is that if you would like your weekly self check in to be something that you do every single week, which I hope you do, and you would like to save what you wrote in the previous week, which you do not have to do. This is only if you'd like to keep a journaling track of what you're working on. You can interact with the dots here. And we know that this helps us adjust the property, and you can duplicate. And that will actually just populate again what you've done. So you can save your old work, but then have a fresh space ready for you for the new week where you can input that week and date and do the new exercise all over again, which I strongly recommend if you are in a space where you'd like to track your emotions and your goals for the week. 4. The Power of Outcomes: The power of becoming is a profound concept, representing a shift in our approach towards personal and professional success. It urges us to focus on becoming the person we aspire to be, embodying the qualities and values we strive for. This shift is from doing and being and accumulating successes to becoming the best version of ourselves. This is known as the identity based outcome and has been profoundly one of the most significant shifts I've made for myself and my business growth. Focusing on who we want to become is more potent than traditional goal setting because it aligns with our daily values and aspirations, by committing to a personal growth and learning how we want to treat ourselves every day to become more like that future version of ourselves. The power of becoming fosters resilience. It creates new perspectives. It helps you power through setbacks in the process of becoming who we want to be. It encourages us to experiment, step out of our comfort zones, to embrace life as lessons and feedback instead of setbacks and really work through that discomfort and productivity. Life is stressful, and there are things in creativity and business that is not fun at all. Staying focused on the lifestyle you want and the end product can keep us focused, hopeful, and excited about the future. To embrace the power of becoming, we must ask ourselves who we want to be, what qualities we admire and others and what values we want to embody. By making choices that reflect these aspirations, we can create a life that's full and one that we genuinely love and respect. Well, goals can give us direction and milestones to strive for, focusing on the process of becoming can be more fulfilling and really drive us to that personal success. And that the journey is destinations and a series of destinations in those destinations. I'm going to have you reflect on the page that says identity based outcomes in your notion of weight. You should ensure the templates already duplicated that you're ready to go, guys. So make sure you watch the previous lesson and that you're ready to hop into notion. We're going to journal your identity based outcome by reviewing questions that operate as the creative writing process. So don't skip this one, guys. This is one of the most powerful things I learned as an entrepreneur. So the question is, what is a day in the life of your future self? What are you doing? What are you wearing? What does your day look like? Who are you talking to? What values and qualities do you want to embody in the future? What are some of the big goals I've achieved at this point? Again, thinking about that future tense self. How do I want to envision my ideal life both personally and professionally? What obstacles and challenges might I face in this journey, and how am I going to overcome them? In what ways will my life be different? Once I have become this person that I aspire to be? The power of becoming is not a one time event, but a continuous growth and development process. It requires us to be very patient with ourselves and to approach each day with a growth mindset, by focusing on our progress rather than our perfection and to really help us gain that resilience in overcoming obstacles. One way to embrace the power of becoming is by setting intentions, rather than rigid goals. Intentions allows us to be flexible and adaptable to pivot when needed and stay open to new opportunities and experiences. They can help us stay connected to our deepest values and aspirations and provide us with a sense of purpose and direction. Reflect on these questions. You can also do this on a journal or piece of paper, but I encourage you to keep these recorded, which is why we're using Notion and really take space to do this. Give yourself breathing room, being a distractionless space. Give your attention, guys, because when I say this actually changed the trajection of my career, my health. I mean, everything shifted for me, my relationships as a person, my career opportunities, and even my business success totally changed when I went from goals to outcomes, and I was like, Wow, this is the woman I want to be, and I'm excited to meet her. I can see her showing up every day, and it's really important for us to start acting like the person we want to be today, right? Making those good habits happen today so that we can get to the version of ourselves tomorrow. And this isn't a stay that we should be ignoring our present day self or not be present. But I find this is so powerful because now, when I wake up every day to work on my business, I am excited. I'm like, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to get going, and I feel the shifts happening. I see the positive things changing, and that thing I tried last week, like, Wow, that worked, and it created this result. And that's exciting. And through the date and the stuff that we don't like in business, I want you to feel motivated and powerful. Something to talk about in a lot of other lessons, which is not in this particular one, but I'm going to touch on it is the myth of motivation. Motivation is not this weird emotion that we can, tangibly hold onto and make possible, right? It's something that is fluid and kind of up and down. I want you to have an outcome solid. You can hold onto it. You know it's there. You're like, This is my thing. This is what I'm driving towards. So even if you have a day where you're exhausted or something happens or you have a family issue or you're sick, You put in that ten 15 minutes sending that e mail or updating that thing on your website. You're like, I'm moving closer to my outcome. I don't need motivation. Guys, I can promise you if you have an outcome in mind, it's clear, you can visualize it, you can talk about it, everything's going to change. I'm really excited for you to experience that. Speaking of visualizing. Meet me in our next lesson, we are going to talk about putting in some visuals because we're creatives, I know we need it. I'll see you there. Okay. 5. The Vision Board: Visualizing your future self can be a powerful tool for pushing through pain and discomfort towards your goals. We've spent some time writing out your identity based outcome, but I want to offer a visual space for this, as well as we are creatives, after all, when you can see yourself achieving your desired outcome, it provides motivation and a roadmap to get there, which is really exciting. By focusing on this vision and keeping it at the forefront of your mind, you can push through tough times, stay on track, and be working towards your goals. Being a creative or entrepreneur is not always glamorous. It can be filled with discomfort and strength and mundane and tedious tasks, while it may seem exciting to pursue your passion and turn it into a career. Reality is that it does require a lot of hard work and perseverance. You may face many challenges from financial struggles to self doubt, and criticism from others. And there may be times when you feel overwhelmed and stressed and frustrated with the work you are actively doing. That's okay, and these feelings are normal. There are many mundane and complicated tasks to achieve success, and these tasks may or may not be directly related to your passion or creative work, but they are necessary for running a business or maintaining a bran. By staying focused on your identity based outcome and visualizing your future self, you can push through the discomfort and the stress and stay on track. Towards your outcomes that you want. So with that, we're going to spend some time today focusing on the future self by putting a mood board together in notion. This can include various elements from business, creativity, self, general lifestyle, health, you name it. Think of a variety of things, how your future website could look, the printing materials of your packaging for your amazing stickers, the outfits you want to wear, the dinner table you spend time with each night with your family, the vacations you take, the things you give to others, and so on. In notion, we'll have a page ready for you to drop in different links, images, and inspiration. Spend as much time on this as you like, let yourself be excited, be louder than your inner critic. It's not meant to be perfect. It's not meant to be organized or just fully put together. It's intended to be freeing and fun and allowing you those feel good emotions and those things that can come up when we visualize things that we're excited about. Working towards an outcome that you want can really help us push through the challenges. When people ask me why I work so hard every day and how I overcome all my many obstacles and dress me. There have been some that I felt impossible to overcome. It's because I know the outcome I want. I have it in my mind, and I'm determined to get there. I want to invite you today to lay the groundwork so that you can have the same drive, excitement, determination, and confidence. Meet me in the next lesson when you're ready to talk strategy. 6. Working Within Limitations: One of the most important lessons I have learned is to recognize my strengths and limitations. Embracing my strength has allowed me to excel in areas where I have natural abilities, acknowledging my limitations to help me find ways to adapt my productivity within them. It's essential to understand that we all have certain limitations, whether it's physical, emotional or mental and accepting these limitations can be challenging, but honestly, so crucial to move forward. By acknowledging what we can't control or change, we can concentrate on what we can do and adapt our strengths. But often, I see people trying to work as if they were someone else. For example, mental limitation, someone with a learning disability or ADHD or dyslexia, or they need different strategies to learn and retain information or maybe there's even a language barrier, and they have to break things down into smaller steps. People who struggle with time management who maybe have a lot of responsibilities on their plate on top of their goals. Resource limitations. Maybe somebody that you really need to hire is out of budget or you can't launch a product you really want to launch because of where you live. These things can be difficult, but adapting and understanding these things and finding ways to work with and who you are is so essential. Pushing yourself too hard can lead to burnout and frustration and setting yourself up for achievable goals can help you actually stay productive, but so many of us pick the ladder. We push ourselves into unreasonable circumstances or spaces. This also applies to things we feel limited by in understanding or knowledge. Take taxes, for example, you've never filed business taxes before, you feel stressed about it, you might learn something new, you might make mistakes or ask questions. Ultimately, this could mean finding new ways to approach a problem, delegating tasks, or asking help from others. Who is more successful? The person who decides, I'm going to learn, get it done and take action or the person who stays paralyzed because they don't feel like they know what to do or how to do it. So they wait and they wait and they wait some more and they remain and nothing changes, and they wonder why they're in the same place and still stress. One of your best ways to work with your limitations is to focus on what you can do rather than what you can. You can find new ways to accomplish tasks and achieve your goals by shifting this mindset. You are so powerful because every single one of us has limitations. One of the benefits of that is it actually forces us to be a little more creative, and we have to think outside the box in order to make things and resources and stuff work for us, which is really amazing, and that's how new ideas and breakthroughs might even be born. Working within our limitations also can help us prioritize. We must decide what is essential and really focus on our energy, especially if our limitations take away a lot of our physical or mental energy. This will allow us and give us motivation to concentrate on certain tasks because we know we only have a couple minutes or hours to work on something. This is a sense of accomplishment that can really fuel us and keep us pushing forward. And I know it doesn't feel fair. And I know there's a lot of emotions built up with that when we're in the space of comparison, and look. Again, guys, remember, we're in a world where we're constantly seeing people's finished products on social media and the surface of the iceberg, right? So many of us don't see what's actually happening underneath. Even in this production, there are a lot of lights and wires around me, and there was a lot of scripting that had to be written. And outlines and graphics that I had to make that took weeks and weeks of time and you're only seeing the final product. And I hit limitations while making this class, chars me, and I probably still will after I finished recording. So don't lose heart. It is so worth it when you get to the final product, you hit publish, you sell, you show people your work, be joyful in all circumstances, and know that just because you're limited by something, it doesn't mean you aren't wonderful and you aren't capable and you aren't skilled. And the more that you play within the sandbox of what was designed for you, then the more you're going to build confidence and realize, Yeah, I am awesome. Stop trying to push against the mold and try to work and be somebody else. So next time you sit down, whether it's tomorrow in 5 minutes or in a couple of weeks, make sure you're asking yourself. Am I really setting myself up for success or am I trying to force myself into a mold? 7. The 5 Why's: The five Ys is a problem solving technique that involves asking why you guessed it five times to uncover the root cause of a problem or a roadblock that you're facing. It's simple yet effective, and it can help identify the underlying issues contributing to really any problem you're facing. Discovering root causes means identifying the underlying factors contributing to a problem or issue. It involves going deeper than the surface, sometimes a uncomfortable and making observations and really uncovering why something is truly happening, Not why we think it's happening. By understanding the root causes of a problem, you can develop more effective solutions that address these underlying issues and sometimes reprioritize things to actually go after maybe what you should be focusing on first rather than just treating all the side effects or the symptoms. This can lead to more sustainable and long lasting improvements, of course, and a greater understanding of really the systems you have in place and how your mind works and what your life is currently reacting to. Identifying root causes requires honestly taking a lot of observation and a willingness to challenge assumptions and explore different perspectives. I know this all sounds a little scary and complicated, but I really want to make this as simple as possible. I want us to focus on just a few things and practice the five ys and whatever comes to mind is your top roadblocks currently. For example, let's say you are an artist trying to create new work, which might be a lot of us. Using the five Ys, we could really dig into maybe why you're struggling with creating new work. Why are you feeling stressed? Maybe your response is because I'm struggling to create new art. Okay. And we ask why again. Why are you struggling to create a new art. Response. Because I'm feeling uninspired and creatively blocked. Interesting. Okay. Let's ask why a third time. Why are you feeling uninspired and blocked. Response. Because I'm not getting enough rest, I'm totally overworked and overwhelmed. Interesting. Now this just got spicy. Number four, why? Why aren't you getting enough rest? Because I'm constantly working and I don't take enough breaks. Therefore, I don't get enough sleep. Number five. Why are you constantly working and not taking enough breaks response. Because I feel pressure to create new work and meet deadline. From this example, it's really clear that the root cause of the artist's inability to create new work is actually the stress from the lack of rest, which is driven by pressure to create deadlines, which means that it might make a long lasting informative change if this artist was to shift how they schedule deadlines or shift the pressure of meeting those deadlines. For example, Maybe if they are feeling pressure to meet certain deadlines, the question becomes, well, what boundaries are you setting around your clients, and how many projects are you taking on? Are you under pitching and under delivering yourself by saying, Yeah, that logo will take a couple hours? When in reality, it takes two weeks. Do you feel like by increasing your deadline speed, that's going to increase the quality of your work? These are really good questions to ask yourselves, once you get to that fifth root cause, why and really uncover the levels of what's happening? Yes, maybe you are feeling uninspired right now, but maybe it's because you're overworked, or you're not communicating something with your partner that's been weighing on your mind, or you have bills that you need to address or you need more sleep. These are actionable changes we can make in our life for really big impact. This ultimately gives us a plan to address it. When I do this exercise myself, I'm like, Wow. I'm really excited because I have a super direct actionable change I can make, but I think it's going to really move the needle in my life. From changing my schedule to taking more breaks to finding more things to put in my calendar for relaxation. This is going to help create new work. Now, while this might seem counter intuitive and you're like, wait, wait, wait, so you're telling me, I have to take a break with my to do list and instead start exploring why my bank account is giving me pressure. Yeah. Because in the long run, this is going to make you more productive and it's going to make you feel more weightless and free. Ultimately, you can also develop strategies to prevent forcasity and stress by asking these five whys, and finding, again, your limitations, things that you might need. This is a really quick way to actually make an immediate change in your life for all kinds of goals, not just related to creativity. In your notion template, you'll find an area where you can do this for three road blocks. I want you guys to pick three things that really come to mind. Maybe it's a lack of inspiration, maybe it is procrastination. It might be really uncomfortable and hard, but be honest because this is for you and only for you. When you get into that template, list out the three road blocks and then I want you to do five Wys for yourself. If you're feeling resistance in this process, you can invite someone to do this with you, a friend or a loved one who can ask you why a few times. You can give that live response as if you're in a conversation. And I can totally understand why that might be healthier than doing it in your own head or by yourself, whatever you feel most comfortable with. I'm really excited to see what you find today. Regardless, nothing is worth being ashamed of. This is you understanding yourself better and what you need, and that's really beautiful and a really amazing investment in yourself. And I know it might be tempting to avoid discovering root causes or you think you might know what's going on, but try this out, dig deep. I know it might be tempting to blame procrastination or that we're overwhelmed. But let's discover why you're procrastinating. Let's talk about why you're overwhelmed and let's make a change. Again, you don't have to accept the way you're working right now. You don't have to accept this type of pressure. Life is so beautiful and I don't want you to miss out on all the wonderful things creativity and goals and progress has to offer because we're not setting ourselves up in a good environment. By acknowledging these feelings, this will allow you to move forward and really have a more productive and fulfilling path with whatever you want to do. Be more afraid of honestly not making the changes that are holding you back. Because in reality, when we avoid our root causes because they have weight or pain to them or they're uncomfortable to admit, it's honestly worse for us by investing in this moment to make the hard decisions and ask the hard questions can be one of the most powerful things you can do currently to really get towards that outcome that you've been desiring for a very long time and that you deserve to have. In the next lesson, we're going to start talking about the organization of it all, guys, I'm going to blow your mind. It is so easy. 8. The Priority Matrix: So perhaps you feel like you have 1 million things going on and you're totally overwhelmed. I got you. You have no idea what you should be doing, what you should be worrying about first, what should be on your to do list first? What even matters? You've got a to do list, on top of a to do list, on top of an idea list, on top of a notes app. But overall, you feel totally trapped and you're like, Oh, my gosh, Sarah, I need help. I totally get this, and this is so common. I can't even put it to words. You might feel like you have 1 million things going on and you're overwhelmed, and that is really because your systems are out of whack, and we have to really again rebring in that clarity and re bring in that structure. So what I talked about with simplicity, when we yearn for structure and tell me what to do, that really tells me, hey, You got to get a little more clarity, and that's what we're going to work on in this lesson. To be productive, it's super essential to know that the steps that you have to take are done in a specific type of way order, and you're prioritizing things accordingly. Now, this is not going to be perfect, and that's totally okay, but I want to aim for improvement. It can be challenging when you have multiple tasks and ideas on your plate, but then not all of them feel equally important or you're not really sure. I relate to the struggle of putting energy into essential areas that feel crucial, but actually aren't really what I always see in creatives is that people start putting energy in places that actually isn't really going to move the needle in their business or that they thought were really important. But then after they tested it, they were like, actually, that maybe wasn't the best use of my time. The question becomes how do we know what is important? We do these things without considering whether they actually align with our identity based outcome or what we actually need in this moment. Sometimes we're led astray by honestly well meaning advice but also generic advice and really not taking a crack open with our goals and saying, what do I actually need to move forward? This can cause us to overlook the importance of aligning our actions with our identity based outcomes. It's crucial to pause, reflect and ask ourselves whether our steps will get us to where we want to go. Only then are we going to make progress towards the goals and the milestones that we want to meet, and we have to do that with confidence and clarity. For example, your identity based outcome is that you want to go into freelance work and get more clients. I love it. That's so awesome. While it's important to have these elements in place, yes, business cards and websites and social media is important. There's other factors that actually might be a little more pressing. Perhaps you actually need to improve your skill of networking first or figuring out who your ideal clients are so you know who you want to network with and who you want to give business cards to. Then you go. I just realize that clients have actually no way of getting in touch with me to schedule a discovery call, which is required for me as a freelancer. Then you're like, Oh, my goodness, I actually should set up a system so people can book on a calendar with me and set up a Zoom link so I can have these calls with clients. And while we crack things open, this is when it becomes more clear. Maybe you realize, wow, I have a really complicated website, but my portfolio is completely out of date, and my pricing is really not clear. You redirect your energy to updating your portfolio and studying methods for connecting with those specific ideal clients or customers. Where are they posting on social media? What things are they paying attention to? By aligning your actions with your identity based outcomes, you can avoid the panic that comes from feeling like you're not making enough progress or that you're not doing enough. Instead, you can be excited and direct your energy towards the steps that you need to bring you closer to achieving your goals. The first step is to really investigate the identity based outcome and ask yourself, How do I get there? If you want to make a little extra monthly income, for example, to go out and eat with your family more often, because that's your vision of your future, that identity based outcome, ask yourself, how do I use my skills to make more money? How do I sell my work or services to do so? How much would I need to make in order to go out and eat my family more per month? Now, I want to introduce you to something that's called the Eisenhower matrix. I actually discovered this late in the game, but once I introduced it to my life, oh, my gosh, things got so much easier. The Eisenhower matrix is a productivity tool that helps prioritize tasks based on their level of urgency and importance. And I know those things sound similar, but they're actually quite different. It was named after former US President Dwight D Eisenhower. The matrix is divided into four quadrants each representing a different level of urgency and importance. The quadrants are urgent and important. Number two, important, but not urgent. Number three, urgent but not important. Number four, neither urgent nor importance. Tasks in the first quadrant are considered top priorities and should be completed as soon as possible. These tasks are usually critical to your success and significantly impact your goals or the outcome of what you're trying to do. Tasks that fall into the second quadrant are essential, but not urgent. These tasks should be planned and put on a calendar and definitely acknowledged, but should not be the first thing that you do and can be later addressed. They are critical to your long term success in achieving your goals, but you have the ability to delegate or schedule them. Tasks in the third quadrant are urgent. But not important. They should be delegated or postponed as they do not contribute much to your goals and objectives. Tasks in the fourth quadrant are neither urgent nor important. They should be eliminated or honestly minimized as they are probably a waste of time and do not contribute to your success. Now sometimes things that fall into our fourth quadrant are important, but maybe they're just not important right now. That's why we want to keep a running list of ideas and tasks. Set them aside and let's revisit them later when maybe it aligns more with your current business model. With this ability of dividing things into four quadrants, you'll be able to focus your energy on the most important and urgent tasks. This will help you stay on track to achieve your goals and just be more efficient. I want you to be focusing on the things that really matter. Instead of focusing on the amount of things you have, let's limit it down and focus on the things that are most important to your success. Now, I know we have our notion template. But in this moment, I've actually found that this four quadrant exercise is really powerful with good old pen and paper. But don't worry, the outcomes that you find in this exercise that you should do in a journal or on the printout provided in the description will be actually filtered into your notion template in the next lesson. There is seriously scientific evidence to show that using pen and paper for writing significantly impacts memory and cognitive function. Writing by hand involves a complex mental process that activates multiple parts of our brains, which I think is so cool and exciting. Honestly, In a digital world, I love any excuse to buy a new beautiful journal. These will allow you to think with things in a tactile way, really contributing things to your memory and making an imprint about prioritization. What I love about this also is that the more we practice the skill and we divide things into quadrants and we base it off of importance and urgency, we're actually going to develop, at least in my own experience, the subconscious ability to look at something and know where it falls on our priority list. So yes, this four quadrant exercise is really powerful. You might find yourself doing this a variety of times until you've really nailed down the skill of being able to glance at a messy to do list and immediately know how to prioritize it. I promise, you're going to get there, the more you focus on your identity based outcome, as well as thinking through urgency importance, delegation, minimizing, and eliminating. I'm so excited for you to develop the skill. We're going to be applying this on your daily structure with your notion temp point, which I absolutely love. But please take some time to do this at your own pace. Again, on a piece of paper. You can type it out if you want. I would recommend you do it. On a tangible resource. It's okay that it's not perfect. Remember, we're trying to make progress. We're trying to reframe our brains to think differently and think about tasks in new ways. They shouldn't be weights and chores. They should be fuel to move yourself towards the outcome that you want. When you're ready and when you've taken time to do this, I'll see you in the next lesson, and we're going to start putting this into your notion template. 9. Crafting Daily Structure: At this point, you should have your four quadrants ready to go and have a visual of the things in mind right now based on your goals. Now it's time to reduce resistance and start creating your daily easy structure. But before we go and do that in the next lesson, I want to spend some time talking about getting honest about what structure really is. And some of you guys might not agree with me, so fair warning. Creating structure can be challenging when we are no longer in structured settings or undergo significant lifestyle changes. Perhaps you've just entered parenthood or you've graduated from college in school, or you're just trying to take on freelance after ten years in a corporate job. Or you have a steady environment, but it's inefficient and you don't see yourself moving closer to your goals. I feel I get you. This just means our systems are off. We can form daily structure in several ways to achieve our goals. One effective way is to create a daily routine with specific tasks and activities. This routine can include waking up at a particular time, exercising, working in projects, taking breaks, but I want to break another rule today. When I started trying to plan my perfect day and life with shiny new planner, bullet journal or the fantastic beautiful tools in notion, well, these aren't bad, I noticed that I wasn't living up to my standards. I wasn't always keeping my calendar updated or living up to my mood board. I was constantly falling behind. All the tools and gadgets like structure apps, calendars and journal entries were falling out of place or out of dates. Some people can hold fast to these habits, which is amazing. But after talking to dozens of creatives one on one, they said the same thing and so were my family and friends. Sometimes routines can feel overwhelming or intimidating or especially when we compare ourselves to others who seemingly have it all together. Remember, we live in a world where a static YouTube videos and short form content exist about routines and warnings and other success journeys. Honestly, I've had more people coming to me about this completely defeated. My creative students were sending me messages saying they felt like failures and stressed from seemingly not being able to keep up with the routines that they said. I decided to investigate, of course. I started to develop an opinion that might seem a bit unpopular. We're overclicating things. We are introducing important task tools and visuals that have an impact, but do we need them in this moment? There comes the priority question. Are they important for the way our minds work or where we're at in life. I often get asked, how are you so productive every single day, and it's because again, of these three things. I do the work based on my plan and not my emotions. I focus on my top tasks, which we're going to talk about in the next lesson, and I build and test habits based on my identity based outcome. That's it. That's the secret, guys. That's literally the whole tea. For example, I drink a daily amount of water without failing because I know my future healthy version of myself needs it and does the same thing. I want to act and work like her. So I drink water like her. I don't have a fancy tracker app or flavored water thing. I just know that my future self needs it and I want the outcome. So sure. There are things that I do to have less resistance. So I use the same thermal drinking bottle and I fill it up every morning before I hit my desk. By the way, we are having a lesson on resistance, so stay tuned. But these are things we can refine in time. The same thing can be said for your skills or creative pursuits, business goals, or freedom based lifestyle. I think when people ask for structure, what they're really asking for is clarity. People want to know what to do each day to get closer to the outcomes they dream of, and I've improved my own metrics on those of others by focusing on priorities, making sure they align with my outcomes and keeping things as simple as possible. It's okay to start small and create a realistic and achievable routine. It's okay to strive for clarity over structure and be okay when your importing routine does not go perfect. When we have clarity, go find the 15 minutes to send that important e mail or do the 20 minute workout, even if it's 5 hours later than your original routine plan. Instead of adopting a daily routine, you can start by incorporating one or two small habits into your day and gradually from your outcomes future build up from there. In the next lesson, we're going to use our notion template to focus on our top past to keep things simple and move the needle towards the life that you want. 10. The Top Tasks: So we've taken some space to do the Eisenhower matrix and reframed our mindset that structure might be the best way to achieve clarity and simplicity is probably our best steps forward for progress. When it comes to getting things done, it can be tempting to try to tackle everything on your to do list or everything that you see within your Eisenhower breakdown. However, let's be real. This approach can quickly become overwhelming and lead to burn out. That's why selecting a few tasks for the day is actually a very powerful and impactful and balanced strategy. Focusing on a few critical tasks today can help you reduce decision fatigue and knock get bogged down in all the overwhelming thoughts. It's going to allow you to be more intentional with your time and energy and frankly, get way more satisfaction every day. Remember, we want to focus on that upper quadrant first when we ask ourselves, what will help me achieve the outcome that I really want. Also, by limiting the number of tasks you take each day, you can reduce stress and avoid that feeling of, like, I'm constantly trying to catch up. Instead, you can approach every single task with a clear mind, with purpose, knowing that you have the time and energy to do it in the day and that you're actually going to be really checking things off your list. You also have the flexibility to do that, at any point in the week, Because, well, life happens. A kid gets sick. You miss a phone call or a coworker asks for help on something you didn't plan on. Success is having clarity and managing your tasks. That's it. We've already talked about working within your limitations. So remember the power of thinking of your unique self and body. Having a flexible set of daily tasks, can you allow you to do this is the best way possible. For example, I don't get married to my daily to do list. As someone with chronic health issues and mental health setbacks. Things can flare up at any point, guys, and I'm okay with leaving things on my list as unfinished. Definition of success is that if I had done one thing today towards my outcome that I've achieved and been successful today, and that really helps me set expectations for how I want to move forward as a working person, but also that I am thinking about my future. So make sure before we continue this lesson that you have the four quadrants exercise done, and now we're going to head into your notion template. You'll notice here on the top, not embedded another page is that called today's to do list. This should never be overloaded with dozens of things, but rather three, two, in my opinion, a maximum of ten things. You can be flexible with this as your goals get bigger or smaller for that particular day. But be mindful that if one of your goals is to write an entire paper, you should have a lot less on your plate to ensure it gets done that day. Based on your full quadrants, you want to select the critical things that you really want to make happen. And on the bigger side, make sure you're breaking things down to smaller pieces if you need to. For example, if one of your most important and vital priorities is finishing your taxes, a small step for the day might be downloading all your invoices from missing months for your bookkeeping. Be smart about this and don't set yourself up for failure. You may be more surprised by how much more productive and effective you can be when you give yourself the space and time to work on what truly matters. Take a moment and see if you can identify a few things that you would like to tackle as early as tomorrow and write them into your list on your notion template. The next lesson is important because I will show you how to make this a tried and true habit that I personally knew for my life and my business. Feel free to share with me what you've written down for either of these exercises if you're comfortable. I'd honestly love to see what your priorities are right now, what you're thinking, and what you're going to be doing tomorrow. I will help me stay connected to you. But also, just to create relatability and make things feel more real because we are working in real life, we're real human beings, we're not perfect. I just find that this is a really flexible way to keep going with all of your goals and your day. 11. The Rule of Doubles: Have you ever heard of the role of doubles? It's a helpful strategy that can make your planning and your time a lot less stressful and so much easier. Essentially, the rule of doubles suggests that when you're estimating the amount of time you need to complete the task, you should double the time that you're initially estimating. This might sound like a lot, but it's actually a great way to make sure you have enough time to complete the task without feeling rushed or stressed and you're going to start noticing the more that you do this, that you're going to subconsciously start doing it for estimates for clients or even for how you plan your day and how you pick your top things that we just went over? Plus, unexpected delays and complications can seriously pop up at any time for any task, as we all know, and by factoring in these complications with the rule of doubles, you can help avoid underestimating the time required to finish a task. You can use this rule for all kinds of tasks and projects from running errands to the grocery store or even cleaning your house or working on that new painting or finishing the logo for the client. By taking a few extra moments to estimate your time and then doubling that, you can make sure that the task will get done in a time that's not stressful, that makes space for your limitations and for your needs and for the unexpected. I really want you to apply this technique to your notion template when you're plotting out your top tasks for the day. Keep it in mind for how much you decide to put on your plate for that day. It's okay if your top tasks is literally one or two things. The amount of tasks you have on your plate does not define your success, what it does is that if you get them done. It's not uncommon for us to underestimate the amount of tasks we have in our plate, by the way. We often have more to do in our day than we actually realize, and then we might not even be writing down on paper. And this can leave us feeling overwhelmed and stressed. I would argue that in today's world, because we're a world of systems that we are expected to be productive and efficient almost all times of day, as parents, as educators, as people who are in the job cycle, and the demands of daily life also add to our plate, cleaning the laundry and doing dishes, all add up and take space in our day, and it's al is equally important. There are several things that can be on our plate that we seriously don't realize that take up our cognitive function that makes us pause during the day and have less efficiency. And of course, again, our limitations, we might have health flare ups or things that trigger our mental health that require us to pause or deviate from our original plan. Happens all the time. Taking care of our physical and mental health, such as getting enough sleep, getting exercise, getting proper nutrition, having great communication, having the three hour dinner with your friends because it's fun helps increase our productivity, but also helps us be more present in the life that we're really trying to live. I know we're talking about the future a lot, but I want you to enjoy what you have today because we're not promised tomorrow and cutting on your sleep, or cutting back on your health, or saying notes and outing with your friends, really will compound and build up and make you miss pieces of life and take away your inspiration for your creativity and have a significant impact, on our well being and actually really make us less productive, less inspired, less happy, less healthy in the long run. I know that skipping lunch or not getting enough sleep might seem like the quick solution to free up more time, but it ultimately leads to decrease energy levels. It actually has a long term impact that might even occur that day. So yes, every once in a while, these things are okay. But if you notice yourself on a pattern of cutting down on your sleep or skipping lunch, it's time to re look at your systems. It's time to look at what's on your plate. So Take a moment to reassess what you've put into your notion template for the tasks you want to tackle tomorrow or the next day. And also, don't be afraid to look at additional tasks on lists that you might be putting out, such as what we did in our breakdown a couple of lessons ago. I want you to be less overwhelmed and less stress. In order to do that, you have to commit to allowing yourself to give space for those emotions to happen. I'm really excited to see what you've experienced in your day and with your calmer, more relaxed self, and what creativity comes from that. Once you've taken that assessment and started baking in some of those adjustments, et me here in the next lesson. We're going to go over something really exciting and something habitual that's going to help you keep these things up to date. 12. The Power of Nightly Notes: Gratz, you have added a few top tasks to your notion template. You've created a quick hitting and effective method for success that's really going to set up your day and just make things a whole lot less complicated. I agree that a morning routine is essential for kick starting your day, whatever that looks like for you. Honestly, in fact, it's one of the most common questions that I get from students is, what is your morning ritual? And what does your routine look like in the morning? And yes, I do have somewhat of a routine for success for my business, for myself. However, my success routine actually starts the night before, not the morning of. By identifying your priorities through your identity based outcomes, selecting a few essential tasks and ensuring that you're setting yourself up for success by asking yourself, what is really the time that these tasks need? You can actually attribute and think about these things before you go to bed the night before. Setting yourself up for success the night before is actually essential to creating a productive morning because again, we want to reduce and eliminate resistance. We want to create structure, and structure means clarity. When you wake up in the morning, you should have all the clarity you need as much as you can, at least for the day. By taking the time to identify your priorities and selecting a few essential tasks or steps, you can wake up with a clear plan of action, no resistance, jump right into your day and get things done, whether it's really boring bookkeeping or e mails or the exciting painting you've been dying to work on. This reduces stress and anxiety and allows you to focus on your goals without feeling overwhelmed. Remember, We can mostly control these spaces. Let's do this and plan as much as possible. Completing your most essential tasks in the morning will also give you a sense of accomplishment and momentum. I think this is really valuable for individuals who have a lot of other responsibilities during the day. Maybe you're trying to start your small business, but you have a nine to five or you're a parent and you've got to get your kids ready for the bus for school or for the day and knocking out a few quick hitting things right when you wake up, whether it's a workout or an e mail can really help you feel successful before half the day is even over, and I think that's really powerful for mental health too. Another fantastic bonus, Planning our day before actually can help us release thoughts in our brain and close tabs in our mind, which I think really helps improve sleep. Ultimately we're doing is we're giving our brain a sense of closure. You're putting all those tasks down, you're thinking through your next day, you have a feeling for what it's going to be. You know you're planning it as intentionally as possible. You've thought through your notes, you've put those down too, and it's going to help you just close down your brain and not be thinking through things that might keep you up at night. By releasing thoughts into our digital tool, like notion, we free up mental space and create a sense of calm because we also trust that we know where it is. It's not going to get lost. It's not a random sticky note. You plug your computer or journal. Having a notion of the first thing you see when you open up your computer and you keep that browser when you're open, you're going to be like, Wow, This is awesome. I know we did the exercise together this time. But if you start tomorrow, I hope tomorrow evening before you go to bed, you're already thinking about your next day. And why wait? Just because again, you have any limitations or lack of resources, it doesn't mean there aren't things you can be doing to move towards the outcome that you really want. This is all about moving with intention and purpose, and I think that's one of the best ways to move through life. It creates meaningful conversations and happy moments and just peace. And I think that's really what I've been working for, as someone in recovery, as someone with a really busy schedule with a lot of ambitious goals, you never feel more confident when you are giving yourself the satisfaction, checking things off. I think something that is hard for creatives in particular is that oftentimes our creative pursuits, they take a long time to see the final product. So we have a long wait between satisfaction and gratification, validation and reassurance. So what we're doing really matters. And I think, we have the power to validate ourselves and to give ourselves little moments of satisfaction. That's really, really exciting. So I hope you try this out. Let me know in the discussion how it goes. If you have any questions? I'm really excited for you to try this out tonight. Okay. 13. Releasing Timeline Pressure: When we think about our goals, we often create a timeline for completing them. When we have a plan that is sound and focusing too heavily on the time line, it can actually harm our progress. We may get caught up in sticking to the timeline, even if it means sacrificing the quality of work or missing out on really big and great and amazing opportunities. Rushing towards success can be toxic for several reasons. Firstly, it can lead to burnout, severely impacting our mental and physical well being, But when we push ourselves too hard, we might neglect essential self care, essential practices such as getting enough sleep, exercising, eating well, spending time with family, turning off technology. This can lead to exhaustion, health problems, a feeling of disconnection, depression, and just feeling like we're rushing towards something that we can't understand. Rushing toward success usually creates a lack of fulfillment, and we really neglect the journey, which is a lot of where the beauty lies. This means that we are missing out on personal experiences, growth experiences, relationship experiences, and that can really make or break what the success feels like in the end. But here's another thing you might not be thinking about. Rushing toward success can also be detrimental to not just the quality of our work, but the decisions we make along the way. To often, I have seen creatives super stressed to maybe make a couple extra hundred bucks in a month or finally have their first set of sales that they do a lot of poor non strategic decisions, and then it leads to no results, and they wonder why. And it increases their sadness or feeling of being disheartened. If you make these decisions in a panic and without strategy, instead of thinking about your branding, who your ideal clients are and how you connect with your audience, deciding what the best type of content is to post, you're not going to get the results you want. I would rather see you pour your energy into the things that are actually more important and even if it takes more time, it's going to lead you to spaces of success. By releasing the timeline, we're actually giving ourselves the freedom to focus on what's truly important to be more vigilant, to be more strategic so that we can move forward faster. Prioritize the tasks that will have the most impact on our goals rather than worrying about whether we're completing them on a schedule or some metaphorical timeline we've built in our heads. I know regardless of what season of life you're in, it's really easy to think about the year going by or your age or if you're starting over, and these things are only hindering your progress. Another thing that I see quite often that's really heartbreaking is that some people think if they do their art faster or their goals faster that they're going to increase the quality to somebody else's validation or perception. But the reality is that that's not true either. We don't do our best work when we're stressed and rushing oftentimes. People that use the excuse of I work best under pressure. What that actually means is you haven't been taking the time to willingly see what your work does and how you perform under normal spatial circumstances. Yes, pressure can help light motivation because we have no other choice. But what would your life look like if you had more choice? If you had the choice of taking the other path, the one that doesn't lead to stress and sleeplessness that usually creates some form of a crash. I think you know, guys, who I'm talking to some all be last. Look, I used to be that person. I used to be someone who constantly have too much on my plate. And I would also wait for the last minute, especially if I didn't understand something or it scared me, and I would cut out sleep and I would cut corners and other places, and then I would have this recovery season that I needed. That actually made me less productive. It made me perform less, and it made me miss out an opportunity. All as to say, when you're thinking through your daily structure and how you're going to move forward, whether it's the notion or just thinking through the goals that you want to make, be mindful about the space and time you're giving yourself and releasing that time line, being okay that things do take time for great results. Everything in nature and in the world has taken time to build up and become its most beautiful greatest creation, whether it's food or trees outside, these things took time to grow and harvest and go through seasons and you deserve that same amount of time and grace and excitement, especially your creative work. Let's focus more on making strategic decisions, not panic decisions. 14. The Functional Perfectionist: Perhaps you've identified some of your top priorities, but some of them are giving you a lot of anxiety. As you figure out the priorities on your to do list and address your tasks for the day or as you go on this creative journey that we're on, you might hit a few roadblocks as time moves on. When we venture into something new and unfamiliar, it's natural to encounter roadblocks along the way. These roadblocks can take a lot of different forms. I'm sure we've all experienced this such as things we don't know or understand or that are super unexpected or challenges or even plaguing us with self When we face difficult or different situations or obstacles we really don't know how to handle. It's easy to feel overwhelmed. We're unsure how to proceed. We may start to overthink things and make the situation more complicated than necessary. And this can create a lot of stress and doubt and make us honestly move into a space where we feel like we want to give up. Honestly, I'm sure we've all been in situations where stuff like this can make us feel really powerless. However, it's important to remember that everyone experiences such moments of self doubt, and it's completely normal to be put in situations you don't understand. And actually, it's a really good sign. You're moving out of your comfort zone, you're exploring the new, and it's okay to acknowledge your fears and limitations. We should also remind ourselves of the strengths and capabilities that have helped us overcome probably a lot of similar challenges when we take a closer look. When you're faced with a task that you don't know how to handle or that seems overwhelming, it's important to remember that you have options. It's essential to focus on, in my opinion, two options in particular. One option is you learn how to do it. You practice and learn the skill until you become proficient or you can move past the roadwalk. For example, you could learn how to build a website or improve your social media skills. It's why we take in educational content like this. Another option is to delegate the past to someone better who's maybe better equipped to handle it or has the knowledge. You can ask someone for help, you can hire a coach or a teacher or hire someone like a freelancer to do the work for you. This depends on your network and of course, your resources. But it's an option we don't think we have until we reach a certain point of success as entrepreneurs, but it actually can be made available to us a lot sooner. If you're strategic, Instead of adding pressure to yourself, you can find the right people. You can barter services, your skills, for their skills, or you can start budgeting the money for something you know you need because you're being strategic. It's really simplistic to just focus on these two options to navigate challenges. You can learn it or you can delegate. To embrace this mindset, I like to call it the functional perfectionist, which is like my new word for every single here. A functional perspectist is someone who's striving for excellence in work, but also recognizing the need to balance that with the realities of life and the situation. It means that you're setting standards for yourself, which is always healthy and important, and done reasonably, but you're flexible and adaptable and circumstances require you to be. It means doing the best you can with what you know, but also pulling the trigger and finishing something when you know it's good enough. Managing your time effectively and taking steps to get close to your outcome means you are strategic. You also know when to move away from something. You know when to delegate to someone else, invest in a template or take time to learn something new. But you also know that nothing will ever be perfect. You also can remember this by thinking of the 80 20 rule. If you're not familiar, the 80 20 rule, also known as the parado principle states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. This principle can be applied to many and all aspects of life, including work, human experiences, family, self care, and productivity. Instead of striving for perfection, which can be time consuming and ultimately unattainable and be touring, focusing on the most critical tasks and areas of improvement can lead to more efficient and effective outcomes. By prioritizing 20% of the tasks that will yield 80% of the results, individuals can save time, reduce stress, and achieve their goals more efficiently. 15. Weekly Success Check-In: Now, I know you may be shocked by how simple the system appears. We've only added a few things to notion for our success, but remember, simple is honestly the best. I want to reduce cutter and leave it as an open canvas for you to add what you think you're going to need for regular alignment. It is essential to create a space that allows us to continue implementing what we've learned through this class so far. To do that, I'd like to introduce you to a ritual I do every single week in the middle of the week for me, but you can pick any day you'd like to do this realignment process. In this space and notion, you'll notice a few key details. You're going to want to take some personal space to respond to the journal questions that are in your template, and don't worry, guys, as always, I'm keeping it really simple. So there's actually one main prompt only, and that is a tie back to our identity based outcome work. I really want you guys to ask yourself, where do I want to be a year from now? So this is helping us go back to that outcome based mentality, and this is really going to keep you focused and really realign your mind every single week so that when you go to fill in your top tasks, hopefully, every single night, or you're thinking about your goals for the next week, you are constantly fixated on that outcome. This is so powerful, especially when the weeks are bad, especially when you feel like you have not had wins, you've had setbacks, you've had unexpected things happen, this is seriously a game changer that you need to add in your tool belt because this is going to allow you to get really ruthless on wanting to get those outcomes, whether it's a certain income level for the month, if it is a certain conversation, a thing to publish, a new artwork creation that you have been waiting on finishing now for many months. This is how we do that, guys. Once you have this reflection, and by the way, there's no right or wrong length, Sometimes mine is a couple of sentences. Sometimes I literally write pages because I'm feeling so inspired to imagine my future, especially when I've had wins. After that, I would love you guys to reflect on three wins that you had this week. So that's in the notion template as well in a separate section on that page. And what that allows you to do is to celebrate your successes because I believe we all have successes every week, even ones that might not immediately feel like successes probably were. And this doesn't have to be tied back to your creativity, your business, your aspirations. It can be tied back to your personal self, your health, your family holistic view of you. So don't feel any pressure to keep it always creatively tied, but write down the first things that come to mind. And then next, we're going to want to take some space to reflect on your top emotions. I think this is really powerful because I've noticed that I can find patterns in my habits or my moods, and then my personal favorite having like a big goal for the next week. And just like the top wins, this doesn't have to directly connect to your business to your creativity. It can be anything holistically. Don't overthink this, write down whatever comes to mind. And I just find that this is really nice maintenance. So again, when you go to do those top tasks, you're like, Wow, I know exactly what I want to focus on and what I want to do. By reflecting on our emotions and behaviors, we can identify areas where we may compromise our values and our beliefs. We can then align our actions with our identity based outcomes, creating a greater sense of purpose and fulfillment. The power of a weekly mental health check in lies in its ability to help us remain focused on our goals, maintain our mental well being, and stay connected to our values and beliefs, which is actually more powerful than you might have realized. By making reflection exercises a regular part of our routine, we can cultivate a deeper understanding of ourselves and build the resilience to cope with life's many challenges. I hope you implement this every week into your routine as you go through your top tasks and you break down what your priorities are. This is just such a great way to check in with ourselves and really keep focusing on that future with a sense of excitement and tapping into all of those really feel good emotions about the life you're working towards that, all of your effort really does mean something and you're making magic happen. 16. Closing Thoughts: As we end this class, I hope you have found it insightful and helpful in your journey and becoming more organized, implementing more structure, having a new perspective on pools, and just going after your beautiful, amazing, awesome life. I really hope you feel empowered and encouraged, and I would love it if you could help me on my journey of becoming a full time teacher and creative success coach by reading a view of this class. It is immensely helpful. It is the highest form of support on this platform and it means the world to me to see what you think. And if you're interested in being directly coached by me, then I want to help you build your creative business from the ground up, but also work through your healing, your mental limitations, and anything that's holding you back, which is why I created the creative catalyst academy. So this is a 16 week program, and it's designed to really be your artistic and entrepreneurial game changer. It took years to make. I'm so proud of it, and the results have been amazing guys. With the creative catalyst academy, you'll have a clear roadmap for finding your unique style, establishing your brand, and navigating the business world, and really conquer anything that's been holding you down as a creative as a prospective small business person, or even if you're an established entrepreneur and really give you a personalized strategy that's not just a one time fix but really a lifelong prefix for going after goals, there's identity based outcomes and anything that you really want to achieve in life I am just so proud of it. I'm so excited. I hope you take some time in the description. There's some links there with some extra information, and I really just want to celebrate you and help you in this way of success. We can get connected and really support each other. So I am so excited to meet you guys to get plugged into these opportunities. I hope that you see that notion can be as simple or as complicated as you'd like it to be and that you feel more empowered every single day when you wake up to go off your dreams and really adapt to the changing dynamics of our life and all of our needs. Keep experimenting with these strategies and different strategies and techniques be bold. Make mistakes. That is the whole point of being a creative. And I hope with these new mindset and tools that you really can believe now that you should and can and will achieve your goals and really transform your life. I'm Sara Edwards. I do personal and creative success coach. And director, friends, I appreciate you guys so much, and I'm going to see you in the next class.