How To Feel Easeful and Productive at Once
How do you marry up productivity and the grind with wanting to feel ease in life? See how I do it.
Sunday Blues and Dread
Early in my career I had a job I loved and a boss I loathed.
Every Sunday I would wake up with a feeling of dread in my stomach, anxious about Monday.
I thought I was the strangest person in the world. My boyfriend didn’t feel this way, most of my friends seemed to like their jobs, and my family didn’t speak in this way. There was definitely something wrong with me.
3 Steps to Plan Your Perfect Week (Monday Hour One)
When balancing the mum, work, freelance, friends, fitness, and personal life plates, it’s easy to watch our to do lists just grow and grow and seriously wonder when we’ll ever get to it all.
This was me around this time last year – I had notes upon notes in my phone, on my desk, and in my brain, and at the end of each week I had never achieved everything I wanted to.
I needed a new system and was curious and hopeful when I found the Monday Hour One process.
Why You Should Do A Thought Download Every Day
I spent most of last year trying to get better and more consistent with journaling my thoughts.
I have to admit I really only dabbled - I preferred doing yoga and some meditation in the morning and by the time I was ready for bed, the thought of writing pages on my inner most musings sounded exhausting.
Even though I saw benefits from journaling, including more gratitude and better sleep, it never really stuck.
I have become much more consistent with the practice and am using Brooke Castillo’s strategy of thought downloads.
The Genius of Brooke Castillo’s Self Coaching Model
Brooke's main principles are represented in the Self Coaching Model.
Firstly I love the model because it, of course, implies you can do it for yourself.
Secondly, it is genius and completely obvious and difficult and mind-blowing and crazy hard all at the same time.
Let's take a look…
How To Feel Like You Have Plenty Of Time
I can’t even count how many times people said to me, “You think you’re busy now — well, wait until the baby comes.”
This felt like a pretty negative, fear-inducing statement to make to a pregnant woman, but I’m sure they were coming from the same place of indoctrination.
Once I had my daughter, I certainly understood what those well-meaning people meant. Much of my day was spent feeding her, changing nappies and trying to convince her to sleep. But I can also say I spent more time reading books and playing games on my phone (hello Cooking Craze!) than I probably ever had in my life. I began to wonder if I had more free time than I thought.