Karen 0:02

Welcome to the Women's Success Coach Podcast. A podcast created to inspire growth and to help you learn, achieve, and evolve in your life ongoing regardless of your age. I'm your host, certified coach, and licensed therapist Karen Vincent, and I'm here to guide you and provide you with concrete tips and strategies you can implement in your life. I'm also here to inspire you, challenge you, and cheer you on so that you can create the life of your dreams and beyond. I am a list girl. I love making to-do lists, working through them, crossing things off, and feeling like I'm making progress. But discovering a different kind of list has been really powerful for me as well. In today's podcast episode, I'm talking about having a not-to-do list, which has helped me maintain focus, be more productive, and feel better about how I'm spending my time overall. So let's dig in so I can share with you why this has been so impactful and so I can help you create your own not-to-do list. Hello my friend. Welcome to this shorty podcast episode where I'm sharing about a not-to-do list. So what the heck is a not-to-do list? Well, a not-to-do list is a list of things you are trying not to do at all, or not to do at certain times of your day or your week, so that you're freed up to focus on other things that matter most. Why I like the idea of a not-to-do list is because it helps me eliminate distractions so that I remain focused on the things I really want or need to get done. And this ends up with me getting more of the results I want in my life. I believe that people who are getting the most results in their life are doing so because they have clarity about where they are headed, what they need to do, and they prioritize what they want to get out of each day, each week, each month, and each year. They are saying yes to the things they want more of in their lives, and they are saying no to the things that don't move them towards what they truly want. Then they put the items on their to-do list on their calendar, and keep their commitments to themselves, and they do this because they've drawn a line in the sand and say no to the things that don't get them the results they ultimately want in their lives, even if those things are enjoyable or easier for them to get done. At the end of this episode, I will walk you through a process you can go through to help you create your not-to-do list. But first I want to share some of the things that might be on a not-to-do list to get you thinking about what your not-to-do list might look like. So one thing that might be helpful for you as I talk through this, is for you to think about different areas of your life and what types of things would be on your not-to-do list to support each of these areas. So for example, if I was looking how to support my business goals, items on my not-to-do list may include not watching television not spending more than X amount of time on social media each day, not sitting in indecision or overwhelm, not comparing myself to others, not having my phone on my desk while I'm working, not engaging in chores or errands during my workday, even when I'm working from home, not checking my email all day long. So all of those are things that would support me staying focused, working on the things that matter most. Now let's look at another area. If I was looking at how to support my health goals, items on my not to-do list may include, not hitting the snooze button, not staying up past a certain time each night, not eating or drinking certain things that drain my energy, not having snacks in the house, not ever eating fast food, or not skipping exercise for more than two days in a row. And just for one final example, if I had a goal related to improving a relationship, my list may include, not being critical of the small things, not expecting they'll know what I want without me telling them, not reacting to things out of strong emotions, not prioritizing others over them, or not taking them for granted. When you are aware of the things you want on your to-do list as well as your not-to-do list, you can achieve results faster. You'll be opening up space to bring in more of what moves you towards your goals and the feelings you want to experience while moving away from those things that can get in the way of this. Now, let's take some action. As I do in all my episodes, I'm giving you some specific action steps you can take to create your own not-to-do list. If you're unable to write down these steps right now, don't worry. Just listen and they'll be in the show notes so you can go back and check them out there. So to help you create your not-to-do list, ask yourself the following questions. One, what do I want most in my life? Question two, how do I want to feel on a regular basis? And the point of these two questions is that they will help you identify where it is that you're headed so that you can then work backwards to create your roadmap. Question three, what do I need to be doing on a consistent basis to get where I want to go and how I want to feel? So what are the specific items you need to be doing on a regular basis to achieve what you want to achieve, which will allow you to feel how you want to feel? And these will be the items that are on your to-do list. And finally question number four, what things do I want or need to avoid? These are also known as what are the things that need to go on my not to-do list to support me in achieving my goal? Once you create your not-to-do list, just as you would do with a to-do list, make sure it's somewhere where you can reference it often. This could be a note on your phone, a sticky note on your bathroom mirror or on your computer screen, or you could even set it as an alarm on your phone that reminds you so that you keep it top of mind throughout the day. And this is a process that you can and should review on a regular basis and adjust as you go through different seasons of your life. So I encourage you to give it a try and if you feel so inclined, share your not to-do list on Instagram and tag me at Best Boss Lady Life. Oh, and one more thing before we go. If you like reading and want some more tips and strategies that will help you with things like managing your mindset, your stress, your anxiety and worry setting and achieving your goals, managing limiting beliefs, creating healthy success habits, challenging yourself beyond what you believe is currently possible, and lots of other topics related to creating a life of success, ongoing growth, and fulfillment, go to www.karenvincentsolutions.com/blog and check out my blog. That's a wrap. You should be proud of yourself for investing time in you, which is so critical for success and for overall life fulfillment. I look forward to having you join me for my next episode. And in the meantime, go click that subscribe button so you'll know when it's released, and you can also follow me on Instagram at Best Boss Lady Life that's at Best Boss Lady Life on Instagram. Also, remember that whatever it is that you're working on, you've got this and I'm here cheering you on.