We’ve reached our final day of this (hopefully) super fun + value-packed series that promises to set you off on the right path to create the best 2015 EVER! Don’t forget that everyone who participates automatically enters the drawing to win a Life is Messy Bootcamp scholarship. Hip hip hooray!
To a great degree, this free training is not about handing you a formula + expect you to do exactly as I say, but about stealing the little tricks you can see yourself implement right away. Cuz at the end of the day, it’s those teeny tiny action steps that accumulate into a big giant pile of awesome over time. Steady acceleration that keeps you sane.
There is no wrong way to do this challenge. There’s no space for “I’m falling behind” or “I’m missing out”. You are where you need to be. Trust that you will get exactly what you need from this experience of learning + expansion. You’ll meet the people you’re meant to meet. You’ll have the “aha moments” you need to have. You’ll see the comments you’ve meant to see. Overwhelm is a choice, so choose wise my young padawan.
Today, to wrap things up with a BANG, we are going to move from framework to full-scale implementation. I’ll show you my trusted system for managing my workflow (and my lifeflow as well) + I’ll provide you with a logical sequence of doing work that matters, but making it as easy as possible for you to get on board + see how you start to break through.
KA-POW! Get your nunchakus ready.
Here’s the step-by-step action plan to getting more done in record time, minus the meltdowns + brain cellulite + grumpiness typically associated with boring calendar systems:
Step 1:
GET CLEAR
Have you ever gone to The Cheesecake Factory when you’re really, really hungry? You’re so hungry you’re angry. You’re one hangry human being. Of course you end up wanting everything on their Encyclopedic menu + making the waiter + the rest of your party wait ages for your meal verdict. There’s also a big chance you ordered waaaaay more than you should have + you’ll regret the caloric intake later, because the indulgence wasn’t even worth it. It happens when you’re not clear about what you’re truly hungry for.
Going to the grocery store on an empty stomach, same shitty situation.
In today’s schizophrenic world, clarity equals power. Lack of clarity equals gremlin town.
You can’t master your life until you have a Master Plan for your life. Know what I mean? Because if you don’t tell the Universe what you want, how do you expect to get it? For example, if you want to shrink your waistline, stop tell the Universe, “I’m fat”. It might come true one day if you keep saying it over + over + over again. Stop giving the world mixed signals. It’s freaking confusing.
That’s why I urged you to clarify your vision for what you want your life + business to look like on Day 2.
This is a good time to get out your vision board. It will be your compass. It will inform your decisions. It will help you table items + star the ones that matter to you most. Clarity leads to prosperity.
Let me give you an example from my own life. This year I picked one word to carry me through till the end of 2015. That word is: SELF-LOVE. I want to be less like a machine + more people. I’m letting go of the Mayi that punishes herself on the treadmill for eating an Oreo Madness all by herself + embracing the woman that’s not at war with herself, but IN LOVE with herself. I used to fear change, but now I see my body changing everyday to make room for our precious Olivia + I’ve never felt more confident + complete in my life; every silly insecurity vanished because of the life growing inside of me. With that in mind, this is what my Yearly To Do Planner looks like:
JANUARY: Launch Life is Messy Bootcamp, The 2015 Edition + release the new video (ahhh I’m soooo excited about this). Work on my bedtime routine. Finish Magical Beginnings, Enchanting Lives by Deepak Chopra. Get myself a magic carpet yoga mat.
FEBRUARY: Work on expanding my Life is Messy line with new notepads + stationary goods. Merchandising maybe? Read The Big Leap. Vision board Olivia’s nursery. Celebrate Valentine’s Day the entire month. Secret project with my business partner April Bowles.
MARCH: Life is Messy Kitchen comes out of the over. Big book launch party. Start Pre-Natal Yoga classes with my friend Marlene. Order Olivia’s wallpaper + furniture. Read Profit First. Translate Life is Messy Planners to Spanish.
APRIL: Meet with Life is Messy Kitchen stockists + book signing events. Start putting together Olivia’s room. Book a spa date with mom.
MAY: Baby-proof my business. What do I want to do with Life is Messy Baby + Life is Messy Kids? Help hubby decorate his new office space. Try out a new restaurant… something we’ve never had before. Maybe Vietnamese food?
JUNE: This month I become a mom… OMG OMG I’m so excited!!! Find a good audiobook to take for a spin. Plan extra special date nights every week. Do a “Half-Way There” Yearly Review + tweak goals + reset intentions as needed.
JULY: Continue expanding my Life is Messy line of products. Find strategic allies. Learn how to make ravioli from scratch.
AUGUST: Expanding my Life is Messy line with back to school products. Experiment with baby food. Maybe a Life is Messy Baby Cookbook?
SEPTEMBER: Introduce back to school items. Blog about my experience as a mom while being an entrepreneur.
OCTOBER: Collect Life is Messy Bootcamp feedback + testimonials + brainstorm ways to make the new edition even better.
NOVEMBER: Big promo of the year! This is a good time to upgrade + optimize my systems + websites + platforms. Plan what kind of holiday I want to have with my family. Do I want to be The Grinch, buying presents December 24 or do I want to be nice ginger bread cookie maker Mayi? I get to choose.
DECEMBER: First Christmas with Olivia. My Christmas tree cannot suck. Dream about the new year.
With a clear vision of where I wanna go, I feel empowered + prepared for (almost) anything.
Step 2:
FROM MACRO TO MICRO
Ever feel like you’re continuously on hamster wheel mode, simply surviving the day-to-day? I know, it happens to me all the time when I shift my attention from big picture (“I want see my cookbook out in the world, as a physical book”) to instant gratification mind set (“Oh look my Hulk Waffles got 128 likes on Instagram!”). This step is all about reconnecting with your audacious dreams + reverse engineering for success.
Reverse engineering is the process of dissecting an idea + project or goal into all its teeny tiny components + details in order to recreate it. The purpose is to break down daunting idea + project or goal into ridiculously small tasks that are impossible not to check-off. For example: If committing to working out everyday seems intimidating, why not say you’ll do one hundred squats a day? Heck, why not commit to one squat a day? Anyone can do one squat, right? Nothing can get in the way of ONE squat. One squat is so insultingly easy, you trick yourself into doing it, which in turn unleashes the potential for more. More good habits you actually stick to + make you happy.
So, how do you put this into practice? Break down your T-Rex idea + project or goal from macro (“I want to re-design my website) to micro (“Pick out color palette”) using your to-do planners in the following sequence: Yearly To Do Planner > Monthly To Do Planner > Weekly To Do Planner > Daily To Do Planner.
Tip: Be very picky + strict about the stuff that gets into your calendar. By default, you should be saying NO to a lot of things + YES only to the projects that align with your big vision + make your heart sing like Christmas morning, if you were nice.
Step 3:
FROM TO-DO TO DONE
I’m a big fan of writing things down on paper. Can you tell? Well, cuz I believe that what you get off your head + onto paper shapes your reality.
To-do lists help you stay focused + set priorities + forget nothing + turbo- charge your productivity. But there’s an art to list making. The key to getting the meaningful stuff done is to focus on the most important things you want to get done in the next 24 hours, as opposed to the 50 or more items I see on most people’s to-dos.
Long lists are important to keep in the back burner (like with the Mental Detox we did in your previous mission), because they help you feed your calendar system, but please know this: long lists can never be finished + there’s a huge negative psychological impact to not accomplishing what’s on there. It leaves you drained + feeling like a total loser (with a capital L shaped with your index finger + thumb and tattooed into your forehead). You get the picture.
And even when you do check off items from your T-Rex sized to-do list, it’s usually the easiest tasks that get knocked off first. But who are we kidding, right? We all know very well that the speediest items are rarely the most transcendental. So, again, we’re left feeling like a failure.
Short daily lists, on the other hand, are realistic + give you superpowers + make you feel freaking-tastic, because you can actually cross everything off. There’s an enormous psychological boost in getting done exactly what you set out to tackle, especially when they have big ripple effects for your life + business.
The best way to put this into action is to take out your complete Mental Detox exercise + hand pick five items that you want to tackle in the next 24 hours. Your list might look something like this:
Prepare my Hearty Marinara Sauce for tonight’s dinner party with my in-laws.
Publish Day 5 of the 5-Day Life is Messy Challenge.
Finish concept sketch for secret project with April.
Package Etsy order + ship parcel.
Meet with my webmaster to finish last details of new Life is Messy Bootcamp landing page.
Step 4:
ALLOCATE TIME TO EACH TASK
Now you need to determine + plan how much time each task requires. This is an important step to make sure your five items can literally be tackled in a day without giving you an ulcer. The key is to keep your tasks manageable + hors d’oeurvres size. If a project is too large to finish in one day, can you deconstruct it even further?
When you assign how much time each task needs, your list might look something like this:
Prepare my Hearty Marinara Sauce for tonight’s dinner party with my in-laws – 60 minutes.
Publish Day 5 of the 5-Day Life is Messy Challenge – 90 minutes.
Finish concept sketch for secret project with April – 90 minutes.
Package Etsy order + ship parcel – 30 minutes.
Meet with my webmaster to finish last details of new Life is Messy Bootcamp landing page – 60 minutes.
You also want to make sure you don’t work on a single productive task past the 90 minute mark because your mind + body will lose their ability to focus + work optimally. If you haven’t, take a 15 minute break + then go back to it. There are a ton of fancy stopwatch apps to do this, but I use a simple tomato-shaped kitchen timer to track my work sprints + force my much-needed play breaks.
Another thing to keep in mind: Make sure your total amount of productive tasks don’t go above seven or eight to prevent burnout + potato chip binges. Also, leave room for miscellaneous periods that require little time + almost no mental effort like answering e-mails + returning phone calls + having lunch with a friend + calling your mom + etc. Take care of these reactive tasks between the big items. It will give your brain a needed break. It will also keep your momentum going + feed your sense of accomplishment.
Step 5:
PLAN THE DAY
It’s time to schedule exactly how your next day is going to roll out.
For that, you’ll need to get out your Daily To Do Planner. To fully plan your day, you need to remember to leave wiggle-room zones for play + to account for curve balls.
Your schedule might look something like this:
7:00 – 7:30 AM – Stretch on the yoga mat.
7:30 – 8:00 AM – Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal.
9:00 – 10:00 AM – Doctor’s appointment – Fourth Month Check Up.
10:30 – 11:30 AM – Prepare Hearty Marinara Sauce.
11:30 – 12:30 PM – E-mail session.
12:30 – 2:00 PM – Lunch: Ensalada de Toldo.
2:00 – 4:00 PM – Publish Day 5 of the 5-Day Life is Messy Challenge.
4:00 – 4:30 PM – Finish concept sketch for secret project with April
4:30 – 5:00 PM – Package Etsy order + ship parcel
5:00 – 5:30 PM – E-mail session.
5:30 – 6:30 PM – Meet with my webmaster.
6:30 – 7:00 PM – Pack the car. We’re going to the beach. Yee ha!
7:00 – 8:30 PM – Roadtrip. Bring Jack Johnson CD.
9:00 – 11:00 PM – Dinner Party with the in-laws with salty hair + ocean breeze.
11:00 – 12:00 PM – Watch Cloud Atlas + unwind.
Midnight – Bed time.
Now look at your Daily To Do Planner + examine how much of your day is proactive + how much is reactive. Rewrite your plan so that 80% of your schedule is focused on proactive tasks (innovation + creating + making) + 20% on reactive tasks (replying to e-mails + responding to blog comments + answering questions raised on social media). And never ever forget to make room for fun (or a little dose of Vitamin Sea wink wink).
Also, analyze when you’re scheduling the most important tasks, either at the beginning, the middle or the end of the day. Rewrite your plan so that you are completing the hardest, most important, tasks in your most productive hours of the day.
Step 6:
REPEAT
Make it a habit to finish each day by setting the next day’s agenda. Not because I want to turn you into a compulsive control freak, but because this is how high performers leave nothing to chance or sloppy decision making. If you don’t commit to a healthy breakfast, for instance, you’ll be left at the mercy of bagels + office birthday cake. Oh my!
You wouldn’t be caught dead driving blindfolded, would you? Then tell me why do you fog your path ahead with unpredictable nothingness? With an empty schedule that’s code for gremlin attack. You might as well be blind-folded.
Can you see it more clearly now?
Of course, there will always be emergencies + urgencies + people that might interfere with your schedule. The key to staying on course is to anticipate these detours + have an emergency Plan B. The meeting was moved to your spinning class time? No problem, you have a go-to Shaun T’s Rockin’ Body DVD waiting for you at home. The gluten free pizza dough didn’t rise? Don’t sweat the small stuff; have Ezekiel tortillas in hand in case of emergencies.
Tip: I like to block “Sh*t Pickle Windows” in my calendar each week to accommodate any hiccups that might occur. That way, even if all hell breaks loose, I’m never insanely behind + I feel on top of my game.
Don’t make the mistake of winging it or leaving your calendar empty at the mercy of other peoples emergencies. An empty planner means it can be easily crowded with nonsensical time wasters that don’t do a thing for your epicness. Instead, crowd out your planners with the stuff that really matters to you. Do it now.
DO THIS NOW: Put your hands together; I mean, your steps together. It’s time to turn theory into practice + take your messy-proof planning system for a test drive. Download your Daily To Do Planner + Weekly Do To Planner + Monthly To Do Planner + Yearly To Do Planner. Let’s make some damage (the good kind). And don’t forget to let me know in the comments how it went. Remember, your participation in this challenge earns you cookie points to win a Life is Messy Bootcamp scholarship.
And that’s a wrap!
I hope you’ve loved this 5-Day Life is Messy Challenge as much as I’ve loved creating it for you. My wish for you is that this year, this life, becomes all that you want it to be. And then more, much more. My wish for you is that your dreams get bigger + your worries smaller. My wish for you is that you never have to carry more than you can hold at once. And while you’re climbing to the top of your metaphorical Mount Everest, I hope you know somebody believes in you + wants you to succeed, want you to be happy + free! Yes, this is my wish.
Next week, I’ve got amazing surprises lined up for you to celebrate the Fifth Anniversary of Life is Messy Bootcamp – giveaways + a brand new website for all my messies + a mini movie I’m so excited to premier. I can barely contain myself.
Whether you decide to join us for an all new season of Life is Messy Bootcamp or not, I truly believe this series can transform your life + give you the basic framework you need to breakthrough + experience miracles this year + every single one after that. And if you ever find yourself in a painful plateau, you know where to find me.
One last favor, if it’s not too much to ask. If you have a friend, a loved one, looking to accomplish BIG things in 2015, it would mean the world if you could point them in this direction. THANK YOU for helping me spread the word with the fancy social media buttons below!
CLICK TO TWEET: Loving this calendar system to make 2015 the best year EVER! – http://bit.ly/1sHB9T3 via @mayicarles
See you mañana.
xo,
Mayi Carles