I Never Get Enough Done

I never get enough done. 

This is a story that I used to tell myself. (I still do sometimes, but I've come a long way.)

If you relate to having this story in your mind regularly, read on. I have a great practice to help you out. 

I grew up with a 'strong work ethic'. I'm partially really grateful for this, and also a bit resentful if I'm honest. 

I'm glad that I was taught how to be dedicated, and I've been really proud of so much hard work I've done in my life, but what feels awful is attaching my worth as a person to how much I get done. As a society, we tend to do this. 

We also live in a society that hustles too much in my opinion. The amount of things that most people juggle in their life is too much to manage while also having the time we all deserve to enjoy and relax.

When you couple this with carrying around the feeling that you are never getting enough done, it can FEEL awful. 

There are ways that we can be more efficient with our time, and there is also the reality that we can only DO so much and enjoy our lives too - which I think is essential. 

I want to talk about shifting your mindset around this so that you can FEEL better. 

When I was a young tween, I did a lot of babysitting (hello strong work ethic at an early age!). There was a family that I babysat for often. The mom always had this little journal on the kitchen counter where she jotted down what was done in the household and on the farm each day. 

I was always a little baffled by the point of her journal at that age. Why was it so important to her to write down these totally mundane details? 

Fast forward into my adulthood, I thought back to that practice she had, and I used it as inspiration to shift my mindset around my own productivity. 

Some years back I became aware of how much my mental state was negatively affected by this constant feeling of not getting enough done. 

At that time I was stressed, had a lot on my plate, and I ended every day being hard on myself for not finishing my self-imposed list for the day. 

I never seemed to get everything done that I felt like I needed to. I ended every day feeling like I'd failed myself & my feeling of worthiness was being affected. My stress level was increasing, and because I was becoming increasingly stressed, I actually had a lot less focus and got even fewer things done in my day. It was an awful repetitive loop that I felt stuck in.

I decided to start a journaling practice to shift my mindset around this. 

Every evening as I lay down in bed, before I shut the lights out, I wrote down everything I did that day. 

This was not a time-consuming practice at all. I took a minute to think about my whole day and I simply jotted down a quick bullet-pointed list of what I did all day. It took a few minutes total.

You know what? It made me feel so much better!

Whenever I wrote that list at the end of the day, It shifted my focus to what I had accomplished, rather than laying in bed stressing about what I had not accomplished. 

Another great side effect is that I fell asleep easier and with a smile on my face. 

Dedicating myself to this practice for a period of time shifted how I felt in a positive way on a daily basis. 

I felt less stressed. 

I felt more accomplished. 

My self-esteem improved because I was no longer being hard on myself around this every day. 

I felt pride in myself rather than disappointment. 

Then I realized something really cool. Because I was feeling less stressed and better about myself, I was actually more productive in my days and enjoying everything I did a bit more. 

There are always external circumstances in our lives that can affect us negatively, and we can sometimes change them and sometimes not. 

What we can always work on changing is our mindset. 

We can change how to talk to ourselves. 

We can change what we focus on. 

In this story, I chose to focus on everything I was doing rather than everything I was not doing. 

This simple act that took me about 2-3 minutes a day shifted how I was feeling about myself SO much. It shifted my inner dialog to be more supportive. It boosted how I felt about myself. 

If you struggle with feeling inadequate in what you are accomplishing, I'd encourage you to dedicate yourself to this simple journaling practice for a period of time. 

The impact of a 3-minute daily practice can be huge.

You're doing great & you deserve to feel that way.

With love, 

Shelly