I am so glad that the HoneyBook team asked me to record this.
So it is March 26th. San Francisco has been under shelter in place, I don’t know, since last Tuesday. So about ten days, and I just want to encourage you all that we can turn this of panic into productivity. I have learned a few life hacks here, and I just want to share them with you all.
So first, I just want to affirm you and let you know that you are seen if you do feel like you’re in a state of panic.
It’s okay not to be okay.
Let me remind you. It’s okay to not be okay, these are unprecedented times. So if you feel like your body is in this fight or flight mode, more times of anxiety, you don’t know why you feel this way. I’ll just let you know that your body is wired biologically to try to survive.
Where there is a threat – and there is a real threat out there – your body might be either shelling up or just reacting in different ways.
Know that you are seen, know that you are normal. Thank your body and your mind for reacting this way. It’s okay to not be okay.
But with that in mind, there are a few strategies to turn those kind of feelings into things that are positive.
So I want you to ask yourself:
What will make me feel good? What gives me life? Because it’s those things that will help us in this time. For me, I am basically a plant and or a toddler, like, you just need to give me sun and water and also to feed me — most of the time I’m just cranky because I’m hangry. You know what I’m saying? Usually it’s those things that really fill me up.
So ask yourselves what will make me feel good right now? Make that a priority to do.
Truly, unless you’re in a medical field a lot of our creative businesses aren’t life or death right now. So I want you to go outside on your social distance walk or jam out. I have dance parties on Instagram all the time. So if that’ll make you feel good, do that.
Work from overflow.
Secondly, I want you to work from overflow and not obligation.
Overflow.
We are doing so much right now… caring for the vulnerable, caring for ourselves, for our family, that oftentimes we’ll be like a vase that is poured out but then eventually it’s going to be empty.
Friends, I want you to be an upright vase. To have so much water and goodness and flowing that it just, like, spills out. So do those things that fill you up first and then, when you are jazzed, that’s how we can get into the productive work of working on our businesses.
So truly this is the time in the video where you will stop the video if you don’t feel filled up right now and do what will make you feel good. It could be a cup of tea. It could be an app. It could be watching New Girl.
Do it. Fill yourself up first and then come back.
Okay. So now you’re back and you’re ready to be productive on your business. One of my goals is to write a musical during coronavirus. Hey, but maybe, what you’re ready to do now and what will really give you life is to work on your business because I know we are passionate people. That’s the reason we started running our own creative businesses. So if that’s the time, let’s get into the practical of being productive.
You get to do this.
I want you to realize that this is a huge privilege that we get to be productive at these times — truly. Not a lot of people have jobs where they can work from home. Not a lot of people have these kind of remote businesses. So know that it’s a “we get to do this”.
Another thing is to work from a mindset of abundance. For me, I have to remind myself when I start work that there is enough. I have enough and that I am enough because it’s, like, this gratitude that will overflow into the goodness as we run our businesses.
But now for the practical! I know I got really crunchy there with a lot of this mindset stuff, but I have three productive hacks for you in this time of panic and where a lot of us are isolated by ourselves. So…
First Life Hack: Passion Planner
One of my things that I love is I have something called a Passion Planner. And so the Passion Planner is incredible because at the beginning you just kind of brain dump all the things that you want to get accomplished. I’m telling you – everything – whether it’s in your lifetime or within the next three years or in the year or in the next three months. So you kind of just set a timer for 2 minutes and spit all of that out and then you pull out and circle one from each category and then you take that one thing and you break it down.
So one of my big dream goals that I want to do in my life and business is to have a scholarship for people who are starting their businesses. And so I have a few steps for me to get there.
I want to talk to a few Partners. I want to create a launch plan. I want to find an organization that will match that plan, and talk to my business consultant. Also I want to put it in Asana. And then, under that, are these other little brackets of the things I need to do to accomplish that.
And so you kind of see this starfish thing and you take that goal, but then you break it down into months and into weeks. And so, here is an example of, like, what a week would look like, and it’s broken down into 30 minute segments. So I can take one of those little fans of the starfish, and I know I’m going to do it at two o’clock on Wednesday – I’m going to create my launch plan, etc.
So it’s broken down in this way and at the end of the month, there’s basically a coach on the end that will ask you reflection questions to see if you’re getting to accomplishing those goals that you spit out. So you don’t need this physical Passion Planner to do that. They are an incredible women-owned company in California. What’s up at passionplanner.com! They have those PDFs to help you along in that journey – a free, great resource.
Secondly. Oh, I realize I wrote these down.
Second Life Hack: Phone a Friend
Earlier this week my friend and I we FaceTimed. We had it on a Google Calendar to meet for an hour where we say,
“Hey, in this next hour, I’m going to do X” – like a really specific task and then we just put ourselves on mute. It was like having a co-worker who shared an office because then we just tap, tap, tippity-tap and work along and, like, kind of glance over every now and then. But it’s having that accountability partner almost sitting next to you that will help you stay focused so you’re not procrasti-cleaning or procrasti-Instagram scrolling or procrasti-ukulele, whatever it is. So phone a friend for additional accountability.
Third Life Hack: Put Pretty
And lastly number three, put pretty. So, it is a true gift that it is our choice that if we want to be in athleisure or pajamas and working all day we can do that. But I really encourage you to mix it up a little bit. Get dressed for work, shower, do your hair just so you feel like you’re getting ready.
So you kind of get into that mindset and also mix it up with your home office. So I know that me and my cousin, we took the best room in the house house and broke it from being a bedroom into an office for this work at home at time just to give us extra space, extra good light to get things done. Maybe you’re working from your living room one day. Maybe you’re working from the kitchen another day. Just mix it up put fresh flowers on your table too!
Putting pretty around you inspires you to create this goodness that the world needs.
So to review:
1. It’s okay to not be okay
2. Work from overflow and not from obligation
3. Realize that you get to do this that it’s a privilege
And my sub headers are use a passion planner for actually breaking down your projects, phone a friend, and put pretty around you.
Lastly – bonus, bonus, bonus – if you have all this energy, still turn your panic into productivity that will help the planet. If you still have an urge to do this something, use your creative minds to figure out how you can give back to this world in this time of need. Whether it’s donating to your favorite cause, encouraging a friend who’s in the medical field right now, rallying your neighbors to do a grocery pick up food share for those who can’t get out—do something. You are gifted, you are seen, and the world needs what you got.
You can find me online at @comeplum – come like you’re going somewhere and plum like the fruit. That’s my business page. My personal page is Praise So @praaaise if you need a FaceTime buddy, I’m happy to be that for you too. Message me and I know we can figure something out. Okay, you are seen, you are loved, you got this.
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