👍🐸 A Better Frog To Eat? - 12 ways to Maximize your Get-Done-Today list

Welcome to the Money's not your problem podcast, the show for hard working women of faith who are doing everything they can to care for their families but still feel defeated when it comes to money. I'm Madeline Strasberg, financial coach, educator and more. I've felt the anxiety of swiping my card and hoping you would not be declined. I know what it's like to feel like you cannot say no to your kids, your family or your husband and to end up resentful for always putting yourself last. But I've broken cycle and now I'm here to help you make peace with your money using three our faith, applied financial knowledge, and a mindset of progress. Each week I'll share real stories, honest lessons from my own financial blunders, and three simple steps you can use in your everyday life even in the middle of a busy, overwhelming schedule. Your prosperous financial life starts right here, exactly where you are. Because money is not your problem.

Hey everyone. Welcome to the money's not your problem podcast. It has been a while since I've done a solo episode. Nothing better than start the year like that. It is normal for us to want to reflect on the year that passed and set some new expectations, some goals, some achievements that we would like to accomplish during this new year. I am no different. I'm excited for the new year as well. So one of the things that came to mind to me was that our goals or things that we plan in the beginning of the new year usually fall into three categories. Things that we want to start doing, things that want to stop doing, and things that we did at one point in our lives. They worked but then we stopped doing. So we want to start doing it again. Well, I'm going to share with you something that I used to do for a long time before starting my work day that was really helpful. And then finally I stopped doing because I got busy busy and let other things get in the way. And then I stopped doing and stopped helping me in the flow of my workday. I also had the opportunity over this break to have my family from Brazil here and I was discussing these things with my niece's husband, Joo Joo the skywalker. I'll tell the story later. And he was telling me how he goes about starting his work day and what are the things he does. So some of this is a combination of these two minds thinking together. Most of these steps are from the book Eat that Frog from Brian Tracy. He's a coach of many, many years and his books are incredible. And this book specifically talks about how to have a productive day. And I read that, very easy read. And I got some really great ideas that I use it for a while and then I just let things get in the way. So here we go. I have it in a little bright green card to remember the frog. So the first thing that he says to organize your area. So before you start, have everything organized. That way you're not in the middle of the chaos. Chaos just makes us feel chaotic and feel distracted. So organize your area. Number two, you're going to plan your day ahead of time. What I do usually on Sundays, I use a process called Monday hour one. And I plan the week with the blocks of time that I'm going to complete different things. And I've already shared this. I usually put in things that the outputs things that need to be done. But I'm not that perfect. So when I get to work, my things are all, all over the place. So I have to sit down and write the things that need to be done. Now when I was using this method, what I was doing and I started doing it again is writing down things I need to do by the end of the day. I would cross out things that already completed and then for the next day, I copied the things that did not get done from that page and any new things that were that popped up that day that I was working or something else that I remember. So I write that on the next page. That way when I start the day, the next day, I know what I need to do. Because if you're going to work, you know that work is never going to end. So then I just created this method based on what he said. Plan the day ahead of time. Some people, I know that doing this at the end of the day is better, but sometimes I do this right in the morning because I didn't have time to do the day before. So that's something I need to adjust. All right, number three, prioritize tasks and activities based on importance and urgency. So this is Brian Tracy talking to do the most difficult things first. That's why it's called Eat that frog for you to start the day eating the ugliest frog first. So usually the thing that's the most important, the most urgent, and that intersection right there, that should be where you start. However, when I was talking to Joo, he told me that he always starts with quick wins. And I like that idea because I have a bunch of little things that need to get done. Maybe a message here or make a copy of something or I have to print out Something else or I have to send an email to someone that won't take that long. But then I'm like, do I do the most important thing first? But these things too need to get done. So I start this year. I'm using his idea to do the quick wins first. When you have that, maybe that first hours of quick wins, you already feel motivated to keep going and you already accomplish lots of things. Number four, separate all needed things for work. So once you prioritize now you separate the things that you need. If you're going to make some copies or if you're going to do a training and you need to put together the handouts or something, just start separating what you need and have it all there ready for you. That way you don't have to stop to go find those things. Then he talks about working. Number five, work 90 minutes without stopping, no distractions. Notice that he hasn't said anything about emails yet. Right. So work 90 minutes without stopping and no distraction. After I read the High Performance Habits by Brendan Bruchard, he talks about the 50 minutes. It's a better amount of time for our brain to stay focused and also not get tired. So I've been doing the 53 minutes. 53, I don't know why, just chose that. And then for like three, four minutes, I stretch, I get up, I walk around, take a little break that has nothing to do, no looking at the phone, nothing. Just go outside and go drink some water, go to the bathroom and then I sit and continue. If I don't quit the timer, I will keep working forever. And so I have to do that also because sometimes I change. So if I'm doing the quick wins for 53 minutes, do that break, then I'll come back and I probably going to start working on something that takes a little more time then number six. Of course after those minutes then six will be take a break. So I just talked about that. Get up, get out of your room, don't go look at for messages, don't go check emails or anything like that. Just do a break from anything. And then he talks about number seven would be check your email at this point, go check your emails. Well, some of our jobs, they're not that easy for you to not check your email first thing in the morning. But what I was doing was checking the email every time, having it open all the time. And each time an email pop up, even that didn't have anything to do with me. I would go check it because I wanted to eliminate, I wanted zero inbox and whatever. So what I started doing, I decided that I'm going to check email twice a day. So I do an AM check and I do APM check around noon. So then when I first come in and then around noon, that way if something else came up that I need to solve still that day because we use that as communication, not only just sending messages but as a communication, internal communication, then I need to be, if I need to be in the know, of course they can use teams or something else to get, get access to me, get a hold of me whenever they need it. But doing this double check on the emails, it really helps me. And then number eight, we're talking about big project here. If you have something that's really big, you break into smaller tasks, create a sequence and you start right away one small task at a time. I agree with that. So if you have a big project, sometimes you know that you need there are many moving parts. Just make sure that you break into small parts because sometimes you can get paralyzed for the amount or the complexity of that one project. Number nine, which is really important is be where I am at. So if I'm at a meeting but I'm looking at my phone, I'm not available. And if I'm at work thinking about home, then I'm not doing my best. And if I'm at home thinking about work, I'm not being my best with my family and that's not fair for them. That is not fair to them. So I try to be where I'm at. Not good at it, but we're working on it. Number 10, no task shift. Oh my God, this is so hard for me. My brain is going million hours an hour and I'm working on something, something. So then I remember something else and then I start working on that, then I remember that there's something else that reminds me of that. Then I need to check something and send a message to, to someone. And when I look at the message, when I go into the phone, I don't even remember what I was going to do in the first place because there's a notification there. I usually don't have notifications on. I have just two types of notifications on my phone, but something else is there. So then I'm going to go check. And that's what happens when you have a husband that's retired. He sends me reels several times during the day. So sometimes I don't know if I go check his messages or not because usually they're real. But anyway, so no task Shift, do one thing and then go do the next thing. And then the next thing what I do, because the distractions are in my head, I get a little notepad and I write it down the ideas or tasks or things that I need to get done later. That way I will get to them when I have time. And, and that helps. And leads to number 11. Number 11 complete each task to completion. Don't half started because then next time you pick it up again, you're going to have to figure out where were you? And I've done that so many times where I was doing something that was like complex and I had created a system. Then I left to go home. And when I come back then I had to re remember everything that I had thought about before. Where I was, what was the system so complete. Do the work to completion. There's a phrase that he says, back to work. So when you get distracted, back to work and then go back. And of course number 12, he gives the the name of the book, right? He says, eat the ugliest frog first. So always working on things that matter. And if you have your own business, work on things that create money. And sometimes we like to keep doing the design the this, that, and look at things and go learn some more. But in reality, for a business, you got to go look into things that make money. Another thing that I learned that was really important is sometimes to spend more time doing something that will save you time later in the future. So if you're going to create a bunch of folders and things that are going to make it easier for you to organize and share information within your team, that's worth doing it. But if it's not going to save you any time later, don't spend your time, put it in your list if that's important and complete it as you can. And I told you I was going to talk about John Skywalker, Joanne Skywalker. So they came over here and we went to Las Vegas and we spent a few days there between from when my sister went back home to when when they were going to go back home. So we decided to do a few side trips in Vegas since we don't don't gamble, we don't play cards or anything like that. We went to the Grand Canyon west, which is not real. The Grand Cany, just the Grand Canyon we say for gringo to see, right? So people just think that they went to the Grand Canyon, the people that came to visit the United States. So I took them over there and there's that pathway that's made out of glass. Well, it's not. Glass is probably some material that's clear, but it's not glass. And we walk through that. So as you walk, you can see down the abyss, which is pretty cool. Don't get me wrong, it could be cooler if you didn't have so many metal things holding the the pathway together. Anyway, it was cool. So we talked about how since he was going through the skywalk, he was going to become a skywalker. And that's a Star wars reference that some people will get it and I guess they like that too. So we call him Joan Skywalker after he went through the skywalk. Anyway, I recommend that was a really cool, a cool trip to go to the Grand Canyon West. So if you're ever in Las Vegas and you want to get away from the hustle and bustle, all the the craziness there, I recommend take a little side trip and go see that. Anyway, so Here are the 12 items from Eat that Frog and hopefully they will help you have a more productive day, cut some of the distractions, get more things done and and help you with your new year. Thank you for listening to the podcast this time and I'll see you guys on the next episode. Remember, money is not your problem problem.

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