Get That "Sh****" Outta Here! Two Steps to Lower Stress and Higher Productivity

Hi, I'm Shawn Ellis, and welcome to This Moment Matters. Today's program is titled Get That Should Outta Here, and I'm going to share with you 2 steps to lower your stress and increase your productivity. For starters, let me ask, how's your to-do list looking right now? Or how about your email inbox? Or your project list? Your web browser? Are any or all of them more cluttered than you'd like them to be? If so, here's what I want you to do. First, look at all of the places you collect stuff to attend to and identify what is an absolute must and what is merely a should or a want-to. For example, I should post some videos to YouTube. I should clean out the garage. I want to update my blog design, and I want to read all those pages I have open in my web browser. Most of our shoulds and want-tos would be good to do, but if we don't see them as absolute musts, then they're just going to fall to the bottom of our list every day, day after day after day. The problem isn't that we're not getting them done, because we're apparently surviving without them. The problem is that they will occupy space in the back of our mind until we dismiss them. They'll still be calling to us, and all that does is bog us down. It truly fatigues us, it stresses us out, and it certainly hinders our productivity to the point that we may not even take care of our essentials. So let's be honest with ourselves and admit that we're just not going to be able to attend to those should items right now, at least not without making some changes. So here's what I want you to do next. This is step 2. Get those shoulds out of here. As you look at each should and want to item on your list, you have 3 choices. You can delete it and you just decide that as beneficial as that task may be, It's just not a necessity and you just let it go. Number 2, you can complete it. You elevate that should or want to to a must do and you put it on your agenda. You make room for it or you delegate it to someone, but the point is you get it done. Or option 3 is to move it. You set up what I call a future consideration file, which could be a tag in Evernote or a Google Doc or just an old-fashioned idea box. And list your should item there, so then you can tackle it when you've got the available time or resources. But until then, forget about it. Does that make sense? This is the system that I've developed and, and I've been implementing for myself, because one day I realized that the should-dos and want-tos were just stacking up on me and overwhelming me, and something had to give. My must-do list was full enough. So I made the decision to kick the shoulds out of my life, out of my work, out of my business. And one reason I mention the web browser example is because I found that that was actually one of the biggest culprits for, for me. Thanks to this wonderful invention, or curse, of the right-click open in a new tab function, I would find myself with as many as 20 tabs open at the end of the day with things I wanted to review or videos I wanted to watch, pages I wanted to read, and so on. But at the end of the day, they would still be sitting there, and with the best of intentions, I would leave them for the next day, which just meant that I would start the next day already in the hole. So now I'm getting better at deciding on the fly when I'm tempted to, to hit that right-click, open in a new tab. Is this really a page I need to read? And if so, I set aside the time to read it and focus on it, and then it's done. Or otherwise, I just skip it, or I bookmark it for future reference. You'd be surprised at what a big difference a small change like that can make. And I've also dedicated a section of my whiteboard for my big picture must list. So these are the projects and initiatives that I must focus on, and that helps me filter through other ideas and opportunities that come up throughout the day. So when there's something new that I feel I should do or want to do, I just look up at my whiteboard and I have to decide, can I make this new thing a must and get it done, or do I need to skip it, or do I file it away for the future? Just those small steps alone have me feeling more refreshed with more space to I think and breathe and work. And I'm sharing it with you because I wonder, could this be a solution for you too? Or at least a small help? Because I'm betting that you've got some shoulds hanging over your head too. So I challenge you, I encourage you, get them out of your life and feel the freedom that comes when you do. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next time.