I’ve noticed a common theme with many of my clients and prospective clients.

They’re ambitious, hard-working and really pushing themselves to get things done.

But many of them have mentioned an element of chaos in their workdays and workweeks.

They often have a lot of work, long workdays and a frenetic pace full of numerous quick decisions to make all under continuous daily and weekly deadlines.

Extra chaotic elements are added such as unexpected problems that need to be resolved instead of what you had planned to do that day.

Add unexpected meetings, phone calls and unplanned family/personal situations/events/issues, and the chaos thickens even more.

Having a busy workweek or chaotic periods can often be stressful. It reduces our effectiveness and ability to make thoughtful, clear decisions.

Plus, it’s just downright tiring.

We don’t need to remove chaos completely from our lives (and it’s probably not possible anyways) but we can do things to minimize it!

How to Reduce Chaos in Your Week

Here are some quick ideas to make your week flow better:

1. Use a daily task list.

Just winging it will continue the chaos cycle. Every evening, schedule the main tasks for the day using a system that works for you (paper, app, whiteboard, etc…).

Following a task list is one of the first steps to bringing order into your day.

2. Schedule blocks of time for your work periods.

By doing this, we’re saying what type of general work activity we’re going to do and when. We’re pre-planning how we want our day to go, instead of just filling in tasks randomly throughout the day. 

By blocking out work periods, you’ll be minimizing the chance of distractions during your work day (such as doing personal activities/errands/chores, prolonged lunch meetups, and browsing news sites and social media).

3. Practice activities that calm the mind.

There is what is happening externally and then there is how you’re experiencing it.

Although you might be having a chaotic week, by purposefully spending time to calm your mind, you’ll experience the chaos in a better way.

A few activities you can experiment with are: meditation, yoga, slow stretching, walking, mindfulness and deep breathing.

With a calm mind, you’ll make better decisions, feel better and as a bonus, be more productive with your work, business or projects.

4. Move slower.

If you have a habit of walking fast, practice walking slower. If you walk quickly and tensely, the mind will most likely mirror this.

Usually, we don’t save much time by walking fast anyways. Being behind schedule can usually be fixed in other ways such as identifying inefficiencies in your work day or work processes, finishing certain tasks to “good enough for what is needed” instead of “perfect” or planning the lead-up time to appointments in a better way so that you don’t need to rush just to show up on time.

If you often quickly snatch things up off your desk or throw things down quickly, practice putting down objects in a slower, purposeful way. By doing this, you’re countering any frantic, chaotic energy you might be dealing with in your day.

5. Keep your workspace and homespace clean and organized.

Our outer environment does have an affect on our mind and mental states.

A cluttered, disorganized room full of stuff is usually not a relaxing place to spend time in.

Use all storage options available (cupboards, drawers, filing cabinets, etc…) to make your living and working space an enjoyable place to live and work in.

Get rid of things you never use. Store infrequently-used items.

Enjoy that feeling of know where things are when you need them, instead of scrambling around trying to find them.


So which one of these ideas will you try first?

Pick one. Get good at it. You might need 3-4 weeks of refining it.

Then, pick another one of the above productivity practices. Get good at that one.

Soon enough, you’ll feel a nice reduction in that frenetic, stressful, chaotic feeling and it’ll be replaced with a more flowing and calmer way of moving forward with your business, work and personal goals.

Got a question or comment? Just reply in the comments section below.

Keep going for your goals,

Nigel

PS: Want to reach your goals faster? Check out one of the online accountability coaching programs and book a free Coaching Call.

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