58: Keeping Up With Tasks During Transition Times
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Welcome to episode 58 of Permission to be Messy. I'm your host, JoAnn Krall and today I'm talking about keeping up with tasks during transitions. Transitions can be. ongoing things like the change of seasons, going back to school the beginning of the year. All the way up until things that, major life events that happen in our lives, whether it's the death of a loved one. Or the birth of a new child or, or maybe when our children move out and we become empty nesters.
So before I get into the episode, I have taken quite a little bit of a hiatus. What I thought was going to be a couple of weeks turned into months. And, I gave myself that grace to say, you know what? I will get back to this when I can. And so here I am back on track. Very excited to bring you some more episodes. I toyed with, do I make these seasons?
And I said, you know what? Just keep going. I want to get to that hundredth episode milestone. And then I will reevaluate how things are going to go here, but I'm excited to talk to you about. Tasks basically, and workflows and all that goes along with that and planning.
So in general, keeping up with tasks can be done in several different ways, from a simple to-do list to a full-on project management software. That will send you reminders and, putting things in your calendar, maybe a mix of all of that. But really what I want to talk about is how do you determine what the tasks are? And maybe create some workflows so that, at least for these ones that are seasonal, when the back to school comes each year, you've already got a plan in place and you don't have to reinvent the wheel.
So I encourage you to do a brain dump of all of the things that you know, you need to get done during a specific time period. a friend of mine asked this question about transition time. So I'm going to use her example of back to school time. If I was to brainstorm about going back to school, my kids have been out of school for a little bit, and I have been out of school for a long time, but I think we all know it's back to school supplies, the shopping, what do we need? Back to school clothes.
Setting those appointments, maybe in the beginning of the summer to make sure that doctor's appointments are all set so that you have those forms, because we only have to submit forms for sports and camps and things like that. Maybe, signing up for transportation. The list can go on and on.
So you've done your brainstorm. You may be able to remove things from that. You may end up adding things. But once you have that full list, you want to prioritize things and then you can start to plan.
So some things are simple tasks. you have a deadline, you could just add it to your calendar or to your reminders. So that you make sure that you don't forget to do it. You could make a list and put dates on there. You could add it to a project management software. But the important thing to do is make sure that when you're doing this, if this is something that's going to happen again, create something that's a little bit more permanent for you so that, when that time comes up again, you know exactly where to go. You have all the resources, so you're not having to do it over again.
Now, anytime you're going to create a workflow for something, Sometimes it's more helpful to just go through the process and do an evaluation so that the next time you do it, you'll be ready because sometimes we don't know what the issues are going to be, or we don't know what we need to brainstorm, or we don't know what tasks we need. So for if I was to use. Back to school for an example, I would say, look at, any challenges that you may have had in the past.
What things got left out. Did you need more resources? Did you do things out of order? Were you buying all the school supplies ahead of time only to find out that they, your children didn't need half of what was required. Sometimes teachers will provide lists so sometimes it helps to wait. So it's just really thinking about if you can think about what you've done in the past. That's great. because you can do this evaluation and create your plan from there. But if you're not sure just start doing stuff. Do what you know, you need to do and as things arise, make note, and just keep track of all of that. So this will be your plan for the next time that this comes up. I hope this makes sense.
If we step away from school planning, you could be, creating a whole new thing. Say you're a business owner and you're now going to dive into the world of social media posts and you don't really know what the workflow is for that for you so you're creating an Instagram post.
You need a photo. You need to research hashtags. You need to create your description. You need to make sure that you share it and promote it. And all of those different things. This may be something new for you. So go through the process and then identify where there were any. gaps or things that took longer, or again, if things were out of order, because then you can create standard operating procedures for each thing that you do.
So if I was to use my podcast creation as an example, the first thing I always do is come up with a topic. Then I might do a little bit of research to make sure I know exactly what I want to talk about and create a little outline. I usually try to come up with somewhat of a title so that when I'm recording, I'm saying basically what it's about.
I may adjust the words. Then I record it. As I'm doing right now. And then the next step for me is to edit it. Once it's edited I export it. I export the, transcript. I upload it to Kajabi where I host my podcast. Then I promote it there on, so this step by step, a step, I have that all written down so that I know exactly where I'm going and what I'm doing. So just think about different projects that you have. And.
If you don't already know exactly what you need to do for them. even if you do, if you know what you need to do for them, write it down, make a list, get it all out. if you're not sure, just start to brainstorm. And like I said, if you have to add things later, No worries. If you have to delete anything, you'll know, as you go through the list.
Set the priority. Sometimes priorities are already predetermined because they're actual deadlines with dates, but if you don't have deadlines think about what's the most important to get done first, maybe it's because that has to be done first or it's something that you really want to get done first.
Prioritization is an individual thing for projects and for people. And then once you've done that, then you can create those plans. When I teach people to create action plans around their organizing projects, I do have you do that brainstorm, but I also have you do a brainstorm on your feelings and thoughts about what's happening with this organization because there's a lot of emotions that come along with decluttering and trying to get things organized. Then I also have you brainstorm any obstacles? Obstacles could be, you're limited time maybe, trying to coordinate help from others. things that are stopping you. aside from emotions, maybe physical things, it could be money. Money should really never stop us from getting organized though, because I'm a big believer that you don't need to be spending a lot of money to get organized. And then I have you do that prioritization, you know, you want to do your bedroom, your kitchen, your bathroom, your business, and business broad.
So maybe it's organizing your digital files. Maybe it's organizing your paper, maybe it's or, working on your website, whatever it is prioritize what needs to be done first. And then from each one of those, and you create an actual plan. So I always have my action plan course.It's an on-demand program that you can go through by yourself. I'll put the link to that in the show notes, but I want to let you know that I've started doing workshops around that again.
So when you purchase that program, you're able to come to any of those future workshops that I do. So it's a really great deal. In the workshop, we actually go through the program together live so you can go through it on your own, but we do the process live so that you can actually ask questions of me while you go through.
Now you can ask questions in the program.Written and then I would respond usually within 24 hours, during business hours, but this would be a live workshop with me. So you have access to me. I'd love to see you in that. So I hope that those of you in this hemisphere celebrating the summer, are having a great summer.
I know some of you are in winter and most people think of winter is a really good time to get organized. And it is because we're usually in and we're home and we're amongst our stuff. And. It's not a lot, always to do outside, but summer is too. Because summer leads into fall and fall is like that new year for many of us, it's that back to school time.
And so doing a little bit each day in the summer, and I'm not saying tackle, especially your attics. maybe not your basements, those could be cooler, but if you have attics, we don't want to be organizing our attics during this time, but we can work on other things. We can work on things that. are more simple and do a little bit each day.
So if you'd like to grab that program, it's at $47 still don't know how long it'll be staying at that price. but it's a great deal. And even if you don't like to plan, because I'm somebody that doesn't really love to plan and this process works really well for me because it's customizable. It's customizable per person, but even for me, I customize it per whatever I'm doing. You can leave things out. You can add things. It's a jumping off point. And then the actual action plans can be really critical. And so I'm really happy that I'm finally back. And if you have any topics that you'd like me to cover, my contact information is in the show notes.
And as always, I'm wishing you much progress, peace, purpose, and the permission to be messy. Thanks for listening.
