4 Ways It Doesn’t Have to Be So Hard to Make It EASY!

There’s no badge for doing it all. No medal for overwhelm or burnout (Imagine the trophy cases we’d need if there were.) I am still undoing a lifetime of being steeped in Hustle Culture even as I embrace Focus Culture. 

Some favorite Focus affirmations I get behind are:

💡Do less better

💡Let’s simplify

💡Make it repeatable

💡You don’t have to do it alone. 

Did you feel your shoulders drop when I said that? I know mine did. I need reminders that more isn’t better, that it’s okay to take it easy. 

Let’s make it EASY to get out of overwhelm, shall we? 

The EASY Way Out of Overwhelm

These are the 4 steps I take to thin down my obligations and get out of overwhelm. 

​​Eliminate

Scan your to-do list, project or calendar for things you can outright eliminate. Are there things on your list that are just “should do’s”? Are there items that are no longer relevant? Remember version 2.0 we talked about? What can you cut out for now? 

Automate

You don’t have to do it all. What can you delegate, systematize, or automate so you don’t have to? Here are a few ways to use this step:

• Delegate a task to a team member (have your VA set up your newsletter)
• Outsource a piece of a project (get somebody to layout your book) 
• Turn over a task at home (put your partner in charge of dinner, get the kids to fold laundry) 
• Ask for help (carpool to dance class or ask a friend to drive this week)
• Set the crockpot for dinner
• Use a scheduler and stop back and forth emailing about client calls
• Make a template for emails you send often
• Create a system for onboarding so you don’t have to recreate the steps every time (can some of those be automated too?)

Get ruthless on what you automate and delegate — your genius is not in scheduling emails. (Note that automating and systematizing takes some time in the setup, but it pays off again and again in the long run. Block off some focus time for setting up systems.)

Simplify and Schedule

Now that you’ve narrowed down what needs to be done by you, ask if you can simplify what’s left. Does it all need to be included in this version? (Revisit this question from step one, because sometimes you can find even more that you don’t need right now.)  Is there an easier way to do it?

Then schedule any remaining tasks. This makes you schedule time to do the things that need to get done … and it makes you get realistic about what you can get done in a timeframe. 

You are the CEO

The last step is to remember WHY you are doing each of these other steps. You are the CEO. When you choose to delegate setting up your social media, it means you get to focus on sales. If you schedule time to work on your product, you can focus on your family when it’s done.

It really doesn’t have to be so hard. Let’s all make it EASY. Remember: You don’t have to do it all. You don’t have to do it alone. You can make it simple. And you can — and should — focus on what really matters.