How preparation can cause stagnancy, and how to overcome it - Day 32/90

You've got too much information and too many tasks to the point where you've become overwhelmed and stagnant. I can relate! Here's how I stay focused and accomplish my goals.

I've been known to over-plan and gather so much information that I become overwhelmed and become paralyzed from all of the data. Sometimes being too prepared can actually cause you to become stagnant, which is the opposite result of what you were hoping for. 

It wasn't until I had an honest self-talk to figure out why I give up on my goals, especially after putting in so much prep work, that I realized this was the issue. For example, I gathered 3-5 sources of educational materials in the form of workbooks, courses, articles, books, and videos for every single topic relating to my business. Whether this was related to life coaching, social media, sales, personal development, or strategy, I found it all.

Now, don't get me wrong. All of this information is incredibly useful, however I am the type of person who feels the need to go use every single thing in my possession before I can move onto my next task or stage of my business. This means that I need to go one by one through every resource in every topic before I can continue. As you can imagine, this pushed me back quite a bit. Ever since I realized this trait of mine, I decided to focus on letting go. I will get to every piece of material one day as I continue to learn consistently and build my credibility, but I need to carry on and move on before the inevitable state of stagnancy and demotivation occurs.

So, here's how I combat this and persist: PLAN with deadlines. 

First, I took all of my resources and put them on my Google Drive. I separated them into specific folders based on the topic of each. This brings me peace because I know I will not lose them (waste them), and I will always know where I can find them so I can return to them when I'm ready.

Second, I use Asana. Asana is a project management tool that helps you stay focused and keep track of your projects and tasks. Let me show you a screenshot of my dashboard:

As you can see, I have a project for each, well... project that I'm working on. One for social media, life coaching, my blog, sales strategy, and education. This helps me stay organized and less overwhelmed because I believe organization prevents overwhelm.

In each project, I assign myself tasks with deadlines. This part is important. Having so many different projects and aspects of starting a business can also be overwhelming. Make sure to set deadlines and create a timeline based on your goals so you can stay on track and commit. This will also help anyone who deals with perfectionism, as that trait tends to immobilize you when it comes to actually sharing your content and products. If you have a deadline, you need to work to the best of your ability to make it incredible, and share it by that day. You're always going to think you can make it better, so don't get stuck.

Lastly, I connected my Asana calendar to my Google Calendar. This helps me integrate my business into my daily life. I've played around with time blocking, and although it didn't quite work for me the first time around, I want to try it again. I have so many things going on that I need to put everything I do into my calendar. This includes what time I wake up, when I workout, when I do my day job, what I do on my lunch break, when I eat dinner, when I work, when I study, when I create, when I connect, and when I give myself some time to rest. Just from this list, you can see how busy an entrepreneur's life can get, so it's extremely important to find balance. That's why there is so much value in planning every moment of your day and remember to include your rest/play time.

Don't let an overload of information, or the overwhelming feeling of "too much to do with not enough time" stop you from moving forward. Make a plan, create a schedule, be honest with yourself, and be realistic. Your dreams are far too important and you are far too smart to stand in your own way.

How do you stay organized and on top of your goals?

Thank you for being you & thank you for being here,
​Leah Jean