[PODCAST 269]: Current Projects WORKSHOP! Plan your month with this free worksheet!

Learn | Do | Become

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Welcome to our special workshop to help you get clear on what’s coming this month! The audio podcast version is above (simply hit the “play” button), the video version is below, and then you’ll find the written synopsis. In the related links at the bottom, you can access your own copy of the worksheet. Enjoy!

Hello there! I have a special treat for you today. We are doing a hands-on workshop (with a worksheet) on how to create your Current Projects List. And if you’re wondering, “What’s a Current Projects List?” or “Why does this matter?” I’m going to,explain and it’s going to be so much fun.

If we don’t specifically identify a few projects that deserve our focus for the month, we’ll probably work on 50 to 100 projects at the same time, and typically, we won’t get any of them done. But if we have a very simple list, maybe between one and eight projects for the month, you can break those down into little microbursts, you get those projects done, and then you can bring in the next projects when you have bandwidth.

By the end of today’s workshop, you are going to have a solid, doable, exciting plan for the month, and you’re going to feel a big lift.

I’ll take you through each step, so you don’t have to have the worksheet, but if you think it will make it easier to go through the process, then please come download your own–for free!

When I create a Current Projects List, I like to have three categories: Me, My family, and Beyond. Beyond means paid or volunteer work–because we want to have it really balanced. You don’t want all your projects to be for work or all your projects to be for the family. We need to have everyone taken care of, right? So what we’re going to do is on page one of the worksheet we’re going to brainstorm our “Me” projects and our “Family” projects. And then on page two of the worksheet, we’re going to brainstorm the “Beyond” projects, and we’ll do a final project selection.

I put together a lot of prompts so that you can consider exactly what you, your family and other people need that month before you identify your projects. And this is just going to take a little bit of effort, but as you get in the habit of doing this every month, you’re going to find that you’re just knocking out projects.

And they’re not just any projects. They’re projects that actually lead you toward that life that you just can’t wait to wake up and live, and that’s what I want for you. Okay, are you ready to get started?

I wrote the following:

- Sustained health habits
- More time reading
- More time outside
- More 2-Way journaling

(You could pause right now and go make yours!)

Mine include:

- Be present for the holiday
- Look for service opportunities
- Trip after the holiday
- Support son with new job
- Follow-up doctor appointment

I included:

- New video/slide deck
- YouTube class
- Host an event
- Be available/notice needs

Now, this, again, isn’t everything I’m going to do volunteer-wise or professionally. There’s a lot of little things that are going on–like routines, calendared items, tasks, etc. But these are the main projects.

Now, if I look at the three brainstorms that I just created, I have 13 projects. But remember, I don’t want to have more than seven or eight total. And sometimes it’s even healthier for me to have five if there’s a lot of other stuff going on. So I’m going to look at each one of these brainstorms and identify any routines that can be pulled out or anything that maybe could wait till next month–and just really highlight what makes the most sense to be a project.

Remember that a project is something that can actually be completed. So I then go through the brainstorms and I rewrite the highest-priority ones so that they come across as things that can be completed and not just random thoughts.

Looking again at my “For Me” projects, I wrote this:

- Sustained health habits
- More time reading
- More time outside
- More 2-Way journaling

But then I ended up with this on my “final” list:

- Spend at least 2 evenings a week reading instead of watching TV (establish that routine)
- 2-way journal 3x a week (establish that routine)

Looking at the “For My Family” projects, I wrote this:

- Be present for the holiday
- Look for service opportunities
- Trip after the holiday
- Support son with new job
- Follow-up doctor appointment

But then I ended up with this:

- Trip after the holiday
- Support son with new job

Finally, in the “Beyond” projects, I wrote this:

- New video/slide deck
- YouTube class
- Host an event
- Be available/notice needs

And then I ended up with this:

- Video/Slides
- YouTube Class
- Host Event

What’s nice is that now I have seven projects for the month. That’s totally doable, and it’s going to be so fun!

Now hopefully you did this worksheet or you’re planning to do it, but you may find that you have so many things in your brainstorms that you just feel totally overwhelmed and you feel like you can’t choose which ones are the most important.

This is where I recommend you have a “Next in Line” list and a “Someday” list.

Tiering your projects will help you focus on the ones that truly matter most, and it helps you calm down because all the projects are “safe.” It doesn’t mean the ones that are next are not important. It just means that you’re not going to try to do everything at the same time because then you don’t get anything done, okay? So that ability to distinguish which ones really matter, that’s what I want all of us to get really good at because it gives us something very doable.

The way you know that your project list is optimal is if, when you look at it, you get this little “lift.” When I look at mine, if I think, “I don’t want to even do this,” then there’s too much on it?

But if I look at it and I think, “Oh, this is going to be so great! I can’t wait. I can do this!” then I know that it’s optimal and it’s going to work. And If I’m a week in, and I feel like it’s too much, then I can always edit. Let me repeat that: You can always edit your list.

I also recommend you post your Current Projects List or keep it handy so you can refer to it often.

Now you might be thinking, “Well, now that I have all these projects, when am I going to do them?”

We have lots of podcasts and videos (check our directory in the links below!) to help you create project time, but I want to give you a couple ideas that can help you feel excited so that you can take what you’ve just brainstormed on this worksheet and move onward and feel great.

Number one is you want to look at your projects and say, “What is the very next action for each one? How am I going to make this happen?”

I’ll give a couple examples.

Let’s take my two-way journaling. I really liked a two-way journal and I like to do it on a computer, but I want to be able to do it in the mornings. So I might say, “Okay, I have a little calendar where I write out my plan for my study in the mornings. I’m going to add two-way journaling for three days this week. So there’s a little reminder for me.” Then when I wake up in the morning, I’m going to check that, and I’m going to keep my computer right where I do my morning study so I can easily journal–because sometimes if I leave my computer somewhere else, I think “Oh, it’s fine–I’ll do it later.” But then I don’t. So I’m already picturing where I’m going to be how I’m going to set myself up for success with that.

For this trip, the Next Action is just to have a conversation with Eric because he’s actually excited about this we were talking about what we wanted to do the other day. All I need to do is put this on my Next Actions List in the “To Discuss” section and write, “Chat with Eric about the trip.” That’s actually really easy! Or on Fridays, Eric and I do couples planning. I can just add that to my agenda. I could put it on my Friday agenda or on my Next Actions List, but that way I know I’ll have that discussion and then we can decide who’s doing what.

And then finally for the “beyond” section with the video and slides, I just need to spend some of my project time on that, which I’ve already got outlined. I know that I’ll work on that. If things are already part of your routine or in your schedule and you know you’ll see it, awesome! Otherwise you want to make sure you have those Next Actions boiled all the way down, So there’s no question that you’re going to be able to just jump right in and get it done.

Many people in the world just spin in circles and never feel like they get really important things done, but you are going to be an example for your friends and your family and coworkers and loved ones because as they see you waking up excited and going to bed content–moving forward on everything that really matters to you and then being available to be able to be of service and have helped others, they’re going to be inspired. And I can only imagine the influence that you’re going to have.

I’m so glad that you’re here. Please get your worksheet, the link can be found below in our “Related Links” section. You can print that yourself or get out a notebook and go through the exercise that we just outlined today. But I think you’re going to feel so good and then report back in the comments. Let me know. Did you make your current projects list? Any questions? Any inner turmoil? Are you feeling good? I can’t wait to hear about it!

Community Highlights and Testimonials

We’ve been receiving so many amazing testimonials lately, and I wanted to highlight a few here in today’s podcast!

This first message is one that we received in our free community Facebook group:

This next amazing post comes from Amy, one of our STEP Mastery members:

This next testimonial was posted in our STEP Mastery group with all these pictures of a big chest that had been organized.

It said, “Proof that STEP has changed my life! For how long have I just shifted the random stuff so the lid would close without me sitting on it?”

In the pictures, she shows this large wooden chest and continues, “Not today, hidden chaos monster! With April’s sweet voice in my head, I heard, ‘Now you have two minutes. I challenge you to do it in two minutes or less. Double dare!’

“Being raised with four brothers as the only girl, that’s always been my, ‘Oh really? I’ve got this!’ Somehow, sweet April has become my challenging sister. So the timer begins—done! Wow! I would have stood there just looking at Facebook, but nope, I got it done! Treasures found? Yep! Clothes I somehow thought at some point, ‘Oh, this is a good place to shove too-small kids clothes to take to the church for the lighthouse ministry.’ Well no longer in that season! Still going to the church, but now in a bag in my car. And the rest was empty bottles and a random leaf garbage bag? Hmm…No clue what that brilliant, good-place-to-shove-that thought was for! But now I’m walking away from flipping laundry, having ‘STEPped’ another monster.”