I was listening to something on the radio last week. I remember it well because it was the 21st of January, I was driving into the car park of our local gym and was relieved that there were available spaces to park. You see since the beginning of January there haven’t been any and I’ve had to find a place to park elsewhere.
I’ve been a member of this gym for over 18 years and it’s been like this every year, up until the end of January you can not find a space for love or money. Ahh, I say to myself, New years resolutioners! They’ll be gone by February and the car park will free up again.
So anyway this presenter was pointing out that it was 21st January and the majority of us will only stick to our new year's resolutions for 21 days. Hence why the car park always has available spaces at the end of January.
So what? you may say, where is she going with this? Well, Stick with me and I’ll explain.
For some reason when I started going to the gym 18 years ago I actually stuck with it ( I say gym but what I mean is the classes at the gym) Since joining in 2004, I have managed to go pretty much every day or at least 6 days a week. At the time I was going through a challenging period, juggling so many things; parenting as a single mum, looking after my elderly parents and also having to pay the bills. I knew that exercise was an amazing stress reliever and would be the only way to stay sane so I made it my No 1 priority in my life. Come hell or high water I would get my endorphin fix from exercise every day. The exercise was contributing hugely to helping me manage my stress levels but it wasn’t the whole answer.
The endorphins were helping me to feel energised and happy but I was still feeling stressed, overwhelmed and scattered. My mind always felt like it was in overdrive. I was always fighting time, always in a hurry and it wasn’t a nice feeling. This went on for years despite my religious daily attendance at the gym. It’s amazing how as humans we can carry on in a pattern like this for years without addressing why we are feeling like this and then trying to fix it . I guess it’s called a bad habit.
One day I sat down and analysed my stress. I wrote a list of all the things I needed to do in my life to see if there was anything I could stop or drop. There wasn’t. Everything I was doing was pretty much essential. I sat there for a few minutes feeling disappointed but quite calm and more relaxed. Confused at my state of calmness in the realisation that I still had so much to do I realised it was the act of those writing all those things down that made me feel suddenly calmer and more in control. This recognition was massive for me. For years I had been running around in my head, feeling stressed with the sheer volume of stuff I need to do and frustrated with all the things I wanted to do but couldn’t because I thought I didn’t have the time.
The act of writing everything down was so cathartic. Just accepting that I only had those 24 hours and I was doing by best and realising that if I wanted to do those other things without feeling stressed and frustrated I needed to get them off my mind and onto paper, plan and schedule them. I may now be able to do them now but I would be able to do them sometime in the future.
It wasn't until I started to write things down that things started to change. I was never a list maker so I thought this new habit of writing to- do's and writing things down was going to be a hard habit to keep but it wasn’t because of the immediate change in my life and the way I began to feel better was massive. From that time onwards I started to write everything down and started scheduling everything. And yes my life certainly doesn’t always run like clockwork. Not everything goes to plan and I still get thrown a curveball more often than I’d like, but the point is, I felt more in control, less frustrated and much calmer and happier.
So I may be preaching to the converted and if that's you then no need to read any further but if you are one of those people who feel stressed, disorganised, scattered, overwhelmed and unfulfilled because you are not completing what needs to be done then keep reading to find out how he simple act of writing everything that's in your head down on paper can change your life for the better.
Writing things down was helping me with so many things;
Feeling less stressed and worried
For me, the first thing writing does is the simple release of the worry that comes with trying to remember everything, worrying that I'll forget to do something, attend an appointment or I'll forget an important task or idea. The actual relief I feel from writing it all down and getting everything out of my head onto paper is immediate and I can feel the stress just melting away.
Acceptance and realisation
At last, I was accepting that there are 24 hours in a day and I can only do so much. This released a huge amount of guilt and frustration about the stuff I wasn’t getting done immediately. Acceptance that all of these things are REAL and take and deserve an allocation of time. Acceptance that they can't necessarily be done now or quickly or all at once. Acceptance that each task deserves an allocation of my time in my schedule whether a priority or not, now or later. Acceptance that I was not some superhuman who could get all this done immediately. You can only fit in what you can fit in so why get stressed trying to unrealistically pack more in.
Creativity
With the stress melting away I was beginning to feel more creative. The ideas started to flow. What was happening was I was giving my mind the permission and freedom to be creative. The possibilities became endless.
Achieving my goals
Before I started writing things down I would often lose hope of ever getting anywhere but writing things down was making those things I wanted to do real. Once written down I knew I was going to do them.
More productive
By writing things down it was actually making me do them. I was achieving loads more than before. When I wasn’t writing stuff down more often I was up running around like a headless chicken and getting nothing done at all. I don’t get tat feeling anymore.
A sense of achievement
Any good thing we feel about ourselves is great for the mind. Before I was getting to the end of the week feeling beaten. I hadn’t achieved very much. Now just the act of ticking things off my list is such a great feeling. After all, it’s all about the journey and if you are not feeling good it’s not going to be a good journey.
It’s enjoyable
I love the action of writing. I love the feel of pen across fresh paper. I enjoy the creativity of writing. I am enjoying writing this post and I love writing in my planner.
In conclusion, writing things down has and continues to have a huge positive impact on my life. The rest is history, I took the new habit of writing things further and further, my system became better and better and I created MY PA and shared that with the world.
So the point is here that it wasn’t the exercise or what I was eating or drinking that was killing the stress as much as what was going on in my head. The very act of getting what was in my head onto paper was a life changer. I am in no way saying that the other things like daily exercise are not just as important as they are hugely important in helping us stay fit, strong and healthy. But it’s only when we can feel less stressed, happier and more in control that we can live our best lives and all of those things all start in the mind.
So what I'd like to stress today in this post is the importance of writing things down. With the novelty of the new year celebrations well behind us I just wanted to write a little reminder about the importance of keeping to the habit of writing everything down, your to-do’s, your dreams, your plans and your gratitude.
There’s a heap of science, proof and neuroscience behind this subject. I’ll go into this in more depth in another post as it's a fascinating but lengthy subject. So just to conclude, it has been proven that your brain holds onto information better after you’ve written it down. Writing things down enables a higher level of thinking, and therefore, more focused action. When your brain isn't busy remembering everything, your brain can then process anything. ... For this reason, writing things down can help our brains prioritize which we should focus on and act on at any given moment.
If you are using your planner to its best use then I want to congratulate you and celebrate with you. It will continue to make a huge positive difference in your life.
If you have your planner and you've started to be less disciplined about using it, I implore you to start again and even to use your habit tracker to start ticking off the days that you do.
If you are still looking for a place to write everything down please feel free to download our sample planner [here] or better still invest in the yearly digital or physical planner and start to change your life today. You can purchase the Small Business Planner [here]
SO..........
WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN
Until next time.