From the desk of Kelsey Buell,
Before diving in, we have some pretty big news… If you haven’t already heard, I am expecting a baby!!!!! Holy guacamole!
Talk about something that will knock you off your feet and really get you thinking about what’s important in life…
How I found out…
I thought I had the flu…but I wasn’t sure.
During the height of the pandemic (UGH)…I thought it might be covid.
So out of caution, I went and took a covid test.
Negative.
Yet, I felt miserable….
Then, I started hearing all sorts of things about Influenza A. “ That must be it!” I thought…
So I self diagnosed myself with Influenza A….it sounded like I had most of the symptoms.
Now, “what to do about all of my meetings this week?” I thought…
If you know anything about me, you know that I HATE canceling on people.
If you schedule time with me, you better know that I am planning to keep it on my calendar unless I’m sick on my deathbed or have a family emergency.
Well, I wasn’t sick on my deathbed but I was sick enough to know I couldn’t take on any of my scheduled meetings.
I was so frustrated and disappointed.
I hate letting people down and also don’t want people to think I’m a “flake” by cancelling…
I want people to know that I’m dependable…
Regardless, I was feeling way too sick. I canceled the vast majority of my meetings that week and said it was out of caution because I might be “contagious.”
Oh the irony…
Fast forward to the weekend, I felt an urge to take a pregnancy test…and sure enough, positive!
No wonder I had been feeling so sick.
(I took 3 more tests just to make sure….HAHA!)
I was in complete and total shock.
So why am I telling you this story?
Well, what I realized from canceling all of those meetings is that, even when you think something is urgent, it can wait.
It also forced me to stop caring so much about letting others down… after all, the people who I needed to reschedule with were so kind about it.
And in fact, I gave them a gift.
A gift of time back on their calendar. 🙂
It really got me to thinking about how to filter out the essential from the non-essential.
When it all boils down, very few tasks are truly essential to your success – and yet we spend a large majority of our day working on things that are non-essential.
So if you’re feeling overwhelmed, sick, or worried you took too many things on this week….here are some tips:
- Do a calendar audit:
- What is on your calendar that is absolutely essential?
- What is on your calendar that you really want to keep, but might still need to cancel?
- What is on your calendar that is simply just “fluff”?
- Ask yourself:
- What do I need to do this week that will impact my outcomes?
- What would be more of a “nice to do” instead of a “need to do”?
- Take care of your thoughts:
- Don’t allow yourself to worry about what others think if you cancel / reschedule
- Remember – by rescheduling, you are giving someone else a gift of time back on their calendar
Now, a caveat is you really don’t want to be known as someone who always cancels…so be careful of that, but if you are really needing to reschedule, it’ll be okay. I promise!
And just remember – It. Can. Wait.
… But do you know what can’t wait?!
Taking time to download our FREE 10 Ways to Prevent Burnout download!
This is our best of the best advice we’ve found through studies and real trials we have experienced over the past few years, so you won’t want to miss out on this one!