Pretty much anyone reading this is used to juggling all sorts of things. I mean, just a couple, right?
When it gets complex or you start to feel overwhelmed, you don’t have to get caught in the weeds or keep re-hashing the same half-formed ideas!
Here are some visual strategies you can use to refocus on what matters most, whether it’s your team’s vision or making time for your loved ones. You can use each one individually, or combine them to build on one another and move toward clarity and action!
Let’s start with this Hot Little Tip graphic recorders love: Turn your notebook sideways for a quick mindset shift. Even turning the page from portrait to landscape can help shake up your thinking. This one is courtesy of Brandy Agerbeck (skip to about 5:40 into the video for more on this).
Now that you’ve flipped your notebook like the boss you are, try creating a mind map of your project(s). Put your main topic in the center, then add themes or big “buckets” around it, then details around each of those. You can get as granular as you like (focusing on one project) or get meta and map out everything going on in your life – whatever serves you.
Now that you’ve written out your mind map, you can climb Action Mountain! Start by picking one goal/vision/priority and put it at the top of the mountain. Then, work backwards from the goal: What are 3 major steps that you know when you check off, you’ll have moved toward the goal? Get as specific as you can so you KNOW when you’ve climbed that summit! Then finally, and this is perhaps the MOST important: Pick one thing you can do today or this week to start moving forward.
*Remember: Writing things down is powerful stuff, so even 5 minutes of mind mapping then writing your action step is a HUGE move!
For a different and more linear approach, check out this post on how to pull yourself out of an Overwhelm Spiral.
What are your favorite tools to navigate our complex world?
Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.
Cheers,
Where in the Virtual World is ConverSketch?
Leave No Trace: This fantastic organization hosted a virtual happy hour with partners to give a few updates leading up to this year’s Outdoor Retailer.
In the Studio: Drafting agendas and preparing for upcoming facilitation projects and moving video projects through script writing and storyboarding pieces of the process. While photographing this storyboard in natural light, the hens thought looked egg-celent.
