When February felt like the wheels were about to come off the bus, I did what I am calling a “decision dump” and it helped me to gather my thoughts and triage my most important decisions to get through what was already a hectic month. I explain the stress and process in this episode.     

Transcript:

Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day,  through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life. 

I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and I've got a confession.  Even the best laid plans don’t always work out as expected.  In February, I put too much on my plate.  I didn’t leave enough room for my very important Intentional Margins® and I felt stressed.  And honestly, I did it to myself.  I had a couple home improvement projects that I tried to shove into a tight window.  I traveled for 2 long weekends.  I had decisions I needed to make, and for me, it wasn’t enough time to deliberate.  I was left with the feelings of stress which manifested into some general anxiety and overall short-tempered behavior.   

My daily big 3, which are the three tasks I prioritize to get done each day, was more like a big 7, and frankly, that’s just too much.  I said yes to too many things and I felt it.  

As projects wrapped up in late February and with an intention to not sabotage myself again, March arrived with a renewed sense of calm.  

This got me thinking about how stress and happiness are so intertwined.  We live in such a high stress, high productivity society, I wonder if that is ultimately hurting our ability for achieving fulfilled happiness?  

I know that for me, one of my highest values is “order”.  When things feel in order, I feel calm.  This looks like having a tidy kitchen and living room.  This looks like having a Big 3 roadmap for my day.  This looks like having my calendar in check - with white space.  

I guess this episode is just to say that we all have those times, those seasons when things feel stressful and a little crazy, but it’s important to remember that this is a season.  This too shall pass and we get to wake up in the morning with a desire to find harmony in our day.  To be busy and balanced, by prioritizing the right things right now.  Sometimes it takes a month to go through the hectic.  And that’s ok.  With all the tools I have, if I can still feel stressed, then please know you are not alone when you are feeling all the overwhelmed feelings.  I get it.  

But even in the most stressful times, I believe there is room for happiness.  One way that helped me was to brain dump all of my “decisions”.  Everyone talks about a brain dump of all the tasks you have to do.  I get that.  That’s a great idea.  But what I am suggesting is a list of decisions you have to make.  I found that the feelings of stress, unbalance and fatigue were coming from a large amount of decisions I needed to make to keep the wheels on the bus.  So I invite you to make a decision brain dump if you are feeling stressed and see if triaging those decisions would help you find your harmony.   

As always, kindness is contagious and I hope you are inspired to spread a little kindness today. 

Get Everyday Happiness delivered to your inbox by subscribing at: https://www.katiejefcoat.com/happiness

And, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie  and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram

Links:  https://onamission.bio/everydayhappiness/