THE POST–IT TRICK
Are you starting a new project? Finding yourself in a new career? Trying to unpack and prioritize your thoughts, ideas, and questions? Might I suggest a trick I used when I was beginning my career as a coach?
I used post–it‘s.
Yep. Sticky notes.
About four years ago, I came off of maternity into a new role in leadership and I couldn’t seem to get myself together. I had so many questions, ideas, and tasks to manage that my brain was working overtime. I had a constant internal monologue, spitting ideas and pondering questions and noting tasks and I just couldn’t keep it all straight! One afternoon, I had a mini-meltdown, realizing that this wasn’t a sustainable place for my head to be in, as this brainwork was distracting me not only at work but also at home. I allowed myself a ‘five minute funeral’ and then promptly power-walked to Target. (More about five-minute funerals later). I realized that I needed to strip my whole new adventure to the studs and start again from scratch with an old-school approach. I grabbed a three-pack of sticky notes, a rainbow pack of gel pens (I’m a sucker for good pens) and I marched back to my little office with a mission. For no less than two hours, I combed my notebook, jotting down all of the questions I could think of onto one color of sticky note, then all of my ideas on another color, and a list of the tasks I needed to complete to yet another.
I color coded my brain, folks. Pink: Ideas. Green: Questions. Blue: Tasks.
Sometimes the biggest challenge has the simplest solution.
Agents and leadership team members would come into my office perplexed, questioning the madness. What made perfect sense to me looked like a map of a crime scene to everyone else, but it worked! I was able to delegate each of those thoughts to the wall, and after I learned to block time in my days and weeks to manage those little notes, I finally had control of my brain and my business. These little tidbits that had been floating around in my noodle for so long were now delegated to their own little pieces of paper, and then chucked up onto my office wall in a grid by order of importance and urgency. I had my first full-night sleep in ages that night, as it was the start of mastering my priorities and my time.
So if you find yourself overwhelmed with tasks, ideas, and questions, get yourself an empty wall and some post–it notes and go to town.
