3 Musts for Busy Seasons

Busyness doesn't equal burnout, but it can easily lead to it. 
How do we walk through busy seasons with intentionality and clear mindedness? 

In today's conversation we're going to talk about 3 practices for busy seasons that makes sure the busyness doesn't control us or dictate the fruit of our lives. 

Transcript

Hey friend, welcome back to another episode of The sowhat podcast. My name is Anna McGuire. And I'm so excited to have a conversation with you today about sowing intentionally
into our lives so that we can reap abundantly in the days, weeks, months and even years to come. As I've been having conversations with family and friends, and listening and leaning into the things that they're sharing, I'm noticing a common theme, and that is busyness. Maybe you're like, Huh, that's me. I'm in that same space. Busyness for you may look like busyness with work, or school, family, ministry, whatever it may be. I've learned from my own experiences, as well as just doing life with people. That busyness has this ability to lead us to a place of confusion, and chaos, and honestly, just apathy. And one thing that I have wanted to be so intentional with in this season of my life, is that in the midst of busyness, I don't want to become apathetic, I don't want to check out I don't want to become sloppy. I don't want busyness to dictate the fruit. That comes from my life. I don't want busyness to dictate the kind of wife the kind of mom the kind of leader that I am. Instead, I want busyness to be my reason, my excuse to lock and lean in all the more with intentionality. So how do we navigate busyness in such a way that it doesn't lead to chaos, confusion, burnout, exhaustion, and really missing out on your favorite parts of life. Because that's another thing I've noticed too, is that when we get busy, it's usually not the things we don't like that get our attention. It's usually the things that we like and love the most that misses out on our attention. So how do we lean in and lock in and be intentional in the midst of busyness, I'm going to share with you three principles, three practices, however you want to word it, that I have found helpful for me in really busy seasons. And these three practices. These three principles really do help me to so intentionally to be intentional in the midst of busy seasons. So the first thing that I found helpful is this, you have to decide what's most important to you. My mentors, their names are Dan and Megan. And they often say you have got to decide what are the biggest rocks in your schedule. And then once you put those big rocks in your schedule, they do not move. So you have to decide in busy seasons, what is most important to you? Is it getting that particular grade? Is it finishing that project in a certain way? Is it getting that promotion? Is it the family time? Is it what is it for you? What is most important to you? For me, what's most important for me, in this season of my life is quality time with my family, both my husband and my son, and my extended family, my parents, my sisters in my in laws and cousins and friends that are you know, like family. For me. That's most important to me. The second thing is honoring the Lord. And these aren't like ranked but the next thing is honoring the Lord. And so part of honoring the Lord in my life is that daily abiding in him. Another part of of my what I've decided as a rock in my schedule is church attendance, serving in the local church ministry. And then this is really important to me the season is growing our business. I love being an entrepreneur with Andrew which is still feels kind of like weird to like classify myself as that. But that is what it is like when I really sit down and think about it. And I love that I love it. And it's so enjoyable. And we have dreams and we have goals that we are working towards. And so that is something that is important to me. So you have to decide what is important to you. And then the flip side of that is you have to decide then what isn't important, what isn't important to you.
So there's things in my life that at one time were important to me, but aren't any longer. And I had to start to realize that okay, although those things were important to me at one time, it's not now so I've got to be okay with that getting the least amount of my energy and attention. And so, for you, it may be that as you determine what is important to you that the things that aren't important that that those things aren't going to get The best parts of you that they aren't going to get all of your energy and all of your attention. And as much as that may be like, Ah, no, I want everything to get the best part of me that I'm learning in busy seasons, that's just not possible. And it's not sustainable. So it's okay to say there's things that are just simply not going to get the best parts of me, because those are not the most important things to me. So that's the first thing is decide what's most important to you. And then this flows from that. The second thing is, you got to keep the commitments to yourself, keep the commitments to yourself, there are things that I desire, and I want for my life. And what can happen is, is in busy seasons, when different tasks or projects or people are needing my attention, a lot of the things that are first to go, are the commitments I've made to me. So quality of time with my family, daily abiding in Jesus, working out, eating healthy, getting good sleep, getting enough water in keeping my budget, like financially, there are things that go quickly, that I, when things get busy, I just like forget to keep commitments to myself. It's like, Yeah, I know, like what's important to me, but I don't keep that commitment to myself at times. And I've learned that my reputation with myself is incredibly important. And wait, this is something I would love to talk about more in the future. But your reputation with yourself Self is actually your self esteem. And I want to have high self esteem. And that means I need to keep my commitments to myself. Just like I want to keep my commitments to my husband, to my son, to my, my leaders to the people I get to serve. I want to keep the commitments to myself, I want to keep my word to myself. And so in full and busy seasons, that can be really, really hard. But can I tell you it's incredibly worth it. I have worked walked through seasons of burnout like legitimate burnout, like I developed a all sir as a result of chronic stress and poor eating habits, both of which flow from not keeping commitments to myself. Keeping commitments to yourself will help you stay clear minded, and intentional in busy seasons. The third principle, the third practice is, and this is my maybe my Type A Enneagram three coming out. But I've gotten to walk alongside of and mentor a lot of people and I've seen the benefit of this in my own life. And that is keeping a schedule, keeping a planner on hand. Now I love Google calendars. And that calendar, calendar, whatever calendars Yeah, cuz I have multiple of them. Anyways, I love Google Calendar. And if you go and look at my Google Calendar, I literally have a color coded calendar for every area of my life. I have a color coded calendar for Andrew I one for Archie I one for Parkside church, I have one for our coaching or health coaching business, I have one for my family, I have one for just general events in my life, I have a calendar for rituals. And I keep everything in a calendar. Because here's the thing, I've learned that if I don't keep tabs on my time, and keep tabs on my schedule, instead of me having a say over it, it begins to have a say over me. So keeping a schedule, even though it's not like attractive, or fun or glamorous, I have found that in busy seasons, it is so needed and necessary. And one thing that I find that is incredibly helpful is on Sunday nights do is every Sunday night, I go through my calendar for the week, and I look at okay, where are my spaces and margins of time? Where is it that my rocks are staying? Like the things that I've decided are important to me? Where are those happening throughout my week? Where am I keeping my commitments to myself?
Is there anything about my schedule that would keep me from keeping those commitments to myself into for valuing the things that are most important to me? And if there are then I make some adjustments, but ultimately what helps with having a clear calendar, a schedule, I know what is needed from me, and instead of being reactive in moments where things pop up, I can be clear minded of okay, this is what my schedule is going to allow for me to do. So this is what I can say yes to and this is what I can say no to and a great thing was actually from today. There are some really important things is happening. And in our business, and I was looking at my schedule, and there were some meetings that needed to happen, or that need to happen soon. And I was just looking at my schedule for today. And I'm like, it just truly isn't possible. Because if I do those meetings, I'm not going to keep the commitments to myself. And I'm going to be shifting some rocks. So instead, it's okay for me to say, You know what, I can't do those things today. But I can do them tomorrow. So instead of me being reactive, and trying to get everything in, I'm clear minded about what my schedule my calendar looks like. And I know what it is I can say yes to and what I can say no to, but also, maybe not, right yet, not today. So those are the three things that I have found incredibly helpful for me in this season, in the seasons of busyness is really own. And remember the things that are important to me. Second thing is keep my commitments to myself, like keep them honor myself, just like I would somebody else, honor Me honor my word to myself. And one thing that flows from it is your self esteem. So that's a really cool thing. And then a third part, the third principle, man, keep a calendar, keep a schedule, don't let your time dictate you. You tell your time what to do. And I think I can't remember who said it. But it was some leadership guru that said, if you don't tell your time, what to do, your time will tell you what to do. And so I want to be somebody who doesn't, you know, need to feel like his imperfect control. But somebody who does not just let time and days happen to them, I want to be intentional about my days. Scripture says, Lord teach me to number my days, because I know they're few. And so I want to be intentional with the days that I have, and maximize them and be intentional so that I can live them to the fullest. Friend, wherever you find yourself today. I hope you hear this conversation as encouraging to you that you feel empowered, and that you have some next steps to so intentionally in the midst of a busy season for you in the midst of a busy schedule in the midst of a full life. And as you sow intentionally into this area, my prayer and my hope for you is that you will reap abundantly and the sense of it's not that you're living reactively or exhausted or living on the brink of burnout at any given time. Instead you are thriving and you are fruitful in your life. Friend, I want you to remember I am always in your corner and cheering you on. And I really do believe that you are capable of sowing intentionally and as a result you will reap abundantly. I love you so much friend. And I can't wait to talk to you next week.