The Ritual Nurse
Join our journey where nurses learn to heal themselves first, combining holistic rituals with practical strategies to thrive in their demanding careers. We mix that with stories and humor in first of its kind short form, perfect for nurses busy schedules. Each episode has our favorite coffee and crystals segment that everyone raves about. Curl up with your cat, or pop an earbud in during a ten minute break, and during the commute - this podcast is exactly what you need.
TLDR: This podcast offers short, impactful episodes filled with transformative tools, real-life stories, and a touch of magic to help nurses reclaim their well-being.
The Ritual Nurse
The Birthday Burnout Cure: Organize Your Overwhelm with The List
TXT us your feedback!! <3 your fayce!
This episode is your invitation to stop spiraling in burnout and start stepping into your power—one beautiful task at a time.
It’s Riva’s birthday week, and instead of just celebrating with cake and candles, she’s showing up with a bold gift for every nurse who’s drowning in chaos, mental overload, and the crushing pressure to do it all.
In this special solo episode of The Ritual Nurse Podcast, we’re talking about one of the most overlooked roots of burnout in nursing today: the constant weight of disorganized mental tasks, emotional clutter, and invisible labor. Nurses aren’t just exhausted—we’re overloaded. And that’s exactly where The List comes in.
The List is a unique and powerful, printable and digital-friendly organization tool built specifically to address overload for high-capacity humans. It’s simple, it’s intuitive, and it reprograms your stress response by helping your brain perceive clarity, control, and calm—without adding more to your plate.
Riva walks you through how to use The List to reclaim your time, your peace, and your boundaries. You'll learn how this ritual planning system taps into neuroscience, nervous system regulation, and real nurse-life flexibility.
There’s a free version of The List available now on the shop page at tcth.org, the home of The Code Team’s educational hub. It's ready to download, use, and ritualize immediately.
But here's the birthday secret:
As a podcast listener, you’ll also get a special code during the episode to unlock one of Riva’s premium digital designs for free. These exclusive versions are designed for both digital note-taking apps (like Goodnotes or Notability) and printable use. They’re beautiful, simple, effective, and made to make you actually want to organize your life.
If you’re ready to stop reacting and start healing—with systems that meet your spirit—this episode is your spark.
Listen now. Download your gift. Use your code.
Then tag @the_code_team and show us your List in action. Let’s start a new ritual together.
Hey! Make sure you subscribe to stay connected. Love a nurse? Who doesn't! Share with all the nurses you know. The more we reach, the more we help. We feel like no one deserves center stage focus more than nurses and our mission is to reach the millions of superstars out there. We'd love to hear your stories, your adventures, your wins, and especially your needs and questions! Email us at hello@ritualnurse (dot) com. Also, you can send us fan mail! Use the link at the beginning of the show notes. Resources, classes, blogs, and podcast info can be found on our home site at TCTH.org. The Ritual Nurse Podcast is part of The Code Team educational platform.
Love your FAYCES!
Hello besties, welcome back to the Ritual Nurse Podcast, your sacred little corner of the universe where we mix healing humor and hardcore nursing realness. I'm your host, reva, and I'm back from a short but much-needed break because drumroll, please it was my birthday last week. Aries energy activated. So I did the radical thing I put myself first. That's right. I skipped an episode, because sometimes real is the ritual. You know, I couldn't stay away for long and also I've got a gift for you. So today's episode is part birthday special, part burnout buster and part sacred rest.
Speaker 1:If your brain feels like it's a to-do list on fire, this episode is for you. This is a little birthday special called the birthday burnout cure, and we're going to talk about something that's wrecking nurses in silence and it's mental cognitive overload, and we're going to talk about how we can get out of it, not with perfection, but with ritual and organization. Out of it, not with perfection, but with ritual and organization. But wait, Reva, why did you say perfection? Because and I hold your hand so kindly as I say this I'm calling you out. You know we try to just do more and do it perfectly. The more overwhelmed we get, the higher the overwhelm, the more focused on perfectionism we get. It's giving that false sense of control we thrive on. So if you're feeling like your brain is spaghetti, half charting, half chaos, 100% cooked, this episode is your rescue rope Plus. I've made a little something, something for you that is going to help you breathe again, and you'll get it at the end of the show. So now that I've just read all of us to filth, let's do this. So let's talk about overwhelm. You ever feel like your brain is 47 browser tabs open and one of them is playing music and you can't figure out which. That's our life, right? Our mental load isn't just clinical. It's everything we're carrying unfinished charts, emotional trauma from patient deaths, staff texts and meetings, family drama, personal needs and that creeping feeling that we're forgetting something vital, like you know food and water, sleep and I know you can't see me, but I'm also gesturing wildly at everything else going on right now and we just keep pushing because we were taught that being productive equals being worthy. But let me hit you with this it's not your fault. The system is broken and you deserve better. So let's get real for a second.
Speaker 1:One of the biggest problems I see in nursing mental health, especially right now, is this unspoken expectation that we have to do it all. We're not just showing up at work. We're showing up with full emotional labor, patients in crisis, families in chaos, short staffing, zero breaks, and then we go home and have to function as full humans. There's no space, there's no margin. There's no margin, there's no reset. What we're experiencing isn't just burnout from work. It's cognitive overload, it's decision fatigue, it's the mental toll of carrying too many unchecked boxes in our heads. Look, I get that. We are Olympic level at this. We remember to reorder Ativan, bring snacks for our diabetic coworker, check on our suicidal patient and also order our kids prom dress or make those reservations for Bestie's graduation situation, and that's just the first line of things on our mental to-do list. So just because we have hulked it into, if it looks like can-do shape, why no can can do everything doesn't mean it's okay, it's too much. So let's get quick for a minute here with actual science. You see, this tool that I created is a legitimate thing, and I want you to understand why it works and what it's going to do for you so that you actually use it. It's that impactful and that meaningful.
Speaker 1:Studies show that cognitive overload directly contributes to emotional exhaustion, reduced resilience and even physical symptoms like insomnia and GI distress. And when our brains are cluttered, we can't access our critical thinking, our compassion or our joy can't access our critical thinking, our compassion or our joy. So the cognitive offloading that we do decreases stress hormones. And what do I mean by that? Well, when you write out or organize your task load, your mental load, like with this tool, you reduce what's called your cognitive load, your mental load, like with this tool, you reduce what's called your cognitive load, the number of items that your working memory is trying to juggle. And studies show that offloading tasks to a physical or digital system reduces amygdala activity, the part of your brain triggers stress responses. When the brain perceives structure and control, it releases less cortisol, the body's primary stress hormone, and so categorizing tasks activates the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, that's the part of your brain responsible for executive function, organization, problem solving and long-term planning. So organizing your day, the way that this tool does, into time-bound, actionable groups gives the brain predictable control, which is one of the key psychological elements of resilience. This re-engagement with the prefrontal cortex reduces the dominance of emotional reactive pathways, aka our limbic system, allowing more thoughtful, balanced responses to stress.
Speaker 1:Allowing more thoughtful, balanced responses to stress and feeling in control of your tasks, even if you don't finish everything, has a measurable impact on emotional health, not perfection, just beautiful progress. Nurses with higher levels of perceived control through task management ritual or prioritization report significantly lower rates of burnout and emotional exhaustion. Having a clear system like this tool taps into internal locus of control, which is one of the strongest predictors of psychological resilience. Systems like the one I'm giving you are more than organizational. They're ritual, and ritual builds predictability, which calms the autonomic nervous system, especially the overactive, sympathetic fight or flight response. Creating a daily ritual around organizing your workload tells your body you are safe, you are supported, you are in control. This engages your parasympathetic regulation and it increases your ability to bounce back from stress. And every decision that we make costs energy. Organizing tasks into structured timeliness and categories reduces the number of daily micro decisions, leaving more mental energy for emotional regulation, compassion, reflection. With fewer open tabs in your brain, you build the cognitive space needed for recovery and adaptive resilience.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you a quick story. When I became a supervisor, I also was still taking full patient loads. I was also a single mom and in school, full-time, finishing degree number three, I found that I felt like such a failure in every single direction. I felt like I could barely perform at a mediocre level in any aspect of responsibility that I held and it was absolutely killing me. But I wasn't failing, I was just overwhelmed. I know I've talked about it before, but as somebody with ADHD, I also can't plug into systems and habits and structures that require so much dopamine to start and maintain that I can't even get past step one. I needed something I could do that didn't add to the overwhelm, didn't require a life rewrite and upend all the structure and habits that were working already for me. I just needed something to manage the overwhelm I was currently experiencing. So I created the first version of the tool that I'm gifting you today. The final version, which is what you're getting, I perfected when I became a nurse executive and my workload exploded. I was also still in school full-time, but this time at the graduate level.
Speaker 1:That story isn't rare. That's a normal experience for so many of us, but it shouldn't have to be so today I'm going to give you something to help you fight back against the sensation and just messy chaos of overwhelm and when you look at how to prioritize and how to set task timelines, and we're going to get into this after the break, when I explain to you how to use the tool. After the break, when I explained to you how to use the tool, you'll see that, no matter what your situation whether you're a nurse, another type of healthcare provider, a busy executive, an overwhelmed busy stay-at-home mom, stay-at-home parent you'll find that this tool can be adapted just simply with the type of task you put on it. You don't have to rewrite it, you don't have to configure it. It will just work. And it'll work for any situation that you find yourself in, regardless of your job, regardless of what's causing the overwhelm, because of the cognitive structure in the methodology of how it works. So, right about now, if you're listening on your break or driving to shift, you guys know here comes the music and this is your pause point. So come back when you're ready to learn how to take your life back, one task at a time. But if you're ready to get your brain back and feel even slightly more sane tomorrow, keep listening, because now I'm going to give you my personal ritual that I use to get out of overwhelm. So let's get started with talking about the tool itself.
Speaker 1:I created this tool years ago as a new nurse executive. I had to have something tangible to get my hands on, and the earlier version that I had made when I first become a supervisor that was more digital based and it was adding on the structures that I developed when I was in nursing school as a single mom and trying to survive that. So this is really kind of like the third iteration of this tool. This is really kind of like the third iteration of this tool, but I needed something tangible because digital is one thing. That system I perfected, got it to work for me and it still works for me to this day. But I needed something tangible because I was always going in and out of meetings in which I couldn't be buried in my device. I needed to have something physical in front of me, like a notepad or a piece of paper. I also needed to keep something on my desk that I could touch base with when I was using my other devices to do something else.
Speaker 1:And the way that this tool works I don't know. Someday in the future I might develop an app that's based on it, but it really needs to be either a physical notepad can even be sticky notes or a digital notepad. It needs to be something tangible and the whole thing needs to be visual at once. No, I had to have something tangible, like I said, to make sense of the chaos of nursing and running a hospital along with motherhood life and full-time school, and it had to be one shot eyes on whole tool all at once, no multiple pages, no things to click on. It just had to work and this is a ritual to-do list.
Speaker 1:But this is not your average checklist. I made this for myself and I want to give it to you. It's simple, it's beautiful. It is a special four category organization system for everyday chaos, extraordinary chaos. It'll even work for things like wedding planning, trip planning, estate planning, any type of organizational overwhelm that you have. This tool will work.
Speaker 1:So the categories they're a whole vibe. As soon as I start getting into it, you're going to start seeing why it works. So there's four categories. The first one is yes and this is a do within 24 hours. This is your non-negotiable list. Think things like give meds clock in on time non-negotiable list. Think things like give meds clock in on time. Text your kid's teacher, breathe, take your own meds. So keep this list tiny. Okay, these are the immediate fires. This is where you get real honest what actually needs to happen today, like if it doesn't happen today within the next 24 hours, there's going to be serious consequences. That's what goes on the yes list. The next category is next and this is do it within 48 to 72 hours. These are important but not urgent. This is the simmering pot Chart audits, calling grandma, renewing your BLS. You know, making that appointment, not a fire, but it still needs your energy soon. Set it up, renew that license, respond to that work email, clean out your bag of shift snacks that expired, that kind of stuff. And once I get through the categories, I'll kind of explain how they interact and you'll see how, once you set the system up, how it starts to work.
Speaker 1:But the next category, the third one, is called pass. This is where you delegate it to somebody else. So this one, this one's a game changer. This is where we reclaim our time. This is where you ask for help. These are your future, you kindnesses. This is your boundaries section. This is also the section that gives people the most grief trying to learn how to use it. It's a skill set and with practice you develop it and you become stronger at it. You got to do it in order to master it, but this is definitely the game changer. So what can be handed off? Things like asking a coworker to grab the vitals, let your partner handle dinner, give yourself permission to not be the hero. This is where you're going to delete. The mental tab says do it all yourself, pry your fingertips off of the task list and delegate things that can be delegated to other people. This is what goes on that list, and once you put them on this list, they leave all other areas of your to-do list. The last category is called goodbye list. The last category is called goodbye this. You remove it from your list, remove it from your mind.
Speaker 1:This one this one's the real ritual part. This one, second only to the pass section, is the hardest one for people. This is where you let go of things that you can't control. This is where you let go of things that honestly don't need to be done by you or somebody else. These are things that you can actually just cross off your list, like the text that you haven't responded to because you don't have the emotional bandwidth, but deep down inside you know it doesn't deserve a response. Yep, that one, and things like the toxic work convo that you keep replaying. Say goodbye, you write it down, you cross it out and you say goodbye. You relinquish it from that overwhelming list that's burdening you down. So when you organize your life this way, even if it's just once a week, you stop reacting and you start ritualizing. You become the nurse who responds and not just survives. You're not living in a reactionary state, you are controlling with predictability. Remember how we were talking in the science section before. You're giving yourself that predictable control.
Speaker 1:Now, the one thing I will say is that making this a ritual in the morning or whenever you do your best planning my night shifters you know it might be early evening before you head into work allows you to actually trigger the system and let it work. So your yes and next those actually work in tandem together. Your yes list is due within 24 hours. You cross off the things that you need to get done and if you can get to something on your next list, if you have the mental capacity, the energy, the finances, the time, whatever it may be, if you can get to something on it, great. If not, your next list automatically shifts forward. So the things that are on your next list that are more time sensitive. They're closer to the 48 hour mark. They become your new yes list. You add that to your yes list for the next following day and the longer term.
Speaker 1:Next items that are closer to 72 stay on your next list, and this keeps you from worrying about something falling to the cracks. This keeps you from constantly doing that mental replay where you shuffle through all of your to-do lists like some absolutely messed up 687 card pickup card game. It keeps you from having to do that because you're going to keep things on your list and shuffle them forward as necessary, cross them off, and the good thing about it is that as you review these things, you start to discover you know what. This one isn't critical because I actually could delegate it to somebody else or man. This one is sitting out at the 72 hour section in my next list and I don't actually care if I get to it. Is this a good buy one? And you really start to be able to honestly prioritize what to devote your attention to and what not to, what actually deserves your precious energy and what doesn't. So the list isn't about doing more. It's about doing what matters and letting go of the rest.
Speaker 1:So I've made this tool downloadable for you. It is beautiful and completely free. You can download the free version of the list right now. The link is in the show notes. So if you're on Apple Podcasts, if you're on Spotify, in the show notes you'll see that there's actual clickable links, one of which is at the top and allows you to text me feedback, hint hint, and the other one is going to be a link to the actual download of the free version of the list. So it's clean, beautiful, designed for maximum impact. You can print it, you can use it in good notes or notability, you can slap it on your fridge like a sacred sticky note from the universe, if that's what you want. But if you want to level it up, oh bestie. I designed multiple gorgeous versions. I'm talking florals, lunar vibes, soft gradients like chef's kiss, adorable, maybe even some mermaids in there. And because you're here listening to the podcast, you can access one of them for free. So you're going to go to the code team hub, which is tcthorg, click on the shop, browse to the templates, pick one you love and use the code birthday ritual at checkout and it's going to unlock one of those premium versions on me. So let that be your birthday gift from me to you. Go, get cute and organized. So let's close this out with our favorite healing trio. So our coffee crystal and divination section Feels weird not to have done it for two weeks, but this week, with my coffee, we're off Whole30.
Speaker 1:We survived Whole30. And I'm still doing the dairy-free version, still hanging out with the nut pods, although I am using the cookie butter one that has some stevia in it, and I've got to say whether it's iced, whether it's hot. For me, right now, nut pods are where it's at. My really good friend Brennan is laughing hysterically right now because I used to abhor them. Whole30 does weird things to your taste buds. When you eliminate crap and toxins and start putting some clean food in your mouth, it's kind of incredible.
Speaker 1:One of the ways that you can duplicate this, though, whether it's with half and half or oat milk, is looking for something that is hazelnut flavored and adding a little bit of caramel to it. Just enjoy the sweet treat. As far as your coffee of the week this week, it's a weird week, with the eclipse going on, we've got planets in retrograde and again gesturing wildly at everything around. So just, you deserve peace. Sip on something soothing, lovely, awesome cup of coffee decaf regular who are we kidding? Ultra-caffeined and just enjoy. You deserve peace. So ritualize that. Enjoy it every morning as you use your brand new tool and get used to working with the system again.
Speaker 1:The tool is not going to require a lot of overwhelming effort. The whole reason behind its design was I couldn't utilize something that was just going to add to the overwhelm. It had to be something that didn't require extra dopamine. So this week, with your coffee of the week, with your sweet treat that you're sipping on getting ready for your day or your evening shift, whatever it might be, utilize your list, your yes, next pass and goodbye.
Speaker 1:Let's look at our crystal prescription and we're going to pull this out. So this week's crystal is fluorite. This is kind of an organizer of the mineral world. It helps clear mental fog, organize thoughts and stabilize emotional energy. This is a leadership stone. So fluorite and having it in your vicinity really kind of helps you assimilate and kind of take on that leadership energy, which is literally exactly what you need to do when it comes to using this tool, taking control of your overwhelm and giving yourself some mental peace. Okay, so keep it on your desk in your pocket bracelet. You know the drill.
Speaker 1:So divination, reading our tarot card for this week, I pulled the Knight of Pentacles. For this week, I pulled the Knight of Pentacles. So the Knight of Pentacles, yes, we're on a journey, but this is slow and steady. This is focused effort. This card says you don't have to do everything at once. You just have to take the next step and even resting counts.
Speaker 1:Remember what I said earlier we're not doing this by perfection. This is just beautiful progress. So we're not focused on perfection. We're not focused on decision fatigue and getting locked up and overwhelmed. We are focused on continual, steady progress forward Every single time you check off one of those boxes on your list. That's beautiful progress.
Speaker 1:All right, friends. That is it for this week's Ritual Nurse birthday special. I hope this episode gave you a moment to pause to breathe. Remember that you don't have to carry the weight of the world. So grab your list from the show notes, use the code to get a second gorgeous little template as a gift and make your list of ritual that you actually look forward to. Snap a pic and tag me at the ritual nurse so we can all inspire each other to stop drowning and start organizing. Next week, we're going to kick off a new mini series on time boundaries, because saying no is a sacred act, and I'm going to teach you how to do it with power. Take care of yourself first, always Ritualize your rest, protect your peace and remember you are the healer, not the martyr, and, as always, love your faces.