269. Do This Every Day to Skyrocket Your Productivity & Reduce Overwhelm

Overwhelmed and struggling to keep up with your to-do list? You’re not alone. In this episode, we share simple, practical strategies to help you regain focus, reduce stress, and take control of your day. From setting the right morning mindset to overcoming daily obstacles, these tips will empower you to tackle your goals with confidence and clarity. Tune in to discover how small changes can make a big difference in your productivity and peace of mind

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Resources From This Episode

>> Insulin Resistance Diet Blueprint - https://www.zivli.com/blueprint?el=podcast

>> Free Low Insulin Food Guide - https://www.zivli.com/ultimatefoodguide?el=podcast

>> Join the Zivli Program Waitlist - https://www.zivli.com/join?el=podcast

>> Test Your Insulin at Home - https://www.zivli.com/testing?el=podcast

Have a question? Email us at: support@zivli.com

Transcript

Well, hey there and welcome back to another episode of the reshape your health podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Morgan Nolte. And today I am sharing my biggest tip to increase your productivity and at the same time reduce your overwhelm, especially during the holidays. I hope that you and your loved ones had a great Thanksgiving and are looking forward to a lovely Christmas or Hanukkah, whatever you celebrate, even if it's just the new years. I wanted to talk about this because I was coaching a member

in one of our new member calls this week. And I asked her what her win was and she said, absolutely nothing. And it reminded me that recognizing our wins is a skill. And I think so many people are so used to beating up on themselves and they don't have a system of reflection on what they're doing well. And so I asked her, like, well, did you brush your teeth this morning? Then that's a win. So we really want to be

better at recognizing our wins. And one of the easiest ways to do this is to wake up every morning and create your action items for the day. And inside our Zivli program, we actually teach you to do a morning mindset routine. And there's five steps to a basic morning mindset routine that I'm going to review today. Again, if you're a Zivli member, this is kind of a little gentle nudge to check in and see how consistent am I being with my morning mindset routine and

how almost like disciplined am I being about it? Or am I kind of giving it a four out of 10 effort where maybe I could challenge you to give yourself an eight or a nine out of 10 effort and actually go through all of the steps because I promise it will greatly enhance your productivity and reduce your overwhelm. Just as an example, like it's about 8.30 in the morning when I'm recording this and I got up now, I don't know, 5.30 or so.

And in the last three hours, I did my morning mindset routine. I looked around on Pinterest for a while. That's kind of my guilty pleasure. Obviously made breakfast for the kids, but I didn't just do that. I made a huge batch of healthy pancakes. I started a roast for dinner. I finished the twice baked potatoes that I had started last night. I unloaded the dishwasher. I did all those dishes that I made this morning and my to-do list still has like

a ton of things on on it today and I know that I'm going to get it done. And I know that if I don't, I'm giving myself grace. But my point here is, the only reason I was able to be that productive, really in like just a couple of hours, is because I knew what my tasks were. Because during my morning mindset routine, I wrote down my priorities for the day. We're hosting company tonight and I hate like, I like this scramble like right before people come in the door and you're like,

finishing cleaning everything and finishing cooking everything. I kind of that calm atmosphere and everything to be done ahead of time. So I plan accordingly. And again, it's a long to do list today and I'm okay with that. I work from home so it's easy for me to kind of task shift from work stuff and then take a break and do house stuff. But I know that there are a lot of people who are paralyzed with overwhelm and especially like when it comes to health related things.

They kind of know some things that they should be doing, but they just cannot seem to get themselves going and they're not doing it and they're procrastinating it. So I did a lot of coaching on that this week with one of our members. And I wanted to review this start daily meeting agenda that we really encourage everyone to do. So the first thing is to say your personal faith formula. So start is an acronym. So the S is for say your personal faith formula.

That's a document that we teach our members how to write and it essentially kind of brings the future you into the present moment. And so the best things to go into this personal faith formula are reminders, affirmations, maybe some tools or strategies that you want to remind yourself of for the day. Mine's pretty short, so I'm going to read it to you right now. I expand in abundance, love and success every day as I inspire those around me to do the same.

I practice non-attachment, non-resistance, non-reaction, and non-judgment. I take inspired and energetically aligned action. My goals are to have a peaceful and calm mind, heart, and spirit, have a healthy marriage and loving relationship with my kids. I maintain work-life harmony and prioritize my faith and well-being. I keep my environment clean, calm, and peaceful to support these goals.

Now this is this next part is an example of a gap in my behavior that I noticed. So I added in this strategy to remind myself every day. I give the most generous interpretation and take a deep breath instead of reacting or getting upset with my kids. And then here's another example. Rest is productive. And the last thing that I really want to remind myself of, especially during the holidays when I'm around more people than normal,

I am aware of my sensitive and permeable aura I am mindful to block negative energy and only let in the good and Then I kind of have my prayer list below that so mine's kind of short and sweet right now And I like it that way, but it's changed over time like there is no Perfect way to write this it really needs to speak to you and remind you what you need to hear for that day I'm I'm coaching members right now like perhaps there's

certain strategies that you want to remind yourself of during the holidays. I mentioned a ton of them in last week's episode to reduce emotional eating. Maybe you want to be adding some of those in there. Like, right after I eat, I go brush my teeth and then I have a cup of tea. A lot of people have more specific, like health intentions and their personal faith formula. But since I've been doing it for so long, I've kind of expanded mine to be more

for my mental and emotional and spiritual health because I feel like my physical health habits are pretty well dialed in at this point. So that's the S, say your personal faith formula. The T is thankful and not just like a broad stroke. I want you to think of yourself as a painter and there are broad paint brushes where you can do a broad stroke. That would be like, I'm thankful for my house. I'm thankful for the food on the table. I'm thankful for clothes on my back.

I want you to get like your tiny little paintbrush out. Okay, your tiny paintbrush, three specific things of gratitude within the last 24 hours. So mine today would be the letter that my son wrote my husband about how he's thankful for his dad for playing football and basketball. And I'm thankful for the beautiful stars last night and our Christmas lights when I took the trash out. And I'm thankful for the energy to be productive and to be able to

just show up for my family how I wanna show up for them. So those would be the three things that I would say at this moment in time. All right, here's the next one that I really, really want you to start practicing if you're not already, and that is action items. So S-T-A, the A is for action items. And one to three. So if you really, really struggle with overwhelm and procrastination, I highly encourage you to limit your action items to no more than three.

And that could be something like, everyone's in a different place, right? But it could be, choose my meals, like choose healthy meals for the day or like meal plan for the day. For a long time, until my morning mindset routine was a habit, do my morning mindset routine was one of my action items. Until like very consistent exercise was a habit, exercise was always an action item. And it still is on the days that I plan to exercise.

Some people it might be like have at least 30 grams of protein a meal or drink my water Mine again are kind of expanding more into my life realm and business realm Because the health things are pretty dialed in so I have I kind of think of my different roles like my role is as a mom What do I want to get done today? My role is as a wife. What do I want to get done today? My role as a business owner. What are the work items? need to do today And then anything else on there

So sometimes my list gets pretty long, but I personally like it that way because I really like to give myself credit for everything I'm doing. It is kind of like a to-do list, but that's how it works best for me. That if you're a newbie, start with very specific action items and the morning mindset routine, honestly, should be the very first action item that you master. We teach our zivli habit hierarchy inside of our program and that is the first habit because

If you give your brain clear instructions to follow through, it's gonna be way more likely to follow through than if you're just drowning in this overwhelm and procrastination all day. So give it clear instructions. That's where the action items come in. And then the cool thing is once you do this every day, your action items for today become your wins for tomorrow. So in the morning, or you could do this in the evening too, but right now my rhythm is in the morning, I go and I.

check, know, okay, did I do this action item and this action item and this one? And I go check, check, check, check. There's my wins for the day. It's very easy to see my wins. And sometimes I even check them off as I go throughout the day just for fun. But recognizing your wins is the way that I explained it to the member when I was coaching her. It's like using a different fuel for your fire. I think a lot of people use fear.

to motivate themselves like, man, if I don't exercise today, I'm going to feel like such a piece of garbage, and I'm just going to keep gaining weight. And if I don't eat healthy, this is going to happen. So they use a lot of like fear mongering with themselves, instead of a cleaner fuel, a more positive fuel, which is recognizing your wins, and reflecting on how good it feels to be a person of integrity, how good it feels to show up for yourself and follow through on what you say you're going to do.

that builds self-confidence, that builds self-esteem, and that is a cleaner, more positive energy to run on. So that is why recognizing your wins is important. And then the last thing, the T, so we did S-T-A-R, and then T is thoughts and obstacles. And for that, you're just thinking ahead on the day like, okay, what are some thoughts or obstacles that might pop up and prevent me from

doing what I intend to do today. And a really good example for me is we have friends coming over tonight. And I tend to overeat more in social situations or around company because I just generally, don't know, social anxiety, it's a way to augment positive feelings. So it's not like I have anxiety around these people. just kind of in general, whenever my environment's kind of different, I just, it's just.

I don't know, something that I have a tendency to do. So I'm thinking through, okay, what's a thought or obstacle today? An obstacle could be overeating because we have friends coming over. So I'm going to be very intentional to structure my plate well to eat enough protein today. Right after dinner, I'm going to keep my routine of going and brushing my teeth. And then I might have tea or sparkling water. Like if we're playing a game, the Huskers are playing Creighton tonight, which is kind of a fun basketball game.

think we got creamed last year. I'm a Husker fan, not a Creighton fan. So I don't anticipate a win. I'm always hopeful, just like any good Husker fan. So that's another thought and obstacle is snacking during games. I think a lot of people struggle with that. So just kind of thinking through the day. Another thing, as I was writing my action item list, a thought or an obstacle that came up is, where's your rest?

because you just told yourself in your personal faith formula, rest is productive. But this is a day with 20 action items on your list. So where are you incorporating rest? And so my plan is to really be mindful to my energy throughout the day. And if I just need to lay down for like three to five minutes even and take periods of rest throughout the day, I'm gonna honor that. So for me, I think it's just important to be mindful of how fast I'm doing things.

and remind myself to rest. So those would be the two thoughts and obstacles coming up for me today. I hope that this was a nice review. Again, the number one thing is to develop a morning mindset routine. You don't have to use this framework, this start daily meeting agenda, but the two things that I really find most helpful would be that personal faith formula, and then the action items because

I think for some people gratitude, especially if they have a faith life comes a little bit easier. And then if you're doing the action items, again, those turn into the wins for the next day. So I hope that this is helpful. I hope you actually do it. I hope you do it consistently. And I hope that you challenge yourself to up-level your morning mindset routine. Like bring just 1 % more focus, 1 % more effort, 1 % just more energy to it.

and I guarantee you will see more productivity and less overwhelm this week. All right, I have a couple of great episodes coming up for you, especially about goal setting for the new year and reflecting on 2024 as we prepare to enter 2025. So I can't wait for those. I hope you have a great week and I will talk with you at the same time, same place next week. Bye for now.