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[00:00:00] Today's episode of the Decluttered Mom Podcast is all about taking everything in our brain and getting it on paper and figuring out a way to get things done without just feeling really overwhelmed and feeling like you're always forgetting something. Okay. But this is from an Instagram live I did a year or two ago, and so it's going to be a little bit different than a lot of the podcast episodes.

[00:00:26] There may be some interaction with comments or there may be extra background noise, so I apologize ahead of time, but I wanted this in. My podcast so that it was easier for people to be able to access it. It's a little bit harder with Instagram lives, especially ever since reels came out, they really buried the lives on Instagram profiles.

[00:00:49] So we are just gonna jump right in. I hope you enjoy today's episode. You're listening to the Decluttered Mom Podcast. A podcast built specifically for busy moms by a busy mom. I'm your host, Diana Rene, and in 2017 I had my second daughter and it felt like I was literally drowning in my home. Okay? Not literally, but I felt like I couldn't breathe with all of the stuff surrounding me.

[00:01:17] Over the next 10 months, I got rid of approximately 70% of our household belongings. And I have never looked back. I kind of feel like I hacked the mom system and I am here to share all the tips, tricks, and encouragement. Let's listen to today's show.

[00:01:39] Hey guys. So I was just sitting down to do a brain release because I'm feeling like. I have a lot going on and a lot of different aspects of my life right now. Um, and it was starting to feel a little overwhelming. Like my brain was starting to be like, okay, like that's a lot to juggle and a lot to remember and a lot to figure out.

[00:01:59] So hi. So I decided to sit down and get it out on paper and I thought this would be a good time 'cause I haven't done this in a while. I haven't told you guys. Explained in a while. There's a lot of new people here. Um, since I have gone live, it's been a while. So what I'm gonna do today is I'm going to show you how when my brain is feeling like overwhelmed and I have too much to remember and I'm feeling like I'm.

[00:02:25] Either going to start dropping the ball or already am dropping the ball in whatever area of my life. As busy moms, we have a lot to remember, right? Um, okay, so what we're gonna do, we're gonna go over my process and I go over this a little bit in my time blocking course, but we're gonna go over it now here today, because if.

[00:02:46] Anyone else out there is feeling that way. Mondays tend to feel that way. So we're gonna tackle it. So I'm gonna just say first what the three steps are, and then we're gonna go through the process. So the first step is brain release, second step is prioritize, and third step is schedule. Okay. So the first step is brain release.

[00:03:07] And what we do is we literally are gonna. Dump everything onto this page that, uh, we have in our brain. And I know the technical term is brain dump. You guys, I just can't get on board with it. It just sounds gross to me. So over here in this world, we call it a brain release. Um, and what we do is we just write everything down.

[00:03:31] It what helps me to start kind of like getting that going and to start thinking because who here can like lay in bed at night and think it. Thousand things you need to get done, but then when you like, can sit down and write a to-do list, it's like you forgot everything. Right? So there are some prompts that you can use to kinda like, get going.

[00:03:51] Uh, pro tip. I, I do too. I either think of things. As I'm going for a walk as I'm taking a shower, and it has something to do with like being in like a flow state. There's like a scientific reason for that. But you guys, did you know that they, there are waterproof notepads that can suction to the wall. We have one in the shower and I get the best ideas in the shower.

[00:04:18] I always forget them by the time I'm out of the shower because by the time I get outta the shower like. Some kid needs something. Right. Um, and so like some just life starts happening and you forget. So they actually make, I think I got it on, I'm pretty sure Amazon, it's lasted forever. I think I've had the same pad for a year.

[00:04:38] It's like a waterproof, it's, I don't, I don't understand how it works, honestly, but just like Google, waterproof, waterproof, shower. Notepad or something like that. Um, I don't have a link 'cause it's been so long, but, um, it's like a notepad that suctions to the wall and it comes with a pencil, but it works with any pencil you can write on it and it's waterproof and it doesn't smear and then you just rip the paper off when you're done with it.

[00:05:05] It has, I think it had like 50 pages or something. Okay. So number one, brain release. So some of the things, if you're having a hard time. Coming up with all the stuff that you've been thinking about then, then make categories. Right. So like for me, I do personal, which is like anything for home, anything with my kids, anything with my husband, anything with my friends, like anything just in my personal life.

[00:05:32] Right? And then I put. Business. So anything for the Decluttered Mom, business? Anything for my courses, anything for my team, anything for Instagram, like anything under that umbrella goes under another list. Those are the two lists I primarily do, but maybe you need to break it down even further and you need to do it by each personal, uh, or each specific family member.

[00:05:57] So like kid one, kid two, kid three, um, partner home. Friends, like you can break it down as much as you want, and then you just gotta start thinking about what are some things going on in your life in that area, and what are some of the things that you're needing to do. So I'm not gonna like build my list here in front of you.

[00:06:17] That would be really boring and would take a really long time. But the goal is to not judge yourself. Get everything on this paper whether you think it's important or not. Just right now, get it outta your brain. Get it out of your head. That way, when you're done with this list, you can feel confident that everything's out, everything's gonna get taken care of, everything's gonna get figured out.

[00:06:41] It's out of your head. We're not gonna forget it. Okay. So that's why I say don't, like I used to when I was making this, these lists, I'd be like, Hmm, that's not that important. I'm not gonna put it down. But then it would still linger in the back of my head, right? Or I would think, okay, that is something I need to do, but I don't need to do it right now, so I'm not gonna write it down.

[00:07:02] No, write it down. If it pops into your head, write it down. I don't care what it is. It doesn't need to make sense. Okay, so, okay, so that's step one. Let me know if you have any questions on step one. Step one is just getting everything, everything, everything out of your brain. Once we do that, we're gonna go into step two, and this is where we are going to prioritize.

[00:07:25] So for me, I used to do three categories. I now. Well, I guess it's technically three still, so like a number one would be something that if I don't get this thing done soon. Or by a specific date, there will be consequences. And that doesn't mean like I'm gonna get in trouble. Um, uh, I think we hear like consequences and we think of like discipline.

[00:07:54] Um, but so what are some examples of this? Um, if I do not pay this bill by. Thursday, I'm going to get a late fee. That would be a consequence, right? If I don't turn in this field trip form by next Monday, my kid doesn't get to go on the field trip. That would be a consequence. So if there's any consequence tie or it doesn't even have to be like a strict consequence like that, it could even just be like.

[00:08:22] If I don't do this thing that I told my partner I would do by tonight, then that's going to cause an issue in our relationship. So like it doesn't have to be like a set in stone consequence, it can be anything that you just know has to get done ASAP and is important to get done asap, right? So that's gonna be anything.

[00:08:45] That's a number one. And then a number two is going to be, this does need to get done. It's not like, it's not as urgent or as important as the things on number one, or it's something that is just really important to me and I would really like to get it done and it would be really great if I could get it done this week, but there isn't necessarily a consequence if I don't get it done this week.

[00:09:12] So maybe an example of that is, hmm, what is a good example of that? I know I really want to get, I really wanna get quotes for lower car insurance. We, our car insurance has been jacked up the last three times. It's renewed. I know I can probably get a lower quote if I just find it, so I would like to get that done this week.

[00:09:35] However, if I don't get it done this week, there's no consequence. I'm just gonna keep paying that rate. It's not the end of the world if it doesn't happen. So does that make sense? A number three would then be like, I'd like to get this done, but it doesn't need to happen this week. Okay. Um, and I ran, I don't have the third highlighter, the beauty of being on live.

[00:09:58] Right. Okay. So let's, let's pretend that's purple. So those are the categories that we then are going to prioritize. However, before we prioritize these things, we're gonna go through and we're going to delete and we're going to delegate. Um, so delete is we're gonna get rid of anything that we just don't need.

[00:10:19] And this is where we have to be a little bit ruthless. Um, because we only have a certain number of hours in a day. We only have so much energy, right. So we need to save those for things that really matter to us. So. Maybe there's something on there that like, keep, you, keep thinking about, you're like, I should probably do that.

[00:10:40] But you know what, you're gonna give yourself the grace and the power to say no for now because I think we don't say no enough. Um, which that's a whole other tangent, but, uh, we're gonna get rid of some things on the list. I require myself to get rid of at least three things on my list after I do a brain release.

[00:10:57] And sometimes that's super easy and there's like, oh yeah, I can easily get rid of these three things. And other times it's hard. And I'm like, I don't know what I can get rid of. But I figure it out because I think it's important to kind of flex that muscle and constantly be looking for things that you can let go of in your life, in your calendar, because we just take on too much in general.

[00:11:18] But especially as moms, we tend to take on too much because we think we have to do it all right, but we don't. We don't need to. So we're gonna give ourselves grace and we are going to delete three things, at least three. If you can delete more, even better, then we're gonna delegate. So what are some things that you can pass off?

[00:11:36] What are some, what are some things on the list that, um, you can outsource? What are some things that you can hand off to someone else in your family to take on? What are some things that as your kids are getting older, they can actually embrace and they can do for the home and the family? So we're gonna look at what thing, what things we can delegate, right?

[00:11:58] And we're gonna circle those. So for, for delete, we're gonna X amount for delegate, we're gonna circle them. Um, I can't really x out. My squiggly. Well, I guess we can, okay, so we're gonna x out at least three things and we're gonna delegate these two things. Okay? This is like super high tech right here, and if you have my planner, my planner's free.

[00:12:23] It doesn't cost any money. It is a, a principle, so like you have to print it yourself or get it printed, but I have printers. You can use that. That are inexpensive. I have weekly prep where I have a whole spot for brain release for the week. So it makes it really easy, but I'm not doing it in there for now, just so I can show you guys.

[00:12:43] So steps number one and two are brain release and prioritize. Um, okay, so we have 'em prioritized now, right? So now we're gonna schedule 'em. So now we have this list and we can easily see the blue. To dos are the things that we have to get done this week. Like no excuses. We just have to get 'em done, or there's going to be consequences in various aspects and ways.

[00:13:10] So then we just open up our planner or your calendar on your phone, whatever you use. Um, so then what I do is I take those and I know that I have these certain days to get it done. And I have non-negotiables up top, so I put, I start scheduling 'em them. So from personal number one, this is the first thing I have to get done.

[00:13:35] It's going on Monday, non-negotiable. Okay. And then this one, as much as I can. I spread it out through the week because if we try and put everything on Monday, it's just probably not gonna happen. Just like the real I posted this morning. If we can just focus on getting that one thing, I normally put three things.

[00:13:55] Um, and that's just because I've, I've gotten really good at like working in the margins of my life because I run a business from home while my kids are home most of the time. But I think it takes time to get used to that. So if you're new to like really scheduling things out. Then I would just recommend do just having one thing a day.

[00:14:14] So if there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 things that have to get done this week, then I'm probably gonna put one on Monday, maybe two on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, one on Thursday, and one on Friday. And if it's Monday after and I already got Mondays done and I have like really high energy and I'm like in the mood to get stuff done, then I'm gonna hop to Tuesday and get those done.

[00:14:38] But if I'm not, then I have that grace and I have it built in so that it's okay if I don't get anything else done today, I can just on Tuesday, figure it out for Tuesday. Okay. And say it's Tuesday and you have been sick, or you've been taking care of a sick kid, or you just haven't been, you've been really struggling with whatever, and you haven't gotten the stuff done, then all you gotta do is put a little, I put a little like.

[00:15:07] I put CXL for cancel, and I circle it and I cross it out, and then I move it to the next day. That makes sense. That still fits into the, the like deadline. I need it done by. Right. Okay, so then I get all of the number one scheduled, then I move into number two. And if, uh, the, if I have like a ton of number ones, then I'm probably gonna put number twos into next week.

[00:15:32] If I only have, I don't have a ton of number ones and it doesn't feel very overwhelming, then, then I'll add some number twos to the week also. Um, if I don't have a ton of number ones or attend number twos, then I'll go into those number threes. Which are like the projects or to-dos that I would like to do eventually, but don't really have any type of deadline.

[00:15:53] And maybe I'll add one, but I'm not gonna overload it, right? So that way once we're done with this process, you guys, you have everything outta your brain. You don't have anything keeping you up at night like, oh shoot, I forgot to cancel that appointment. Everything's on here and it's scheduled out. And then your.

[00:16:15] Only mission for the rest of the week is to faithfully check your planner or your calendar or your piece of paper. Like I don't care what you use it on. Um, some people do really well with just grabbing one piece of paper for the week and like scheduling out their week on that. Other people do really well, the paper planner.

[00:16:34] Other people do really well with some type of digital app. It, it doesn't matter what you use as long as it's working for you. Right. I have always loved the idea of a paper planner, but I bought probably 3000 paper planners over the course of 15 years, and I never, they, they just never sticked. That's why I made my planner, um, because I actually made it for myself.

[00:16:59] It was like everything I wanted in a planner and took out all the stuff that annoyed me in planners and then. Uh, and then I just made it free for you guys. You guys have access to it. You can have it because it, it's so helpful to be able to have a planner that makes sense for busy moms and doesn't make us feel overwhelmed.

[00:17:17] So that is the process. Like I said, it's super simple. Just doing this, you guys really frees up your mind. Um, when we have all these to-dos, like in our head, it just looms over us, right? It's like this like hanging cloud over our head, and that's how we forget things. That's how we feel overwhelmed. By following this process, we can get it all out, but not only get it all out because this, here's the thing, A lot of times people will write down to-do lists and they'll write down like mile long to-do lists, but then.

[00:17:48] It stops there, right? Like nothing actually gets done because just getting it out on paper feels really good. But unless we like keep going and prioritize the tasks, we're going to just keep feeling overwhelmed. And then if we don't schedule 'em out, we're gonna forget things. We're gonna miss things.

[00:18:06] We're not gonna get it done, uh, the way we wish or would hope that we would get it done. Alright, you guys, that's the process. I'm gonna go do mine now. Now that you know it, maybe you can go do it too and then DM me and let me know how it goes. Happy Monday. I hope you're having a great day and I hope you have a great week and I will chat with you later.

[00:18:26] Bye. Thanks for hanging out and listening to the Decluttered Mom podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world if you could write a review or share this episode with a friend or your Instagram stories. And if you're on Instagram, be sure to follow me at the Decluttered Mom and send me a DM to say hi.

[00:18:46] I'd love to hear what you thought about today's episode. I hope you'll come back next week and hang out with us again.