How To Do It All: My Unconventional Advice to Fit It All In

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business and a life that you love, and this is Q&A Tuesday. Today’s question comes from Angela and Angela writes:

“Dear Marie, how do you fit it all in? I’m getting increasingly overwhelmed by too much to do and not enough time. There’s work but then there’s all this other stuff like getting enough sleep and meditation, exercising, making fresh juices, smoothies, and meals, grocery shopping, social time, family time, and so on. Not to mention all the time social media can take and there seems to be some kind of new social media site coming up every week. So how do you manage running a successful business, taking care of yourself, having a social life, getting enough sleep, and keeping your stress levels down? Thanks, Angela.”

Alright Angela, this is a great question. We’ve talked a lot about time management here on MarieTV and I’m gonna include links to some of our favorite productivity episodes right below. But today I’m gonna answer your question a little bit different than usual.

This one is gonna be very personal and, a little bit of a warning here, it includes some bleeped out explicit rap lyrics. So if you have little ones around, you might wanna put your headset on now.

So here’s the deal, my dark little secret to fitting it all in is actually that I don’t fit it all in. I am the queen of no and a professional disappointer.

But seriously, I say no way more than I say yes. I’m always politely turning things down, ignoring my inbox, ignoring my phone, even saying no to myself because I know how easy it is to slip into overwhelm, which leads directly into the land of anxiety, mediocrity, and a million half done projects that you never get done. Now, the reason I say no to so many things is actually because I’m ultra clear on my own priorities. And years of experience have taught me that no project, no meeting, no anything just takes an hour or a few hours or even a few days. Everything takes more time and energy than you initially think it will.

So rather than trying to do it all, I actually focus on the critical few things that make the biggest impact in my business and my life. And every single day, which I’m sure is the same for you, a million different opportunities or other people’s agendas of what they think I should be doing pop up and try and distract me, like this.

So when that happens I sing this sweet little song to keep me on track. Big Sean, tell everybody what I say to distractions.

I’m not kidding, Angela. I sing that song any time distractions try and seep in or I try to pressure myself to take on another spiritual practice or a personal practice that I just don’t need.

Now, one thing I wanna be ultra clear on, when I sing this song it is never directed at a person or an idea or an opportunity. It’s at the element of distraction itself, because I am super grateful for any opportunity that comes my way, and we treat every request with love and respect.

Bottom line? My secret to fitting it all in is that I don’t try to and I don’t care to. I keep my life as simple as humanly possible. So for the things that I do say yes to, I can be fully present, I can bring my A game, and give whatever I’m working on the time and attention it deserves.

So let’s land this plane on one of my favorite Tweetables of all time.

“When you know what’s important, it’s a lot easier to ignore what’s not.”

That was my A to your Q, Angela, I really do hope it helps. Now I would love to hear from you. If you’re like most creatives I know, myself included, you have a million, trillion things you’d love to work on and love to create. But if you could only have 3 top business priorities right now and 3 top personal priorities right now, what would those be? And, part two, if you had to sing a little IDFWU to 3 specific projects or shoulds and eliminate them from your calendar, what would they be?

Now, as always, the best discussions happen after the episode over at the magical land of MarieForleo.com, so go there and leave a comment now.

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Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world needs that special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time on MarieTV.

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