How I Became Productive As A Perfectionist Entrepreneur PT1

How I Got better at planning, scheduling, and reviewing

in this blog. I’ll share the problems/struggles that I faced to get s*it done in my business and how I overcame them and how I became productive

At the start of my online journey,

I struggled with procrastination, overplanning,

following through with these plans, abandoning these plans …

mind you these problems were present before but they become apparent once I started building my biz

so, it became important to work on them since I want to build my biz.

my approach to planning, scheduling, following through and productivity as a whole was holding me back

BUT I wasn’t the wiser.

Before we keep going I want to give huge shout out to my mentor Sam at the perfectionism project

She had a huge impact on my life in general and productivity in particular.

I continue to learn from her

let’s get back to our topic

This topic will be divided into 2 parts

In part 1 I will share how I started to plan probably which is this post

In part 2 I will share how I actually follow through / do the actual tasks /work you have planned to do will be the next post

Let’s dive right in 🙂

where I was in terms of productivity Regarding planning & scheduling

I was putting too much on my plate, I scheduled my time without rest or accounting for other areas of life.

Which Lead Me To Procrastination And Not Getting Things Done.

I Was All Or Nothing About It. I Either Follow The Calendar To The Tee Or Not.

which wasn’t possible because it was too much.

-when I don’t follow it I just drop it and wait for next week to start fresh again. lead me to feel behind instead of making tweaks & changes to the calendar

-when I mess up the start of a task or take longer than I planned

which leads me to stop looking at the calendar (abandoning it without realizing that)

I would write the day off since in my mind what’s that point if I can’t do it perfectly.

why? great question

The answer is

–I hated changing things after I planned them.

I was so inflexible when it comes to planning and following through.

I wanted my calendar to look perfect on paper or digital

I didn’t know how to fix it when I mess up or that was what I thought

I was making it up as a huge ordeal and something bigger & more dramatic than it actually is.

getting back into the problems I had when planning & scheduling

-another struggle I had with planning & scheduling is feeling that I need to Look At It All Day So, I Can Follow Through When I Really Don’t Need To(another way my brain was making things difficult and being in the all or nothing)

–I was frustrated most of the time. I felt overwhelmed by all things I need to get done but wasn’t able to get myself to do them.

Here and there I get things done but I always fall off and feel behind when there’s no behind. you are learning how to properly follow through and be productive to get s*it done.

-Felt shame that I wasn’t able to do the work I chose to do even though I had the time.

So time wasn’t the problem how I was thinking was.

Many people think that having more time will solve their follow-through problem what truly solve is your thinking

–Dreaded doing the weekly review or any review for that matter.

feeling resistance and not being able to stay with it and do it anyway.

yes, I forced myself to do it from week to week

since my weeks always didn’t go as planned, got messed up, I didn’t follow through,…

It felt useless to do it since I didn’t do anything (which wasn’t really. I did a few things but not all and things went out of the way)

-I was complicating and overthinking how to do the weekly, and monthly review

(because I was thinking there’s a right way that I didn’t know and I was waiting for someone to correct it for me. also, felt resistant to it because I felt it was a hard, daunting task)

—–From time to time I get back into using a to-do list because I couldn’t bear to look at my calendar,

or my so-called failures, fallouts, and scheduling felt hard

I Just Tried To Forget About It But Did Not Really Choose To Stop Using It though

but why a to-do list?

so, 1-the to-do list was much easier to look at because it feels good to cross things from it,

2-you can add anything to it even if it’s not important and get it done

which will give a fake sense of productivity

3-it does not hurt your brain as scheduling and planning your time using a calendar would

as you don’t need to think about when will you do things

wherein scheduling you need to consider when to do things & how long will it takes, and other parts of your life not just your business.

4-you can do things on it whenever which is precisely why a to-do list doesn’t work for perfectionists

which leads to procrastination, and overwhelm as you keep adding more things and it gets longer

in short,

It lacks priority, it lacks the structure it shows you items without context. it lacks limits (time & day wise)

but at the time, I had to plan somehow and get something done even if it was not unimportant (my self-image is wrapped up around being productive or busy rather)

Eventually, I Got Back To Using My Calendar And Stopped Using The To-Do List

Because Of The Plenty Of Problems That It Represents

I saw planning as a chore/hard thing which led me to resist and procrastinate on doing it.

Consistency was hard without a plan. without proper planning, you can’t be consistent.

all of this is happening While dealing with other issues that come with doing specific tasks in business

I will share about it in the next blog post, stay tuned m 😉

I was planning everything business-related in the same which led to a lot of wasted time

because didn’t realize that there’s a difference between tasks in terms of importance (more in part 2)

when I look back at everything that happened this is what went wrong:

1-being too rigid with planning and not wanting to change and adjust instead just abandon it

2-not taking into account life and what happens in the day to day

3-planning based on your future self, not your current self ( plan in an ideal way)

4-overestimate what can I do in a day

5-don’t see the difference between tasks in importance

and leading to the goal which comes with experience

6-i was waiting to feel comfortable to do it

without ever addressing the resistance that I was having for so long

7-I wanted to do so many things from the get-go without understanding

that doing what I love while doing other things is something you move/get toward gradually

you can’t just go to the Olympic start level when you’ve just started

how did I start to become productive

where I am now in terms of planning, scheduling and reviewing (this is where productivity start)

Now, I have a much easier time planning my weeks, and months…and I am consistent too

I can look at my calendar and make changes/ tweaks and move things if I can’t do them to next week with ease( still do not do it perfectly)

I take into account everything that’s going on (sleep, rest, family, fun time…)

I don’t over plan like used to

I am okay with looking at my calendar a few times per day instead of all the time to follow through

I change and adapt to what happens during the day

I started implementing rest without guilt to my week usually I take Friday off

I do weekly reviews with resistance without the need to not feel that

if something happens during the day or I couldn’t do a task I keep going and continue with my plan for the rest of the week

what helped me to become productive was/is the following mindset shifts

Thoughts/beliefs/questions that helped me

Day after day I get better at planning, following through …

it’s okay to feel resistance and do it anyway

what does the $ 5k coach/entrepreneur version of me do to get what matters done? what does she think is important to do? ( then do it)

how can I make planning easy? ( at the beginning you’ll make mistakes but that’s okay because you’ll learn)

it’s okay if I don’t do it all, it’s okay if I am still not there yet in terms of planning, following through, scheduling this helps me when my mind goes into”see, you couldn’t do it, what you did was wrong..etc”

other things that helped me

1-Looking at planning from a growth-minded point of view as it continues to change that isn’t either whether you know how to do it or not

2-Tackling thoughts that come when I plan, schedule, review

(any situation is a great generator of thoughts.

when you are in the situation it’s easy to see the thoughts that are stopping you much better than when you are not)

3-I applied realistic productivity which is as follows 

Doing what matters efficiently and consistently while having rest without guilt

while considering other areas of life too (more on that in upcoming blogs)

4-Working from a calendar flexibly as I should have instead of treating it like a paper one and not wanting to move or change things and make it workable as you go on with my day

 5-I focused on identifying and doing what matters to build my business & doing it consistently

which doesn’t mean I got it right or did I know in the beginning but you learn

while taking into account family, hobbies, and rest time into account when I plan

6-Learned to evaluate and keep going without throwing the towel if I am not perfect when I work or when things don’t go as planned

7-progressively make changes to how I plan & schedule as I go because that’s the easiest way and learn from my mistakes weekly

8-sitting with the discomfort that comes with planning & scheduling and not making it a big deal.

Tools that I use to plan, schedule and review

In case you’re curious because I’d definitely love it when people share details about what they do

1-Digital calendar (Google Calendar)

it’s easier to make changes and get out of your own perfectionism when it comes to it

2-Notebook (to brain dump what I want to do each week, prioritize,

to do a thought download to see what was I think that lead to certain results)

3-Pen(anyone that you like the way you write with & feel comfortable using)

4-Notion a software (to do my weekly review on)

check part 2 on how i became productive with more tips and hacks here

to your success

Wafaa