Monthly Reflection (A Replay from Pretty Productive Life)

This week I'm actually going to be sharing recent live replay recording of a call that I did inside of my program, Pretty Productive Life. This is a program where I have created a complete notion system to help you stay organized with your task and project management, create content, manage your mental wellbeing, and so much more.

And now through the end of 2022, every other week, I'm doing a live call on Friday where we either do Journal prompts or we do a weekly pulse point check in.

We're kind of in an experimentation mode right now, so it's been really fun to do these different calls and the one I recently did felt so lovely and I thought it might be fun to actually share the replay of it with all of you so you can listen along in this recording. I definitely recommend having a Journal, a notebook, or something to type in, whether it's a Notion document or a Google Doc, whatever you prefer.

But we'll be going over some reflection questions for the past month and planning ahead.

Let's get started!

Watch the video replay on this page here.

Learn more about Pretty Productive Life

Visit the website at MindfulProductivityBlog.com

xoxo

Sarah

Find more resources over at SarahSteckler.com

Come say hi on Instagram @sarahsteckler

Transcript

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Hello, you are listening to episode 193 of The Mindful Productivity Podcast's. I'm your host, Sarah Steckler, and this week I'm actually going to be sharing recent live replay recording of a call that I did inside of my program, Pretty Productive Life. This is a program where I have created a complete notion system to help you stay organized with your task and project management, create content, manage your mental wellbeing, and so much more. And now through the end of 2022, every other week, I'm doing a live call on Friday where we either do Journal prompts or we do a weekly pulse point check in. We're kind of in an experimentation mode right now, so it's been really fun to do these different calls and the one I recently did felt so lovely and I thought it might be fun to actually share the replay of it with all of you so you can listen along in this recording. I definitely recommend having a Journal, a notebook, or something to type in, whether it's a Notion document or a Google Doc, whatever you prefer. But we'll be going over some reflection questions for the past month and planning ahead. While I'm specifically talking about May and June of quarter two in this current year, you can do this process anytime. And I do want to let you know that this is or was a live structured call where we actually had time and a countdown timer for each of the prompts. So there are some moments of silence as students are working through and journaling through. And I encourage you to use that same time to do this in real time as you listen back. I also thought it would be fun to provide the actual video replay, so if you'd like to follow along with slides and see the prompts visually, then you can head on over to my website and check it all out there. I will have everything linked in the show notes below for this episode. And again, we're on episode 193 for your reference. So without further Ado, let's just go ahead and jump into it. I will hit play on the replay and I'll be back at the end to check in and wish you well. I hope you really enjoy this, and if you do want to learn more about Pretty Productive life, then make sure you check out all the information linked below as well. Let's go ahead and get into our journaling prompts and reflection for the month for the past month and for moving. Ahead, welcome to the Mindful Productivity Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Steckler, and this is the place to be to live a more mindful and productive life. If you're ready to turn daily chaos into calm and start your days with intention, then get ready to join me as we dive deep into mindful living and personal productivity. It's time to connect with your true self so you can live the life you want to live. And it all starts now. So we're doing our end of month planning and reflection this time since we are at the end of May. So today we're going to be doing a bit of review and reflection. I've also got a reminder and a mindset quote that I saw recently that really shifted something in me. So I wanted to share that with you. We're going to be touching on your quarter two plans and your future vision and seeing kind of like where you are with all those things and hint if you need to do a reset, that's totally okay. And then we'll be reflecting on some weekly steps that you can be taking to reach those goals. So I was recently watching a video from one of my favorite YouTubers over at Pickup Lines, and I have a link to this specific video in the Notion template for this week as well. But one thing she was talking about was how she often feels torn in different directions with her life. She's really, really happy where she is now, but she also really, really wishes that she could go back home and see her family. And so she felt torn in these two different directions. And her mom told her what an exceptional quote. She said, you will have everything you want in your life, just never all at the same time. And this brought up a lot of different thoughts for me that I wanted to share with you in that thinking about this allows a couple of things. It allows kind of acceptance of where you are in the present moment and where you are in your life. And then it also kind of gives you this freedom of permission to kind of let go, realizing that it would be very difficult to create a life or even a moment where you literally have everything you've ever wanted in your entire life. There are moments in our lives where we have everything we want in the current moment. Right. Like, I can think of a moment just the other day where I was sitting in my living room and it was raining and I had a cup of coffee and I was journaling and my pets were there. And it was so cozy. And in that moment, there wasn't anything else I could have wished for. But one of the things she reflects on is how at different points in your life, you have different circumstances that make it trying or difficult or make you long for other times in your life. Right. I even think back into my early 20s when I was single and living alone in my own apartment and how at the time, I really loved that. But I also really was excited about future chapter in my life where at the time I was like, maybe I'll get married, maybe I won't. And so there's that longing now for some of those moments. But overall, I've experienced something in the past, and I will experience things in the future that ultimately bring me joy, but they're just not all at the same time, right. So, for example, you get a puppy or you have a dog, and you're getting all that love and satisfaction from that experience, but you're also giving up more of your energy and your free time and responsibilities along there. So I just really wanted to share this quote with you because it really got me thinking about a lot and just might be fun to kind of like ruminate on for the week ahead. And so that's what I thought we could do for our first reflection question today. What are the things that you have right now that fulfill you, and what do you still long for? So it's kind of like a gratitude process. But let me go ahead and I'll put five minutes up here, and there's just a couple of things I'll share while we're going through this. But start typing out either notion or in a Journal. What are the things that you have right now that truly fulfill you? And this could be the smallest of things or the biggest of things. Right. And I think it's important to come back to these things that we're grateful for, you know, especially when the world continues to feel so heavy. So what are the things that you have right now that fulfill you? For me, this is the view I currently have, our balcony and the trees I get to see every day. And I think it becomes that much more sweet because I know that we'll be moving sometime within the next year and that this won't be a view I have forever. And kind of coming back to that last prompt, too. One thing that I find annoying is that we're on the third floor, so we have three floors to walk up. And that can be hard when we have, like, Costco groceries and stuff. But we have this incredible view. So it's right. It's like those give and take those sacrifices. These could also be things that fulfill you right now in your business. So maybe what are the things that you're working on right now are doing that really fulfill you right now? I am undergoing a huge rebrand in my business, and I actually find that back end administrative work very fulfilling and enjoyable. So designing new graphics, updating colors and fonts everywhere, behind the scenes, all of that is very fun and very fulfilling. Maybe you have a relationship or a friendship that's very nourishing right now, or you've had an experience lately. Maybe you've been able to actually travel or do something that you've been wanting to do for years. And then the second part of this question is to ask yourself, what do you still long for? What are the things that you kind of wish you had right. And sometimes a reverse gratitude practice can be helpful for this right? So for example, for me, I am not a big fan of the stairs we have, which makes me really long for a house and a yard. And then coming at it from that angle, it's less of a I don't have this, therefore I'm sad, but it's more so what a fun thing to look forward to, right? What a fun thing to work toward or put on my vision forward. And then it becomes what are all the things that I might want in that yard, right. So really just thinking about the things that you long for. And I think that question even can be helpful because it's less of I'll be happy when or I'll be happy if and more. So what can I look forward to? And as you're going through everything, just also taking a minute to breathe, breathing in through your nose and letting the oxygen really fill up your lungs as you're journaling or as you're writing, I've been really having to remind myself a lot lately to breathe and I'd love to to hear whether you want to share in the chat or you'd like to share in our Facebook group what some of the answers to this are for you. Alright, let's move on to our second question here. And that is what practices could you put in place to maintain your current level of peace and work toward new goals? So we have five minutes on the clock here. What practices could you put in place to maintain peace and work toward new goals? Keep in mind, these can be daily practices. But one thing I often find one misstep I often find myself doing and I see other people doing too, is thinking that in order to make a change in your life, you have to suddenly create tons of micro habits or steps to make a difference, right? So sometimes we can all of a sudden add 20 different things to a habit tracker that we'd like to do every single day of the week. And that can often feel overwhelming. So if you're feeling that way, or if you have that idea in mind, maybe instead it could be shifting to what's one simple daily practice that you could put in place to maintain your peace. And maybe even with something that takes five minutes or less, or something that you could tack on to something that you're already doing, right. Like an anchor habit of sorts. And sometimes these practices are not even daily things, right? Maybe they are a weekly activity. So for me here, we're in Spring right now and the past two or three Sundays I've been really lucky and it hasn't been raining on those days. I have been making an effort to go to a park for an extended amount of time with my Bulldog Bella, so I could not believe how nourishing this was. I always know I'm going to enjoy it, but spending a solid like two or 3 hours at a park instead of just going in and out and really bringing things with me to enjoy the moment and unplug from the world was so life giving. And it really felt like I was pulling out all this plaque from my brain. Bringing a blanket to a park, maybe a book. These practices can also be elimination practices where maybe you are putting your phone in another room or in a box somewhere and going the whole afternoon. Right. Without checking it. And one thing that can be helpful, too, in creating these new practices is replacing whatever you're trying to exclude with something else. So if you're trying to go the afternoon or the evening without your phone, a better way of looking at it could be what will I be doing instead of being on my phone? Right? So this could be getting out a paint by number or coloring book and even just telling yourself for the next few hours of evening, maybe a free time in the evening instead of picking up my phone when I feel like a lull or I'm not sure what I want to do, I will instead know that I have this coloring book available to me. Right. Or this paint by number or this sewing project or knitting or whatever. Right? That way it becomes less of a feeling of lack and more of an invitation from something else instead of, oh, I can't look at my phone right now. It instead becomes I have the opportunity to finally use my coloring book or finally Journal and use some of these journals I have. Or some of these pens. Right. So again, just another little minute here. What practices could you put in place to maintain your peace and work toward new goals? And I really think the more we put in place to maintain our peace, the more energy we slowly generate, maybe without realizing that we can then harness to work towards new goals or new things. And those new things often take different amounts of energy. Right. Because they feel new to our brain and we're creating new neural pathways, all of that. All right, so I think we have one more prompt before we get into some other activities. So the third question now is what are you proud of yourself for this past month? What are you proud of yourself for this past month? And again, making sure to both answer from a personal standpoint, but also maybe in your business, too, right? So not just the things that you did and got done, but maybe the ways that you handled the situation, maybe some of the ways that you respond ended versus reacted. All right, one thing I'm trying to work on is when there are horrible things going on in the world, which unfortunately is all the time really giving myself space and setting boundaries around how tuned in I am to everything. Right? So instead of doom scrolling constantly all night and then feeling more and more stressed and anxious, giving myself a period of time to look at what other people are saying and look at what's going on and then taking time to step away. Because I know that if I'm in that heightened hypervigilant state, I can't be of service to anyone else and I have a harder time taking care of myself. That's something I'm proud of. It's working towards that. Maybe another thing, too, is I know a lot of people. We have email lists and email subscribers. Maybe you're proud of yourself for not looking at all the unsubscribes and focusing on all of that. Right. Really making a concerted effort to instead focus on the email replies and all the other things that happen. Right. Because people are bound to unsubscribe. People are bound to unfollow. And we don't know why. Right. We often think that when people do these things, it's because they're like, oh, I hate this email. I hate this person. I don't want anymore. Right. But it could be because they're overwhelmed with their own inbox or because they don't have time for what you're offering at this point in their life. Right. And they may come back. Other things that you might be proud of could be patience, could be your effort to rest. Maybe you're finally giving yourself permission to take breaks or stop working at a certain time every day. Those are all things worth celebrating. And of course, you can also be proud for other accomplishments, right? Like maybe you hit a revenue goal or you finished up a launch and made so many sales. All of these things wonderful to add to this list. But I really want you to take these few minutes here to just really celebrate yourself. And it can be the smallest of things, too. It can be going grocery shopping and choosing more nourishing foods that make you feel better. It could be going on that walk or doing something that maybe felt a little bit uncomfortable at first. Again, what are you proud of yourself for this past month? As I'm sitting here, it's getting a little bit windy outside. I think it might rain and the wind chimes are going. I doubt this microphone will pick it up, but cozy moments. Okay, those are a few of our reflection prompts. And now I want you to take a couple of minutes to think about your main goal for quarter two. So way back about I guess six weeks ago now, we had our first call in here and we did our quarter two reflection and planning. And you may have set a bigger goal for quarter two. And so now we have about four weeks left, right? June is about to begin, and it's a great time to check in and ask yourself, are you making the progress that you wanted toward your main projects? And just a reminder, too, that it's totally okay if you need to reset or adjust. So there are times when you may have set a goal and life got in the way and maybe you didn't even plan it or you didn't do the things you needed to do. It's okay to start over now. You don't have to wait until the next quarter to begin. Things can overlap. I think that's important. I love that there's the structure to the year that we've created, right? Where we have the four quarters, then we have the months and the weeks and the days and the hours. But that doesn't mean that you have to work within those time frames. Specifically. It's okay if you start your business goal right now towards the end of quarter, too, and it overlaps. It doesn't have to be a set start and end between all those things. Right. I think it's also why sometimes I feel like, oh, I should do I have to do my weekly planning on Monday morning or Sunday night? And then if it's Tuesday or Wednesday, I almost want to throw in the town and be like, well, we're almost halfway through the week, so there's no point in weekly planning. That doesn't have to be true. And that doesn't have to be true of our monthly, quarterly or annual planning, either. You can do these things in any time, right? And again, you can come back to using our Pomodoros method in that worksheet where you can map out your Pomodoro for the week. You'll find that inside the course, inside the organizer overwhelming framework. And that can be helpful as like a visual representation of what you're working on and what you're doing and when. So I'd love to hear in the chat what your main goal is for quarter two. Or you can also share in our Facebook group. And also to just remembering that this isn't about beating yourself up for not hitting something the way you thought you would. Just reflection. Okay. This exercise is always fun. We did this during our quarter to reflection as well. But I want you to think ahead for the month of June and write down both things you need and things that you want. As an example here, you may want or I'm sorry, you need more rest. Or you may need a specific amount of clients or students to hit a revenue goal. Or maybe you might need a better planning routine or check in time to get things done and help yourself do all of that. And then maybe two, there's things that you want, right? So on the other side of this, maybe you would really love to get down to four day or even three day work weeks. And it's less about worrying about the how, but just really writing down the desire. I would love that. I would want four day work weeks or three day work weeks. Or maybe it's still five day work weeks, but I'd like to work no more than three or 4 hours a day, right? I want XY new clients or students. It would be incredible if I had this many new enrollments in a course or program or in a launch. And also, if you want to, you can get specific around why, like why you want this, what it would bring for you. And then it's always nice to write down something that you want that you can look forward to. And keep in mind, these can be both things that are within your scope of control and also things that may just happen, right? So maybe you would love or I would want maybe next week I would love to work outside in the sun. We can't control the weather. But that's a great thing to desire, right? So in the Notion template for this week, you'll find a simple table for each of these categories. Things I Need and Things I Want I remember to keep breathing. I'm thinking now for myself about this. One thing I need is more structure around meal planning. I'm in a season of my life where cooking, especially from scratch, is just something that is not happening. And so to better facilitate, you know, nourishing meals, what I consider nourishing meals. There are some more structured things I need to do, right? Going grocery shopping or using Instacart, getting maybe some ready meals. Our local Safeway has these awesome ready meals that are like in a little steamer bag. You can just throw them in the oven and they're a little more expensive, but they already have the protein, the veggies, the rice, all pre portioned out. So it's something I don't have to think about. All right, and feel free to pause this if you need more time. Now, I want to take a couple of minutes to think about what is your main goal for the month ahead. So right now at the end of May. So for June, where does your focus need to be for the remainder of quarter two? Whenever you're listening to this for the next 30 days, where does your focus need to be? And keep in mind that there's different elements to this, right? There's the focus around what you want to accomplish and the end goal of something. Maybe you're finally wanting to launch your podcast, but if that's the case, where does your focus need to be? Right? For example, another example could be maybe you're training for a marathon and you want to be able to get a certain time in a five K. Your focus is around that. But if you break it down, your focus needs to be on deeper rest, right. Time management so that you can get your miles in every day and every week where you want so that you can stretch and make sure that you avoid injury. So whatever your focus is for the next 30 days, the remainder of the quarter, the month ahead, think about the overall goal or objective and then also think about what that means for your time and energy. How are you actually spending your time and your energy there? For me, a lot of this is rebranding and finishing up the website, all of those things. All right. Another thing that I love to do every month and then again, every quarter is to think about our theme days. Right. And this may be something you may be the kind of person that you can do the same thing more or less every day in your business. Or it may be helpful for you to have theme days where you're matching certain things. So it depends on your creativity. But we've got this image up here where this is an example of some of my theme days for my weeks. And this moves all the time. I change this often, but this is an example. Mondays could be for podcast, batching and content planning. Tuesdays are often an organization and planning day, so this is both paper planning and brain dumps. And then moving those things into notion. It's also organizing my physical space. So tidying up my desk, cleaning off surfaces, all those things really impact my mental energy as well. Wednesday is often a learning day, so going through maybe courses I've purchased or books that I've checked out from the library or attending workshops. Thursdays are often curriculum creation and program updates. So working on different projects updating, whether it's pretty productive life or publish with purpose. And then Fridays are always my weekly pulse point check in and Journal time. But another thing to consider is that you might have a theme day around when you take calls. Right. Or when you have outside meetings. I know for me, this can be really helpful if I have a busy week, knowing that on Tuesday in the afternoon, I'm having four quick back to back meetings, and then I can kind of tailor my energy for that. So maybe you'd like to reset your theme days. These are some ideas and suggestions I would love to hear from all of you, though, when you do certain things in your life and business. All right. And then just a couple of reminders as we kind of wrap up today's workshop. But now is also a great time in your daily Journal in your pretty productive life. Dash to update your daily templates. So we've got templates for Monday through Sunday, and all of them can have different Tags or different themes. So if you know that Wednesdays are now going to be maybe a podcast editing day, you can go through those daily templates and update those so that they will auto populate with all of that information as you schedule your days. And there's just a quick image of how you can do that. And there we have you can see we have for example, this is the template for Mondays in our daily Journal database, and we can see that we've got all these different themes admin, planning, learning, content creation, meetings, organization, relax and recharge and you can obviously add your own too. That is how you enter in. That another example. And so your next steps are now to head to your daily dash inside of your notion and update and take a look at your current tasks and projects. So if you have any overdue tasks which I always do, I'm not perfect. It's rare that I have a week where I've completed every single minute thing because I often task dump in here too. But check in on your daily tasks, see what's coming up. Maybe you want to rearrange your priority Tags or change the due date like when you are going to do them into next week or later in the month and then also check in. We have your project database in your daily dash that shows your progress and where you are and it's a great time to check in on all of those and see where you're at right checking the pulse of your projects. So happy planning. Remember to use our Facebook group for added support and again I'm just so glad you're here inside of pretty productive life and I hope these calls have been helpful to you. So any questions or additional things you want to share? I would love to hear from you and have a wonderful weekend and here's to an amazing month ahead. Talk soon. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the Mindful Productivity Podcast. I hope you found it helpful and as always you can find more resources over on the blog Mindful Productivity Podcast which is also currently undergoing a rebrand. So I'm excited to be sharing some more updates about the brand new website in the works that will be coming soon. I will see you back here next Monday with a new episode. Stay safe, have a cozy week ahead and I'll see you then. Bye.