Tackling the Projects That Live on Your Back Burner

Hey friends! Welcome back to the last day of our Finding Balance Series, where we’ve spent the week talking about 4 steps to finding real balance in your life! We’ve covered…

• Mastering Your Chaotic Schedule
• Simplifying Your To-Do List, and…
• Creating Time + Space for Real Rest!!

Today we’re dealing with all the OTHER stuff in Step 4 – Tackling the projects that have taken up residence on your back-burner!!

Okay, be honest. Raise your hand if you’ve got a million projects that you can’t ever seem to get to.

Yep. 🙋🏼‍♀️ It’s all of us. 

This week we’ve gotten our calendars under control, organized all of our to-do’s into a master checklist, and created time for real rest so that we’re not feeling so burned out all the time.

But I can hear you starting to say, “But Kayse, what about all those other things that just don’t really fit into a system?”

Those things, my friends, turn into our project list. And we’ve got ONE strategic way to handle every single thing on that list.

The thing is, once everything else is running on autopilot, we actually find ourselves having a little more TIME and ENERGY – both things we need to finally tackle all those projects we can’t ever seem to finish! So today, I’ll walk you through getting it all done, step by step!

Step 1 // Brain dump them all-the-projects into one single list

That’s right – remember, we’re all about getting things out of our head and onto paper, so let’s do this. I like to actually take a notebook with me and WALK MY HOUSE, literally writing down all the unfinished things I still want to get done around the house that I never actually seem to get to (I’m looking at YOU, craft closet!).

Do the same thing for the outside of your house, and then for your work, whatever that looks like.

The point here? Write. It. Down.

Step 2 // Use our prioritized process to organize the list!

We value priority-based productivity around here, that way we’re not spending our precious time on things that don’t actually matter anyways. So you can bet I’m going to share with you our signature method for organizing any list!

1. Pray over the list and ask the Lord if there is anything you really could let go of. Almost always, there are a few things we can cross out that don’t really need to get done.
2. Go through the remaining list with three colored highlighters. Each color stands for a level of urgency. If something needs to be done immediately, highlight it yellow. If it needs to be done soon, make it pink. If it’s not urgent, make it blue. (You can choose your own colors, but you get the point!)
3. Once everything is highlighted, go through each color and NUMBER those tasks in order of importance. Everything in yellow gets a number, starting with 1. Then, everything in pink gets a number, starting with 1. Same for blue.
4. Re-write your list IN ORDER. All the yellows go first, in number order. Then the pinks, then the blues.
5. Now, you’ll have an actual, doable to-do list in your hands. And a much more clear mind and heart!

Step 3 // Tackle only one project at a time.

This is the most important step, and it’s the hardest, too. Once you’ve got that prioritized list in hand, it’s natural to want to tackle ALL OF IT, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!

But that right there is the perfect prescription for burn-out. And that’s not what we want at all.

Instead, start at the top of the list and focus all your attention on that one project, until it’s done. Give it your full attention so you can finish it from beginning to end without getting distracted!

When we do this, when we focus our project energy on just ONE THING AT A TIME, this miraculous thing happens…

You actually finish what you start. And you finish it a whole lot sooner than you planned.

When we throw all our energy in one direction, we go so much farther and faster than we do if we split our energy up in seventeen different directions, all at once. While it might feel fun to start bunch of new projects at once, it feels a whole lot better to start AND FINISH one project at a time, and actually, finally check things off that project list once and for all!!

We are SO passionate about tackling one project at a time, that we actually do this together inside our Anchored Life Club, which launches for new members next week!!! Each month, we offer up one project (we alternate between personal projects and home projects) for everyone to focus on together, and we cheer each other on all month long. When you’re tackling projects and making progress in community, it’s just a whole lot more fun! Want a sneak peek? You can check it out here!

Your Turn! //

Grab our Prioritized Task List (just fill out the form below – for free!) and start getting all of your projects down on paper! Then, sort them into an organized list so you know exactly where to start!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s series on Finding Your Balance! Remember, friends – balance is not perfection, rather it’s a steadiness, a peace, a harmony between all the things you’re juggling. And while we hope that these practical strategies give you real help and support in your daily life, remember that TRUE PEACE only comes through Jesus Christ, who created us, sustains us, and saves us!!

If you want even more support, resources, and encouragement, stay tuned for next week’s invitation to the Anchored Life Club! The club is the BEST place on the internet, where my team and I actively partner with you to help you find the right balance between productivity and peace for YOU in your everyday life!! Get a head start by peeking at our club right here!