Let's Make a DONE List - Arista Management Group

Let’s Make a DONE List

Women at Work
Focusing on the Good

I just got back from a quick getaway in the mountains where I was surrounded by deer, turkeys, chipmunks, squirrels, and bluejays. Every morning, I’d look outside the window and watch them gather at the house waiting for their breakfast. Then it got me thinking…

When in survival mode, animals tend to sleep more and do less. They have to conserve their energy to get their number one task accomplished – hunting food. (Even if it means walking up to a house waiting for sliced apples.)

Many of us are running on survival mode right now – surviving home schooling, surviving a global pandemic, surviving the unpredictable (Hello, 2020!), and the list goes on. This added stress makes us feel like we need to do much more with much less time. The added pressure stunts our creativity, causes us to be irritable and overwhelms us so much that we end up doing nothing. Sound familiar?

Although the napping all day technique works for lions, it is a bit less practical for us. September is in full gear and we have to get out of survival mode and back into thriving mode. Let’s make a Done List, not a To-Do list (because there are plenty of those); instead, ask what is working? Focusing your attention on what you are doing right and what rhythms are working can get you to work smarter.

Take three minutes to ask yourself these questions for your ‘Done List’:

1. What’s one thing I am proud I survived in September?

2. What did I eliminate to make myself happier?

3. What moment made me smile?

This Done List will take you from running on survival mode, to realizing YOU ARE THRIVING. As my good friend Kate Northrup says, “The only true way to slow down time is to fully inhabit the present moment.”

This month Kate’s opening up the doors to enroll in her membership program, ORIGIN. I had an opportunity to sit down with Kate to talk about the program, who it’s for, and the benefits of being a member. Listen to the full interview HERE. If you only have 5 minutes, go to minute 15:45 for the game show version: Five in Five: 5 Questions in 5 Minutes™ .

Typically, I don’t participate in programs as an affiliate. However, September is Hispanic Heritage Month and I’ve decided to participate by donating 100% of the affiliate proceeds to UnidosUS (formerly NCLR) – an nonpartisan organization dedicated to serving the LatinX community in the areas of civic engagement, civil rights and immigration, education, workforce and the economy, health, and housing. If this opportunity is something you feel could benefit you, I invite you to sign up for Origin and join us in doing less!

 

Need tips on how to make your team more happy? Don’t forget to read my blog about leading through generations here.