Do you ever feel like you have some to-do items that have been on your list for weeks – even months?

Over time these little things start to drag our energy down and if we put them off for too long we can sometimes create 10 times the amount of extra work for ourselves. The result is a lot of unncessary stress and overwhelm in our lives we can definitely do without.

So on this episode I’m talking about “drag” and, more importantly, how to eliminate it from our lives so we can relax and enjoy ourselves a little more. ‘Cuz you know that’s my M.O. 🙂

I share all the details inside! I’ll see you there! xo, Janeen

** Make sure to download the Mamas Who Do APP from either the App Store or the Google Play Store to get my mini course The Follow Through Formula for FREE!

>> CLICK to WATCH on YouTube

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TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Janeen: Hey there, you guys. Welcome back to the Mamas Who Do podcast. I am Janeen Alley and today we’re talking about eliminating drag. But before I dive into that, just a little behind the scenes, I am recording this episode early, early today before I hit the gym and I’ve got my workout garb on, if you guys are over on my YouTube channel, , I am dressed for success today.

[00:00:23] As far as the gym goes. Maybe not podcasting, but this is the time of day that we’re getting this done and here we are. The other thing that I wanna say is if you have not downloaded my app, today’s the day. I want you to find it. It’s, it’s amazing you guys. I have a free little course over there called the Follow Through Formula, and it is really good.

[00:00:44] You get a, you get a packet. I walk you through the packet through several videos. You learn how to keep your word to yourself and follow through on your big plans that I know that you have for your life, which is so fun. I love dreams. I love executing [00:01:00] on dreams. I love seeing dreams come true, and I am a big believer of dreams.

[00:01:04] But we can’t achieve those dreams if we don’t know how to follow through. So this little course, this mini course is available for you over on my app, but you gotta get the app so you can go to the Google Play Store. It’s also available, of course, in the Apple App store. Either one of those places. Grab that app, check out the course.

[00:01:22] it’s really good. And then if you want to join me for future things, future events, like joining one of my courses or being part of my coaching membership, all of that takes place on that app. So it’s super convenient for the students that I currently have, and I’m really, really excited about that because I know for me, logging into a website is just extra.

[00:01:45] We’re talking about eliminating drag today, so I did that for you by creating this app. You’re welcome, . Okay, so let’s talk about eliminating drag. Do you ever notice in your life that there are some things that you’re like, [00:02:00] "Ugh, that." I know for me, a few of these things have come up recently and I wanted to do a podcast episode on it, because eliminating drag in our lives is something that I feel like is so important, particularly since I just did this.

[00:02:17] I have had a few things on my list for a while that I’m like, no, we’re not going to go through another week with these same tasks popping up on your to-do list. And I am a productivity expert, y’all . That’s what I do for people. And I’m like, no, we’re not doing these things. These things are the things that aren’t emergent.

[00:02:41] but they continue to show up and they kind of wear you down after a while. They just start to drag your energy down knowing that there is these things that are on your list that are not getting done. So let me just tell you a few of the things that have been on my list that [00:03:00] were creating drag for me.

[00:03:01] So the first one was registering my daughter Emma, for high school. She’s going to a charter school next year. She’s really excited. I have mixed emotions about her going to high school just because I love hanging out with her. Not that I’m worried about her going to high school. She’s gonna be amazing.

[00:03:16] But I had to get it registered, of course, and I was putting this off because in this process of getting your kids registered for school, you have to gather certain information, right? You have to get their immunization records. I had to create a transcript because she’s been homeschooled. I had to do all of these little things that I’m like, ugh.

[00:03:34] I don’t wanna do that. . That was so, another thing that was on my list for a while was I needed to renew my driver’s license. And fortunately for me, I’d say it was on my list for a little while. It was on my list for two weeks because fortunately somebody pointed out that my driver’s license was going to expire in two weeks, and I’m like, wait, what?

[00:03:54] I didn’t even realize, but I know I’m not alone in the [00:04:00] fact that the D M V is probably not top of your list either. So getting that taken care of was just dragging me down, but turns out I actually didn’t have to go to the D M V. I could just actually get it done all online. , but I didn’t know that.

[00:04:16] I didn’t know that, and so I just kept putting it off until one Saturday. I’m like, Hey, actually until one Friday I was like, Hey, let’s just head over there and see if I can get a walk-in appointment. And I couldn’t. But they said, Hey, if you’re renewing your license, go here. So anyway, the thing is about these things that create drag for us is they stay on our list for a long time when in reality these things can sometimes get taken care of fairly quickly. Like to renew my driver’s license, it took me 30 minutes. To get my daughter registered for high school it took me about the same amount of time and I know that there are some things that take a little bit longer.

[00:04:56] Another thing that’s on my list right now, that’s [00:05:00] creating a little bit of drag. I need to do some mine work around this one is finishing some CECs for some of my fitness certifications that I have. So I am certified as a personal trainer, a health coach, and a group fitness instructor and so I need to be periodically taking exams to stay current with my certifications, and so I know I have one that’s due in May, and so I am gonna get this done. I’m gonna get it done in March. By March, y’all, cuz I’ve gotta study and I have to take this test. I just recently took my certification renewal for the life coach school, which was another thing on my list.

[00:05:37] I’m like, oh yeah, gotta get that done. It’s not in my norm, but it was something outside that I was like, oh yeah, I gotta study for that too. So I just want you thinking, what is it for you, what are some of the things in your life that create drag? Cuz truth be told, It is a huge drag to have unfinished projects or [00:06:00] unscheduled plans or business or debts or phone calls or texts that need to be returned, or promises that haven’t been kept or things that you’ve said yes to that you’re not looking forward to.

[00:06:09] When we people please, that also creates a lot of drag. There’s so many different ways that things in life create drag, and I’m gonna be talking about how to eliminate drag in this episode today. And of course, all these things don’t really create drag. It’s the way that we’re thinking about these things, right?

[00:06:30] Like I said, it was really easy for me to get my driver’s license renewed and my daughter registered for high school, and it is relatively easy for me to study for these exams that I have to do. The thing is, is we just don’t want to . We just don’t want to. And that’s what creates drag. So we subconsciously put these things off sometimes for a really long time.

[00:06:53] But what this does is it’s like we’ve got this drag backpack that we’re just carrying around. It’s [00:07:00] like this, ugh, extra heavy weight. It’s like a bag of rocks. Right? And we know they’re there. We all are aware of the things that we have to get to, but these things start to pile up over time and every time we have another piece, another thing on our to-do list that creates drag, it’s like adding a heavy rock to that backpack and we just continue to carry around for a long time.

[00:07:24] As soon as we get these things done, we can just throw off the backpack and feel free. and light and energized , right? So I want you to think about how you can eliminate your drag backpack in the next week or two. But I think sometimes as we are identifying things that create drag for us, I think sometimes it’s helpful to identify what energizes us when it comes to projects.

[00:07:49] What energizes you or de-energize you? What are the things that you love to do? Like what are the things that you’re getting done first? , and I know for me, one of the things that I [00:08:00] love to do in my business, of course, I love to coach, but I also love to create content and I also love to do the graphic design part.

[00:08:09] And sometimes I get caught up doing more graphic design than I need to, or I spend a little bit too much time working on these things because I love to do those things, which takes time, of course, sometimes too much time so I’m not allowing myself time to get to these projects that feel weightier. But the thing is, is it’s so important for us to have a clear and present and planning mind because like I said, it just creates freedom.

[00:08:39] It’s like we shed the backpack and we feel so much lighter.

[00:08:44] The most important thing, and I’m kind of zooming out to the 30,000 foot view of why eliminating drag is so important is because life itself takes time to plan. You want to live your best life. It takes planning, [00:09:00] and sometimes when we’re so busy just reacting to life, this becomes our way of life.

[00:09:06] and we end up ignoring things or dropping balls on some things that are really important to us. We feel like we can’t ever get to those things because we’re so busy reacting. when you are in your present moment and your past self has not taken care to plan the present moment, it is challenging to really relax and enjoy yourself because we’re stressed thinking about, okay, I forgot, I forgot to do that.

[00:09:31] So we’re scrambling. We’re, we’ve kind of switched into emergency mode, for example, when we’re on vacation. Right. If you have planned your trip to Hawaii, for example, and you have planned the reservations and you’ve planned the dinner and you’ve planned the hotel, that has way different experience than getting to Hawaii and spending your vacation time trying to book reservations at venues that are already booked out because you’ve waited until the last minute, it’s gonna take [00:10:00] you three to five, maybe 10 times longer to get a dinner reservation than it would have if you had planned your life three months in advance.

[00:10:09] And the thing is, is. . Sometimes we tell ourselves, oh, this is just, this is just temporary. I totally forgot about this. And sometimes that’s the case. But unfortunately what happens is if you’re not used to planning your life, this is sometimes your M.O. And then this is just the way that you function. This is just the way that you’re executing on your life and it adds a lot of unnecessary stress.

[00:10:30] But when you’ve planned your life beautifully in the past for this moment, for that vacation or whatever it is that you’re doing, it is much easier for you to be present right here, right now. You’re able to relax and enjoy the moment. It’s a totally different presence of mind, and you’re thinking, oh my gosh, my life is amazing.

[00:10:50] This is so much fun. Instead of not being able to enjoy yourself because you’re playing catch up. So again, planning in your present moment because of lack of planning from [00:11:00] your past is much more intense and time consuming than planning for your future.

[00:11:04] Like I said, if you’re on vacation and you don’t have an iterary before you left, you spend your time on your vacation trying to find things to do instead of just relaxing. , and I’m not saying that you need to book every second of every single day, but you need to have enough of a plan so that you’re not wandering around on your vacation aimlessly, hoping to find somewhere to eat or hoping to find some place to stay or something fun to do, right? That is not a good time , right? So we want to work to eliminate drag.

[00:11:36] So how do we do this? I think the, of course, the number one way to do this is to plan, and if you’re not used to planning, you need to practice planning. You need to get yourself in a, in a space where you’re practicing planning your life and you’re tweaking the process until it is a well-oiled machine. I want you to think about what’s important to you in advance.

[00:11:59] [00:12:00] How do you wanna celebrate birthdays or anniversaries or Valentine’s Day or your vacations or spending time just doing really fun things? I had a very dear friend of mine, her name was Renee when we lived in Japan, and she was always doing super fun things with her kids. She was going to the beach, she was going to the parks.

[00:12:16] They were climbing, they were adventuring all over the place. And I asked her one time, how do you do that? Like how, how do you just have all of these fun things on your calendar? She planned it. That was her secret. And I’m like really fun things even. Of course, you wanna plan out your life to have fun as well as get your work done for sure.

[00:12:37] So focus on planning these things out. You don’t wanna create drag by wishing you had fun things happening in your life, but feeling like they never happen or waiting until the last minute and then scrambling to make things happen. And again, not enjoying your present moment.

[00:12:52] Okay. The next one that I have for you might be a little bit obvious, but we might need a reminder . And that is don’t put things off, you [00:13:00] wanna chip away at drag consistently. Now, there might be some things in your life that you just don’t enjoy doing, like laundry or dishes.

[00:13:09] Okay? You wanna create routines around these things. So for example, with my laundry, I actually have four days out of the week that I do laundry. I do our clothes on two days of the week. I do my sheets on one day, and I do our towels on another day.

[00:13:22] My kids do their own laundry, so that’s part of the routine, but I do my husband’s and my laundry. I enjoy doing it. It’s not a big deal and he usually helps me with it as well, but that’s how we get the laundry done. Dishes might be something that creates drag. This is something that you consistently want to chip away at.

[00:13:38] As soon as I’m done with a meal, I love to clean it up. That’s my M.O. I love it. I am, I don’t know, for some of you, you’re like really? With kids? No, no. With kids. I’m working on getting my kids to clean up their stuff still. I know they’re older kids, but we still have this discussion daily about putting their dishes in the dishwasher.

[00:13:57] And there are times of day when I do this, I’m [00:14:00] not after ’em all day, and I’m okay to let the dishes be there, that’s fine. But I have structured time during the day where I’m getting my kitchen cleaned up and I am having them help me with it if they’re around. As you’re thinking about chipping away on your drag, you wanna be thinking about getting some of these things done as soon as possible.

[00:14:16] Don’t leave these things until the next day. and don’t leave them until the end of the day, either if they’re things that you don’t enjoy doing, it’s the last thing that you wanna do at the end of your day. So sometimes what I do, if I don’t have time to fold a basket of laundry, I’ll throw it on my bed and so I don’t get into my bed unless it’s done.

[00:14:34] So that’s one of the ways that I keep that going, because there are some days that are more full than other days, and so, We end up getting laundry done at the end of the day, but I’ll grab my husband and we’ll chat about the day or something as we’re getting it done so that it’s fun. Or sometimes I’ll watch even a comedy or I’ll listen to a podcast or something to make that more enjoyable for myself.

[00:14:55] My husband is amazing at eliminating drag. I asked him the other [00:15:00] day, for example, to situate the furniture in our basement differently. We have Lovesac couches, and they’re those modular couches that you can kind of take apart the pieces and configure them into different, pieces of furniture. Like you can have two couches or one big sectional or whatever with these couches, and they’re great. But I was noticing like, oh, could we just do it a little bit differently and they’re super sturdy . They’re really, really heavy actually. And getting them to situate themselves in the little feet or the little bases that they have is a little tricky for me, just because they’re so bulky.

[00:15:32] And so I was asking him, Hey, could we work on this? And he actually got it done the very next morning for me, and he’s like, Hey, did you notice I got the couches done. I love it. I love that about him as I’ll ask him to do something and he gets it done really fast. Now, you might not have a partner who’s like that, but you can do that.

[00:15:53] You can start doing that in your own life and just schedule those things. If you need help with something, if you need somebody else’s [00:16:00] help to do that with you, then just schedule it so that it gets done and you can eliminate that drag. The last thing that I have about this and consistently chipping away at drag is the two minute rule.

[00:16:12] This was something that I learned about a couple years ago, and I don’t even know where I, I learned this two minute rule, but if something’s gonna take me two minutes, I don’t wait. I just take care of it right then.

[00:16:24] Okay. The next tip that I have for you to eliminate drag is to set aside a time block to eliminate these drag items on your list and whittle it down significantly.

[00:16:32] This is actually what I did over the last couple weeks. I just planned a time block and I’m like, all right, I’m getting done with my driver’s license and I’m getting done with this high school registration stuff but the thing is, is you can time block an hour or two. and you are just crushing it in that hour. You are working away on each of these items and you’re knocking them off your list one by one. So it’s amazing to me how many items on my list actually didn’t take me very long to get [00:17:00] done, like I said, to renew my driver’s license and to get Emma registered.

[00:17:03] It was about 30 minutes each to get those things done. I just felt so much better after I just knocked out a bunch of these things that had been on my list for a while. and what I recommend doing is you have a consistent time block to get these drag items done. So for example, with my studying for my continuing education credits, I am going to have to block out a certain amount of time every single week to get this done.

[00:17:29] Now, fortunately for me, I know when I’m gonna do this and I can multitask actually to get this done. I don’t normally recommend multitasking, particularly if you’re getting creative work done or like some really intense work done that you need to really focus, like taxes, for example, . That might be something that’s on your drag list right now.

[00:17:49] But for me, doing continuing education is something that I can just put in my earbuds as I’m making dinner or as I’m cleaning the bathrooms and I’m listening to the lessons and I’m learning the material. I’m not somebody who [00:18:00] needs to have, um, you know, take notes particularly at this time of my life where I’ve been certified as a trainer for such a long time.

[00:18:07] It’s not like a lot of this material is going to be new information for me. So I can just plug it in and then take the quizzes after each one and do well and get it done that way. Now, that’s how I’m making that happen for me. You might have to have a different scenario or a different situation where you are setting aside time

[00:18:25] that’s just for that task. Like I said, I don’t normally recommend multitasking because our brains don’t normally work that way. I just know in this situation, it’s gonna work just fine.

[00:18:34] So the second last thing is to delegate. You can ask somebody to help you with what’s on your list, but you need to make sure that you’re asking somebody that you can rely on that has proven themselves to be worthy of trust, to help you get something done.

[00:18:49] You don’t wanna delegate something to your kids. That is important where they might still be 50 50 on whether or not they actually execute or they might be like 90 [00:19:00] 10 or 95 5 on how they execute on the things that you’re asking them to do. Okay? So this would might not apply to you. You might not have somebody in your life that you feel like you can delegate, and if that’s the case, I’m gonna give you a tip in just a second that’s gonna help you further with that.

[00:19:16] You can delegate things to kids. You can delegate things to a partner or spouse, or you can hire something out if that’s financially possible for you.

[00:19:25] Okay. The next one is, if you don’t have people to delegate things to. That’s okay. You can time block stuff to get things done and take that on on your own. Or you can simplify or even eliminate tasks altogether. This might not be possible, like it wouldn’t have been possible for me to eliminate the driver’s license thing, right?

[00:19:46] I need a driver’s license and it’s not possible for me to eliminate laundry or dishes, but there might be some things that you can simplify in the way that you’re getting things done. Like for example, with laundry, you can just delegate certain days of the [00:20:00] week to getting your laundry done. And for me, at my house, I have eliminated some laundry because my kids do their own laundry, so I don’t do their laundry.

[00:20:09] And I haven’t done their laundry since they were like six years old. I’ve taught my kids. early, early, how to get their laundry done, which of course required some supervision on my part for a while. And so I felt like, okay, they can, they can totally do this and sometimes I’ll help ’em, like run it through the machines because I’m home.

[00:20:25] But as far as like folding it and putting it away and all that stuff, that’s totally on them. And sometimes the rooms kinda reflect that laundry creates drag for them as well, that they’re learning that whole process.

[00:20:39] But you might feel like in your life there are certain things that just aren’t worth actually doing, like I could have just let my fitness certifications go. I don’t do any personal training. It’s just mostly for my education. And there have been times in the past that I’ve created workout videos for my clients and I might do that in the future.

[00:20:57] And so I am going to hang on to that [00:21:00] certification, but I don’t have to, I don’t have to do that. And so that might be something that I could have eliminated if I wanted to. So I want you taking a look at your list and asking yourself those questions. Is this something that I can eliminate? I for sure do not hold onto papers.

[00:21:17] That is something that I eliminate. We’ve got a paper shredder, and I use that thing all the time because I’m like, no, we don’t need to put that in a file. I don’t need to keep that in my house so those are things that I consciously let go. So I want you just thinking, what are some things that are creating drag for you that you can consciously let go?

[00:21:36] It might even be something that you have said yes to, to please somebody else that you don’t really wanna take on into the future. Those are are things that I would look at and ask yourself if you can eliminate those things. Maybe not this project cuz you’ve committed to it, but maybe projects like that in the future.

[00:21:57] What are some things that you can let go of [00:22:00] that are currently creating drag for you? So I hope this was helpful for you. If you have a friend that would benefit from this episode, I would love it if you shared it with them. And again, if you don’t have the app on your phone, the Mamas Who Do app, I highly recommend that you download it and put it on there so that you have it and you can get access to that course for free over there. So that is what I have for you guys today. I hope you have a beautiful rest of your week. We will talk to you guys soon. Take care. Bye.