I took a tour of my house, yes, I tour my own house. Your vision becomes blinded in your own home, you lose objectivity. You can quickly regain that objectivity when you give a full tour of your home to someone else. You know the feeling, when your mother-in-law (love you Michelle) is over and you want to quickly pick up the room before she walks in. You start nervously stammering out the list of things you want and intend to do.  

When working in retail I loved holding tours of my store, it was the chance to show off our strengths and explain my recognized opportunities and plans to elevate them. I was motivated to not only be hyper aware of my opportunities but to also diminish them from “need to do”, to “want to do” for next level. We could then spend our time together talking about all of the great goals and plans for the future, and how to have a greater impact. Sounds a lot like my mission for my house of being an energy giver versus energy drainer. When reporting to the same store every day, you quickly lost objectivity because you would only be able to focus on the top priorities. And worse, the excuses of why it got to be that way. I would walk through the doors for every shift, look around for a moment as if I was a customer coming in the first time. This then determined my top priorities for the day.  

For my tour at home, I walk into each room and try to look at it as if I was a stranger. I then write down a list of what I would need or want to do to make it its best version of itself. I list everything regardless of the time it would take to complete or my budget, this is a living list for short and long-term goals. Along the right side of the list, I write down anything that I would need to buy in order to complete my task on the left. Having the full to do list reduces the amount of trips to the store or online orders shipped.  

The first list was very, very long. It is important to remain calm and detach yourself emotionally, just like a stranger would. The list is what it is. Depending on where you are starting that list could be pages long. Do not worry. Celebrate that you have just alleviated your brain. It has been holding onto this information inside, whether you were consciously or subconsciously thinking about it.  

Now let’s take that big “could be scary but won’t let it be” list and start to prioritize what projects you “need to” complete first. There are top priority items that you have to do right away. Those go at the top of the list. Next, I like to complete the quickest and easiest tasks. I believe in giving yourself some instant gratification. The pure joy of crossing off a to-do item from my list never gets old. Each time it’s like a little weight being taken off my shoulders. Ahhh namaste.  

I also prioritize based on my budget. There are things that I can purchase now and others that I need to save for in the future. Knowing what I value as the greatest priority keeps me focused on saving and helps me to have no remorse when I spend. 

I had a teacher in high school for a Media class that taught us that you will always find something to watch on TV. Now this was before the time of streaming TV and binge worthy series. But he explained that you will flip through the channels until you find the “least objectionable” show to watch and land there. Meaning that of all the options available, you will choose the one that will most likely enjoy first and when it is complete you will select the next least objectionable or tolerable show because you will watch, versus just turning off the TV.

I think of this every time that I have a bunch of to-dos left on my list that I am less than thrilled to focus on. It’s like my favorite series had the season finale and I need to move onto something most likely less thrilling to me, but that will fill the void until the next season premier. I am going to complete a task, but I am going to do the one that is least objectionable or tolerable and then so on. And when you dwindle the list down to the nitty gritty of it and finally need to attack the ones you have been procrastinating the most… you grab a large coffee, maybe a glass of wine, hope the stars align for a good day, grab a friend to help you, give yourself a pep talk, call me to help you or whatever you need to get through it. And you get it done.  

Check that off the list.