A Simple Planning System for Reducing Anxiety
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 ก.ค. 2024
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I've never been great at short term planning. This year, I started using a tiered planning system and found it help reduce my anxiety. Here's some food for thought as we head into the new year: Is there a way you can manage your time better?
The planning software I'm using is called Actions by Moleskine Studio, it's a paid service and I signed up because I like the colours and simplicity (actions.moleskinestudio.com/). Out of the free options, I like Asana the best. It has a simple to-do list feature, and it's also pretty customisable and good for working in teams.
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SELECTED REFERENCES 📚
Masicampo, E. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (2011). Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of personality and social psychology, 101(4), 667. doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10...
Sjåstad, H., & Baumeister, R. F. (2018). The future and the will: Planning requires self-control, and ego depletion leads to planning aversion. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 76, 127-141. www.researchgate.net/publicat...
Holman, D., Johnson, S., & O'Connor, E. (2018). Stress management interventions: Improving subjective psychological well-being in the workplace. Handbook of well-being. Salt Lake City, UT: DEF Publishers. nobascholar.com/chapters/44/d...
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Me : Did I just discover a great system to organise my life and potentially make my days better?
Also me : Sounds nice, will try later
It's on my to-do list
My biggest problem with planning is that when I try to make (and then maintain) a to do list like that, I end up spending more time planning than actually doing the work I’m trying to make plans to do, so I end up falling further behind because making a plan is another thing I need to do and just gets thrown on the list of other stuff I also really need to do but don’t have time for.
I have found just scheduling time slots in a day for specific tasks and work on the to do list of the timeslot to be the solution. Sure you need to keep track of priorities but I can't work to long on the same thing for to long anyway so in the end I get done what I can realistically get done. It does that mean some things are left uncompleted, but time is limited and aperantly that is what i deemed to be the lowest priority so it had to go. I still struggle when I don't have enough time. But without all the anxiety about not getting everything done, I found I suddenly can get a lot more done. And its easier to make decisions
I feel both uplifted but slightly saddened that my first reaction was 'Awesome, this is precisely what i've been doing for the past few years', and I cant deny it has helped with the task-based anxiety. However i'm sure people can appreciate that its not a silver bullet, and if you're like me, your morning is ambitious and the rest of your day is a reality check. Rinse and repeat. I'd love to know how to maintain momentum and motivation to tackle the tasks that stay on the list from one day to the next, either intentionally or otherwise.
Well said
tl;dw - I’ve learned this year that it’s really helpful to get “everything you have to do” out of your head. I’m a pretty bad procrastinator and it helps having all my daily tasks gathered in one place, and also so I don't overthink them constantly 😅
What about you? Is my system too much, or do you use something different for time-management and/or planning?
My problem with lists etc was the huge amount of guilt I felt when I didn't achieve the stuff on the list. I've been working on going easier on meself. How do you deal with not achieving your targets?
@@ruaoneill9050 "List guilt" is real! Two things: 1) I'm very kind to myself and don't put a lot on each day to begin with and 2) I include time for rest, leisure, etc. in my tasks. In my list I literally have "go outside" and "TV time" :)
I really appreciate people being more aware of decision fatigue. There are so many homemakers who keep these mental lists and don't feel they can write everything done, delegate or even explain how they feel.
We have a great group of friends and have built up an understanding of these things. We've laid out a routine to assist with knowing what each week will entail and this allows for forward planning.
Thank you for your great videos!
What is that program? 3:43 for planning.
@@blindedbliss Actions by Moleskin studio
Planning is easy. Sticking to it takes intent and the right mindset.
💯
Indeed. Only after 1+ years you can tell if the cool planning/organizing/... system is actually working.
For me, follow through is a function of planning well-energy management rather than time management, removing obstacles, and regular re-evaluation of whether my goals are still my goals.
Fully agree, can you elaborate a bit on what that right mindset is for you? I have an aversion to planning because in the past I have never stuck to them! Currently trying to get back on the wagon, but it's hard to work against.
1. Write down mental to-do list
2. Create task categories
3a. Sort Step 1 product into the categories
3b. Put the short term goal is reach category at the very top and prioritise the list beneath it.
4. Allocate days(and time slots) for each task
5. Balance out work and personal tasks
My wife loves planning, and finds that having specific action plans to tackle her daily tasks, personal, and work goals is stress reducing and helpful. I hate planning, and find that having a tangible and verifiable list of things that I have to do makes me cranky and contrarian.
I would really love to see more videos about the details of planning, getting into the habit of planning and the tricks and traps of planning
VANESSA THANK YOU. I am exactly like you when it comes to thinking about everything you need to do at once, meaning i often do much less than i could. I started using notion to organize my life and i’ve felt so much better since, because my brain has less to remember now!! Thank you for making me feel less alone :)
This is definitely my yearly theme for 2020. I'd love to see more videos around planning!
I have been following you since 2016 from that video of the trolly problem. Your videos are so well researched and to the point, and your amazing stop animations are uniquely yours. Your personality is so endearing and friendly. All the best for your future endevours I am loving where this is going.
Thank you for that lovely bit at the end. And for the video, of course. I will be getting with the list and seeing how it helps right away
My most important task today is to cook. I've all the ingrediants ready, so I'm gonna do that now! Thanks fer the gentle reminder :)
I am here for the nudges!
@@braincraft thank you! Update: I cooked! :D
Ive started doing slow cooker recipes since I am working at home. Prep in the morning and get to smell it turning into goodness all day long :D
What’s the to-do list software you were using? Looks helpful.
It's called Actions by Moleskine Studio (it's a paid service and I signed up because I like the colours and simplicity). Out of the free options, I like Asana the best.
I was expecting it to be a sponsor for the video!
Todoist is also very good, it just depends on your prefernces
I like the approach and especially the reasoning behind it related to anxiety! There is just one think I tend to do differently(at least I usually intend to):
Do the planning in the evening for the next day! It may reduce anxiety during the night and your mental abilities aren't stressed in the morning from planning. Personally, I feel like a need a break after planning already if I do that in the morning.
Really well explained! Planning can have a massive impact in boosting productivity and reaching a goal, I've found it's had a huge impact in my life since I figured out methods that worked for me
💪
Would love to know some of the methods that worked fer you?
Yes! Just found you via a fellow Brit Tom Scott, love the video length and production. I suffer and have done for a few years with anxiety (and other badged diagnoses) and you’ve convinced me I need to do better at planning and your simple technique is something I am going to try. Thank you
Most important video , I needed this very much. Lately I have been paralyzed by mental fatigue. Thank you so much
I'd absolutely love to see more on planning, scheduling and time management. Thanks for creating this video!
It just feels good and positive to watch you haha you are fun!!! But I will start planning I desperately need to. Thanks for the motivation. All the best!!!
I started doing this for Uni and it helped sooo much.
Writing down all assignments and then adding the dates of days i wanna have em finished at really helps to keep me focused and motivate me to actually do them.(And the personal stuff i do in my head)
This episode was helpful & reinforcing to me. Of course, you hit the nail on the head by expressing the need for an individual to do what works for them. I was able to compare from your information and compare it to what I'm currently doing. I also found that it works best if not trying to do everything at once regarding your planning development. Like a healthy diet it has greater staying power if you evolve into it. I started with setting aside time in the morning to plan. While I'm having coffee. I started out more short term goals and letting it evolve. Anyway, thanks for the assistance in helping me to hone and expand on how I can do better. Stay safe. Peace always.
I was a missionary for my church, and one of the best skills I took away from the experience was the ability to set goals and make plans. My church had a recommended planning method for missionaries that was very similar to what you described in this video but even more fleshed out.
It involved daily planning that included listing the tasks you needed to get done that day as well as scheduling. Every hour of the day had to be filled, but it could be as specific or as vague as you like (ie, you could write down every errand you needed to run, or just write "shopping" for all the various places to go)
Then once a week you would have a more intensive weekly planning where you set goals for all the aspects of your work and life for the next week and the plans to make it happen.
Honestly, I've never had more work or been more efficient with my time and less stressed than those years.
You're awesome. It's a pleasure watching how you find ways of coping with life :)
Thank you for sharing.
Yes, more videos like this. I am so like you when it comes to organizing my life.
I too am so bad at planning! Will try this system
I like how well is this lady spoken. Her tipps are too very good and right.
I Find creating an electronic planning list for UNI really helpful where I have links for further info for the items that require my attention for the entirety of a semester. Then highlight items that require my immediate or short term attention and once completed have the joy of deleting them off the list. Because each item is linked to further information I feel less overwhelmed when I need to start them as I have already provided my starting point. It takes several hours to initially build the list/plan but it's totally worth it. The list/plan also evolves over time as I may come across relevant resources worthy of adding under the items..
Excellent as always!
I was planning on watching this earlier. I like the video, hopefully it helps me a bit.
I recently took a day off of work just to focus on the random items on my to-do list that I was always procrastinating on and it felt so good to get those items done!
Great video, thanks!
My take home message. Plan in the early morning.
My iPhone though is littered with reminders and deadlines that I set. That I inevitably defer. Because it’s my own pressure I put on myself.
So I just plan my time around braincraft videos!!!
(Love the chaos chap at the end btw)
Aaaah! Vanessa and Joanna combined video!!! Can't wait!
Digital calendars are an incredible gift. Setting tasks for particular times of the day and having alerts to remind you is such a convenience.
For school, one of my classmates made a spreadsheet with all of our quizzes and assignments, and I've been slowly adding in more features.
The most notable features include priority labels, slicers for which class it's for and what priority level it is, and having the next 7 days coloured in to show what's next.
I absolutely love my bullet journal. It's been 6 years since I started and it's so cool to be able to leaf through all the tasks I've done during literally my entire adult life ☺️
Some people keep a separate Achievements list, for similar purpose. Useful and motivating to look back at your milestones. :)
I would LOVE more videos like this
More material from you regarding planning and organizing would be very much appreciated and enjoyed. =)
Its crazy how helpful it is to sit down and plan out meals from the week. the brain is to tired to think about it after work hahaha
I plan my week out in my calendar. One page has the calendar and the other a page for notes. I do it on relaxing Sunday evenings.
Same here - A5 Filofax week on one page, note page opposite with the to-do checklist on. Works a dream for me.
Please! keep these going!
Oh please, more videos like this!
My time planning technique is the single list of TODOs with checkboxes. Offloads the seemingly infinite whirlwind of TODOs in my head into a list on the table, and seeing the checked-off items gives me a sense of progress that I wouldn't normally get (I would otherwise immediately forget about what I've gotten done.) Best of all, I just make one list per week (or modify the previous list) so there's extremely low effort/overhead, especially when the benefits are so immediate.
Last year veratasium's video inspired me to start a diary, this year you inspired me to start a to do list.
YAS PLEASE MORE VIDEOS TO PLANNING AND WAYS TO FIGHT PROCRASTINATION I NEED IT..
It is 4 am over here ..
Is that a Time Machine poster behind you? 👀 like like
Running out of space on the page while writing the title "planning" is comedy gold.
I pretty much do my planning exactly as you described using a digital tool (I won't mention it here for obvious reasons). The one thing I didn't realise until you said it in the video is how it reduced my anxiety. I mean, I always knew that planning reduces my anxiety because I felt good after completeing a task or a task list and I thought the reason for it was that I felt I accomplished something, to be more precise I felt good because I accomplished everything or at least most of the things I was aiming for in a given day or week. Now I realised that this is not the only reason because, as you said, when I was keeping all the stuff in my head I always felt that I had a lot of things to do and that created a lot of anxiety and mental fatigue which, more times that I want to admit, made me fallback to some well established routine (like when you order the same food). Now I know that keeping all those tasks in my head is effectively blocking me from accomplishing any of them because it can be, and usually is, overwhelming. Thank you for the incredible videos and for making me realize and learn something new. Keep up the great work. Wish you a happy and more organized New Year.
I am the biggest “plan everything in my head” person. No wonder anxiety creeps in 🙃 thanks for these tips!! I’m so glad I found your channel.
Ahh the end scene. Learning through entropy.
But yes would love to have more help with planning! And I'm going to go right now and write a list in my planner that I haven't touched in a week.
This planning strategy sounds very similar to bullet Journaling. Especially when planning out your month and for tasks to do in that time. I usually have one page for what I need to do daily and another page on short term goals I need to do. It's helpful to remind me what I need to do
I've written a program where I input 5 important things I should do for the day. The program results in a random order of the things I need to do.
So far so good 👍
I don't know what to say, but I wanna leave a comment to help with the algorithm
Most kind of you
@@braincraft And I will respond to even further help. And someone will respond me as well
@@arezpirveceani got ya back! For the algorithm!!
I'm not gonna respond...
Something nothing something
I am a "over-planner", my meals are already organized until Jan, 7th (today is Dec, 24th) and I already know at what time of the day I will read a book or play videogames in the next three days (now we are in my 2 hours window for TH-cam subscriptions :D ).
BUT, when it gets to "creativity" I become the worst procrastinator ever. I have a 30 hours teaching scheduled for the end of January: I should prepare a plan, a lineup of topics and of course some slides... but I don't know how to start and when. It's likely that I will do everything the day before after an insightful shower :D
Why?!
Wooow, This video come to me in the perfect moment, I didn't have any idea about the importance of planning
Hi Vanessa I went through the exact same process this lockdown!!!!!💚💚💚💚💚
Last spring I try something that I read that was suppose to be the most efficient way to work. 45 minutes work follow by 15 minutes rest. I remember they were advocating to have some real rest for the 15 minutes. No email check, no music..... For me, I tried doing the opposite of what is my work for the rest. If I sit at a computer, i go out for a walk, if I do sport, i would sit.
It seem counterintuitive but it work mostly because of the creativity boost, the chance to do small things (that I use to procrastinate on) and just switch job whenever i'm going in circle or doesn't have the tool for it.
What I love the most about it, is whatever is done or not done there is some thing to reflect on life and work. It's kind of a work medication. For example, if I go run in the woods I was often struck by the idea that my thought were running faster than me and I couldn't enjoy the scenery. When you stop for 15 minutes (at the beginning 15 minutes doing nothing seem like an eternity) you get time to hydrate, look at the scenery and my biggest surprise was to cultivate my senses. After ten minutes, you hear the nature more, smell more, see details, listen to breathing and heartbeat.
The others things that surprised me was the motivation for so many things that I didn't do for years. The rest is about self actualisation. If I take the idea of writing down task, once they are wrote I forget them. The rest time, make a better reminder and it also give you mental space to think about the task. If I want to go ride my bike and just jumped off of my chair when i'm ready I go in circle just for the preparartion. With the resting time, I go like "ok, my bike is in the garage, my helmet in my car, I need to change clothes.... so the time I took resting/thinking I save it in preparation.
And day can look like this
morning sport: warm up 5min, 10 minutes run, agility, strenght and streching training for 15 minutes, 15 minutes walk and Resting time is about contemplation in nature.
Breakfast:
45 minutes cleaning up or doing paper work, 15 rest.
45 minutes landscaping or craftwork. 15 rest with a snack
45 minutes training (yes I love sport), 15 rest (thinking about what to eat)
Diner
45 minutes working on my personal project on computer, rest 10 minutes walk and 5 minutes contemplation
"" "" "" "" "" ""
45 minutes sport, 15 minutes rest
Well a long post to say I recommand it :-p, now I gotta go for a walk ;-)
I think I've sort of gravitated towards this approach myself, having been used to carrying everything around in my head and sometimes getting overwhelmed by the amount of things I had to keep in mind. I don't know why but I feel like making lists and planning schedules takes more out of me than doing the actual things, at least at times. Maybe it's that decision fatigue, as I've never been very goal oriented.
Would definitely be interested in hearing more about this, and learning new ways to make my life easier.
Thank you for for all that you do!
Enjoyed this a lot! Would love more like it! I’d be curious about the false sense of accomplishment we can sometimes get from planning too. I have to be really mindful of it personally.
Same for me. I think the decision fatigue sets in after listing and organising those into categories. I am currently trying to give myself proper breaks after tiring tasks like the planning stage. I try to remember that I lose track of time so I set timers. It has forced me to confront the reasons for why I cannot continue tasks or get distracted because I have defined what is really important so I am more motivated to get it done regardless.
I have an automated To-Do List... tasks are repeated daily, weekly, monthly or some even years in the future. I don't even need to think about making a To-Do List.
What software do you use for this?
The shot at the end whit the kid parkouring thro the shot whit IKEA perfectly lined up in the back. xD
I was told how to plan to reduce anxiety by my therapist a few years ago, and it warked. Why did I stopp? 😕 I need to do that again, I’m sooo stressed! Thanks, this video is coming in the very right moment for me!!! 💖
I finally broke down and used my physical planner for this year after getting covid bad a few months ago and not being able to remember a lot of things.
If you use post-it while at your desktop pc there's a nice trick: the standard square 76x76 mm ones are exactly the same width of four keyboard buttons, so they perfectly fit in the slits of the F1-F4, F5-F8, F9-F11 and numpad. Especially useful when you already have your monitor bezel fully covered by them 😂
The post it method is like a KAMBAN, I saw that in my logistic curse, it seams really useful, thanks !
More of these videos on executive function pretty please 💙
People spend a *huge* amount of their waking day planning and task switching. Planning should reduce the amount of hesitation and increase productivity, but there's as much of a feeling of reward when planning about doing something, as much as actually doing it. Definitely something to be mindful of.
My personal system is using Todoist at a very shallow level, rather than over-plan just because it feels productive.
Time management = pain management
Great vid also great books that help with this topic is indistractable
thanks for such a cool video...love from India
Getting serious about planning was the best thing I ever did to manage anxiety. Writing tasks down feels like I'm taking them out of my head. I use a combination of a Google Doc and Google Calendar to keep up with everything
I use a system called TRO that used Trello or another planning system that lets you dump tasks and sort them later. It’s been hard to keep up with, mostly because Trello is a pain, but I think there are a lot of good principles behind it.
For goal tracking I use a similar system to use. I list goals in four areas of my life then sort them in order or top to bottom by what matters most to me. The one I’m actively working on goes into a different list where I place “next steps.”
Thai food = yummiest food;
Should always be on your to-do list.
I don't follow everything in the Getting Things Done methodology, but it did change how I live.
1. Anything not written down or put in a task manager is just an open loop in your brain.
2. Your brain only really lets it go if you have a TRUSTED SYSTEM. This is where I most often fail. If I don't put EVERYTHING in the task manager or enter tasks in such a way that they will surface when I need them, then I don't trust the system and I'm still wondering if I am doing what I should. When picking a task manager (paper or digital), you want one that you know how to get tasks in quickly from emails, phone, or just a quick capture somewhere on your computer.
3. Your goal is to surface next action items for every project. Systems that hide all other tasks accept the ones you can or should be currently working on are great.
I find the Paprika app to be really useful for food planning. It is expensive but very helpful. You can import recipes from websites and it only gives you directions and ingredients and not all the ads. You can set timers, create meal plans, create grocery lists, track what is in your pantry, and sort recipes into lists and categories.
Oh thank you, I'll have to try it!
I am familiar with Ikia. Go there a few times and watch for the branch off routes the staff use. The first thing to do is to get coffee in the cafe and go down to the lower level. The easy thing to do 1. get the store map. 2. then explore from there. Have fun at the store. lots of stuff to see.
I really liked this. I don't know what to say because I'm a little bit like you. I do have one idea that a speaker taught me years ago. Put your big ideas, for videos, etc., on 3 × 5 cards and put them in a plastic box of that size. Then you can draw from them later.
This is how we get a very busy (pre 2020) restaurant to function well.
More videos like this!!!
i got a journal to help me think and plan, used it for grocery lists for a while(what felt like the bare minimum). I haven't looked at it in months tho.
Yes, please make more of these videos on the topic of planning Vanessa. - Justice Constantine
बहुत अच्छी जानकारी दी
planning helps me to be aware what do I skip and what have I done
I talked with Dr. David Peterson (a therapist in Roanoke, VA) several times and he said "let paper (or it's digital equivalent) hold information, that's what it is good at doing. Your brain is good at making decisions, let it do that. Paper can't make decisions but let it help you in the process by holding info and thereby freeing up brainpower and bandwidth."
I love planning and everything that goes as planned, you feel at ease.
However, when something unexpected happens sometimes it ruin all the plans like a domino effect.
for me i suffer from depression so my anxiety goes through the roof when that happens and i shutdown completely. :(
I deal with this by not planning anything so that everything is always unexpected 😉🤠
My planning style is based on a kanban board (check Wikipedia if curious). It helps me dump general ideas, prioritise the day and limit context switching. Seeing your "completed* bucket fill up makes you feel accomplished. Finally, and crucially, I throw into my board the joyful moments that may get displaced by "important" duties: call friend X, spend time with beloved person Y, watch a movie...
And finally (I bet I already said that), surrender to the board. If it's in the "today" bucket, I must do it, if it isn't I must not do it unless it's a huge emergency.
Planning by days or time slots didn't work for me.
When she asked us to guess, I just randomly thought, "Ikea? lol probs not-it's probably some cool store I've never heard of befo-" and there it was 😂😂😂
I use Todoist, really quick way to write things I need to get done down. If I don't write it down quickly it will be forgotten and I don't always have physical pen and paper on me, but always have phone.
It has slowly become a tangled mess but I try to keep important/time sensitive things as "priority 1" and it highlights in red.
Sure, more organization tips!
Please make more videos about being organized and planning. My current method of making to-do lists and then losing them after a few days is not working well.
I like your sweater!! Where is it from? Or is it selfmade?
Also: great video! :)
I really want to let you know about my black belt skills in procrastination and that will be the first thing I’ll do tomorrow.
First of all, I would like to say I always enjoy your videos and many times I take wonderful lessons away from them.
Secondly, I would love it if you were to make more videos on this subject.
Thirdly, being a person with an executive function disorder, do you know about results in adults with ASD or ADHD on this subject?
Thank you very much again!
1:28 That's a lot of hard drives!
Might want to setup like a NAS server instead
Yes, though I suppose it depends on whether she uses them on her LAN or whether she uses them to sneakernet/fedex video between collaborators.
I've been like you, all in my head, but have the same issues you do.
Recently going through all that you said in the video, and bought a journal and a bunch of post it notes as I found with digital it's to easy to put aside. Instead using a wall seem it will be better because it's always there in my face when I am feeling unmotivated.
Well that''s the theory anyways, have yet to implement the posit wall lol'
But yes please more videos on this.
2020 was shit lets make 2021 a year where we've taken steps to better ourselves physically and mentally (while the world is still in chaos)
I just started a new job and my coworker wanted to use Trello to coordinate projects and make lists for projects. I couldn't do it. Digital planning is so hard to me. But I can plow through a to do list written on piece of paper like nobodies business!!
I've never clicked a video so fast
I feel like o try new approaches to planning and task management multiple times a year and it's so hard to find the thing that sticks... But I had not considered the mental health improvement before so I'm going to try again and remember that more motivation thanks for the video #algorithmfood
I use a combination of pen&paper with a To Do List seperated into different areas of life, and Google Calendar, because I really struggle with remembering everything I have scheduled.
I detect an absence of a hobby/fun time. Essential for balance and contentment
i do it differently. i set a goal and follow the prioritized steps whenever i have time, without a deadline. this way, it's done when it's done, and it couldn't have been done sooner, and no kind of concrete planning would have helped.
Sun Dried Tomato Pasta sounds great.