Words Have Power!

 

In our weekly podcast, Amber, Christen, and I talk a lot about manifesting our best lives and that we use scripting or journaling to set our intentions. We also write out affirmations and gratitudes. I, for one, do a lot of writing; I generally have 7-8 journals going at any given time, each with its own specific purpose and style, so I’m always looking for new journals to track my progress, set my intentions, log my tarot layouts, and more.

One of the journals I use is our Modern Musings’ Words Have Power journal. It was designed for scripting and has 86 lined pages, making it perfect for my daily Gratitude and Affirmation practice. 

Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning S.A.V.E.R.S inspired this practice. Each morning, after my prayers and meditation, I write out three things I am grateful for, three things I would like to accomplish, and one affirmation. It’s a great way to start my day with gratitude and intention.

In another journal, I document my accomplishments at the end of the day. I find that I have some pretty high expectations about how much I should accomplish in one day – it’s never limited to the three things I list in the morning. My to-do lists read more like War and Peace, and I tend to beat myself up over the tasks I don’t complete. But when I think long and hard, I know that I’ve accomplished a lot, often finishing tasks that weren’t even on the list in the first place. So, rather than be angry with myself for not managing to do x, y, and z, I started a practice of cataloging everything I accomplished at the end of the day. Wow, was that an eye-opener! When I end my day by listing everything I did, whether it was on my to-do list or not, I feel much more productive, and I can go to sleep knowing that I've done my best.

Do you script or journal? If not, I highly recommend it! To begin your scripting or journaling practice, try one of our Words Have Power journals, which are now available on Amazon.com:

https://a.co/d/aNQFkFP

https://a.co/d/2MCw0Dn

https://a.co/d/0M736E6

https://a.co/d/ikTv0eG

Listing, an Obsession

This week on the podcast, we talked about list making and the different types of lists that we make. Have you ever wondered why people make lists? To me, nothing is more satisfying than making a list and checking things off it. It is the ultimate calming activity (aside from putting things in alphabetical order) for my Obsessive-Compulsive mind.

I can remember being obsessed with lists even as young as elementary school. One constant activity I did to calm myself down was to make a list. The lists were different every time. For example, I showed rabbits (I owned over 100 of them), and every single one had a name. I would sit and write down the name of every single one of my rabbits. In high school, I started keeping an APN (all-purpose notebook) and I would keep all my lists contained in that. At the beginning of 2021, I bought my first bullet journal and I started putting my lists in that journal, dubbing it my “List Journal.” But, why do I do this? There must be some psychological explanation for why I make so many lists.

• People make lists to remember things, which is something I do as well. I will make a weekly list of things I need to do in my classroom or at home. I keep them, on my phone and in my planner. Those are essential lists I make, but as I mentioned above, I also compulsively (and maybe even obsessively) list sometimes. 
• As I have mentioned before, I have Bipolar Disorder and I also have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) which can be symptoms of Bipolar Disorder. A common, OCD compulsion is called “glazomania.” Glazomania is an unusual obsession, passion, or fascination with making lists, which I have.

Is it wrong to be obsessed with lists? Absolutely not! Lists are a wonderful way to stay organized in a disorganized world. The problem (according to the article “Five Manias and Obsessions You Might Not Know About”)  lies when you are obsessively making lists, but the lists aren’t helping you in the way that they should, or if the only thing you do is make lists. However, making lists can also help stop compulsions related to OCD.

You decide. Is an obsession with lists a good thing or a bad thing? I want to hear from our readers. What kind of lists do you make? Do you obsessively make lists as I do? Comment below or continue the conversation on our Facebook Group: MMC Chat.

My Big Fat Excel List

 

If you listened to yesterday’s podcast, you probably realized we are very nerdy (like you didn’t know that already). How many people do you know that get so excited over making lists? I know a few, but then, I also know a lot of people who give me some side-eye when I talk about it. So yeah, I agree, it’s not for everyone, but then, neither is budgeting, cleaning house, or a whole lot of other things that are “good for us”. And yes, I really do think making lists is good for us. It’s good for the mind, it’s good for the soul. We can use lists to help us make decisions (pros vs. cons), brainstorm ideas, clear our mind (brain dump), and even remind us to be grateful.

The other day, I was reminded of how helpful lists are when I started my weekly planning routine.  If you watched our “Plan with Us” live stream back in May, you may recall that I mentioned using a Brain Dump worksheet and an Eisenhower Matrix to help me remember and prioritize all the tasks I have to keep up with for my home, family, and work life. Those two tools work very well, but I often felt like things were still falling through the cracks. For instance, if you look at the Eisenhower Matrix, you’ll see that there are only nine lines in each of the four quadrants. I look at that and think it might be enough lines for all the things I have to do today, but it certainly won’t be enough space to list out everything that needs to be done for the whole week, much less the month or long-term goals. I have similar problems making lists and laying out goals in my planners and using the PowerSheets® Tending Lists. So what’s a goal-setting, planner girl to do? 

Create a spreadsheet, of course!

After fussing about with my growing list of tasks that I had jotted down here, there and everywhere, I decided to compile all of my to-do lists and tasks into one comprehensive list that I could refer to every week while I’m laying out my planner. The list includes everything from daily work routines to step-by-step actions for each of my major goals for the year, along with several long-term pipe dreams. For each task, I have estimated the amount of time it would take to complete, the frequency if it is a repeating task, the date I would like to complete it (which updates every time I open the file for those daily tasks), and a rating system based on the Eisenhower Matrix. Thus, when I sort the list by date and rank, I wind up with the most urgent and important items at the top, ranked in order by urgency and importance. No more do I have to spend half my Sunday figuring out which tasks need to be done in what order throughout the week because the spreadsheet decides all that for me! Of course, I can choose to reorder the list in any way I choose, changing the ranking of items I feel are more important at the time. And if a new task or project comes up, I just add it to the list, assign the appropriate ranking levels, and sort…voila! 

This is a peak at my very long list I created in Excel.

I know this sort of nerdy spreadsheet automation is not for everyone, and it did take a little bit of time to set up, but I was so excited to discover how much time this little spreadsheet shaved off my planning time, and how accurately it helped me prioritize my tasks and allocate my time. I was also shocked at how many things I had on that list and realized it was no wonder that I am so overworked and overwhelmed at times. Having it all laid out on paper (because, of course, I printed it out) helped me look realistically at all the things I had committed myself to and to see that there’s no way I could do them all…or at least not right now. But having the list is also a reminder of the things I want to do…the things I am working towards and all that I want to accomplish. In creating this list and working from it diligently, I’m hoping to tick more tasks off of it than I add, and if I keep whittling it down, eventually I can get it to a manageable and reasonable size.

Oh, who am I kidding…we all know I’m already thinking of more things I want to add to it!

*There are several great spreadsheet applications available to make a list of your own. I made mine in Microsoft Excel, but you could also use Apple’s Numbers, or even Google Sheets, which is a cloud-based spreadsheet application that you can use from just about any device – and the bonus is, it’s free!