Bare Minimum Work Plans

Today on the 'gram, I posted this message: Get some REST.

It's a message to you, to me, to anyone who needs it.

I think a lot of women need to hear that right now.

For the past week, I haven't been sleeping through the night. I know I'm not the only one because I have several friends who are experiencing the same.

I'm well-versed in the importance of sleep. I've had to monitor mine since I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2013. Fibro was also my first foray into understanding and managing my own energy.

I have many tools, and meds, to help me sleep, but none of them worked.

Eventually, I ended up taking half of last week off. It wasn't intended, but the more I tried to force myself to work, the less it happened. Shocking, I know.

So as I'm sitting at my laptop this morning, I found myself staring at a blank page and a blinking cursor.

I found myself thinking, "I have no brain power to be inspired to write something today. Just add that to the list of things I'm not going to do."

This is where BMWP comes in.

Bare Minimum Work Plan.

No, I haven't copyrighted that, so please don't steal it.

When I'm feeling burnt out, sick, or busy with personal things, I create a bare minimum work plan for myself. I look at my (mental) list of things to do, and ask myself what has to get done.

Not what I think needs to get done. What really has to get done.

And ya know what? It works.

Here's an example, from one of my clients. She was pregnant, holding down a corporate gig and her business. She had an event scheduled for 4pm one week, and she couldn't cancel. She was the facilitator. The issue, is that every afternoon around that time, her energy tanked. Most days she'd nap.

So here's what we did:

• We went through her schedule - work and business - and listed out all the things she had.

• We eliminated or moved anything that could be moved. This included moving some marketing activities to the following week.

• We then moved things in her schedule, so that she could maximize getting as much rest as she could in the days and hours before the event.

• This got rid of the stress she was carrying trying to figure out how she was going to get everything done + worrying about being too exhausted for her event.

And it worked. She was also able to start implementing the idea of a BMWP moving forward.

The truth is, it's hard wearing all the hats, all of the time. We can also unintentionally add to our own stress load by feeling like if we don't get X done, it will have a crushing impact on our business.

This newsletter that you're reading? I chose to write it. I didn't force myself, even though I didn't send one last week, and it's Wednesday (when I usually send them on Tuesdays.)

What I haven't done:

• New moon intentions

• Replied to @OkayOkopi on the newsletter collab we've been discussing for a few months

• Updating web copy

• Think about my marketing strategy

• Worked on a new resource that will be a primer on personal development / inner work

So if you're tired today, I invited you to look at all of your "to do's" and figure out what's the bare minimum you need to get done. Eliminate or reschedule the rest, and take the time to rest