HOW TO BE SUPER PRODUCTIVE AND INTENTIONAL

So you know how there's some people out there who seem like they are able to do everything? Be a great mom, successful in their career, great personal life, always put together and basically winning in life. Personally I try to follow as many of these people on Instagram and Snapchat to stay motivated and also gather all the knowledge of how to make all this stuff happen simultaneously. So how is it done?

The best answer in short is: they all have a certain mentality and a plan.

Alright so let's back up a little bit and get into the bigger picture of things. Think about this: if you just found out that your going to die tomorrow, how happy are you with the way you've been living your life? Like would you have any regrets or would you be 100% happy with the way you lived. This is living with the end in mind. My guess is a vast majority of people would definitely have regrets: not enough time spent with people they love, not enough time doing things they love, not accomplishing goals they thought were beyond their reach. Three big ones I'd imagine. So first key to being productive is starting each day with the big picture in mind. 

My big picture is: My family is my priority, make people I love feel loved, take care of myself, have a successful lifestyle brand, learn learn learn, travel and strive to inspire.

When you have a big picture behind why it's important to do what your doing everyday it's easier to do things you don't feel like doing. For example: I don't feel like going to the gym pretty much everyday. But I remind myself that one of the things I want is to always take care of myself. Or when we are saving money every month for a year, I remind myself that even though it could be spent now, it will allow us to travel later. 

So that is a biggie on your mentality. You do all the crappy things for the end goal. Sometimes you get lucky and like tasks you must do. Mostly though they are crappy but bring you one step closer to your end goal.

The next part is planning. Honestly, planning is everything. A goal without a plan is just a wish. A day without a plan is a waste of your day. Now don't misunderstand me. Every day doesn't need to be bullet points and lists. But you can plan to have a day where you don't plan at all. I however am going to talk about the days you do have a itemized plan. And how to break that down.

Every Sunday, I get my planner and I write down everything I am. Mom, self, wife, photographer, blogger, friend/family member. All of which are centered around my life's mission statement you could call it. Next to each title I write things I want to accomplish that week. 

Here are some from this week:

Photographer - Purchase domain, finalize website design, email clients, collect remaining invoices, design and order new business cards, run promo.

Mom - Plan Friday fun day, story time, call gymnastics class, get birth certificate, pick waterpark day

Self - Gym 4x, nails done, take 30 minutes each day, return clothes, check on fall classes

There's an example of three from my week. Now it looks like a lot, but my favorite part is planning my week around the things. So next, from Monday to Sunday I will then start dispersing everything throughout my week equally. Even though it looks like a lot, once it's distributed throughout your week, honestly you have tops...4 things to do a day. That's totally doable.

So Monday might look like: Finalize website design, emails clients, call gymnastics, nails

Tuesday might look like: Purchase domain, plan fun day and waterpark day, get birth certificate

Wednesday: Gym, story time, return clothes, design and order business cards

Generally I like to have three must haves per day. Because we can all totally do three must have things per day. Basically if you do NOTHING else, do the three must haves. It's easy, it's super efficient and it ensures you do everything that important to you while leaving you plenty of free time. 

Now to actually make sure you do those things and don't get sidetracked (hello social media and internet) is set a time block. Literally say "for 30 minutes I will only work on this". Then for 30 minutes, set a timer and ONLY work on that. Kick the task in the ass. This works especially great for things you keep putting off that you really don't want to do. 

The result of all of this is intentionally designed days. Getting you closer to a life you want for yourself and get rid of chaos. I've been doing this for a long time now and I luh-luh-love it. For more inspo and great reads check out the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" or Youtube Gary Vee. 

I've linked below my favorite productivity tools.

Productivity Tools by elletdark featuring home decor

LIFE LATELY

Man oh man that baby of ours is giving me a run for my money! She is crazy with a capital C ya'll. So we've had plenty of days just inside all day just because I need her to catch up on sleep. Luckily the hubby gets home and takes Penelope to the pool or something so she's not cooped up all day. We've made sure though not to do it too much and I have been bringing my camera everywhere. Here's life lately, Philomena is 5 months and Penelope 2 years and 8 months. *sigh*

ON FEAR

What are you scared of? I don't mean spiders or dark alleys. I mean what do you fear or what are the stories you tell yourself?

If you don't know where you should be heading next in life, I think the best advice I could give you is to do exactly what your scared of doing.

I've been taking pictures for about six years. Fashion pictures, landscape pictures, posed pictures, candid pictures, nighttime pictures, early morning pictures. I've read 100's of posts on photography and taken photography courses. I LOVE capturing beautiful images and freezing joy. Just like that...that joyful moment will be there forever, for me to look at time and time again. 

Over the years I would think what should I do? Outside of being a mother and homemaker my soul still yearned for something else. Something that is mine, that makes other people feel joy and that I can call a career. So in that time frame I started: a baby store, designed a planner, another clothing store and designed art prints. All were fine. But the entire time I always had this nagging voice: "Why don't you become a photographer?". Then other people I knew would see my pictures and ask me the same. And an ever louder voice would say "No, that scares the shit out of you and your pictures aren't that great anyway. Who do you think you are to make money taking pictures of people"

So I ignored it.

Then as I started other ventures I felt unfulfilled. Bored. Unbothered. But guess what I was still doing? Taking pictures. Learning more about photography.

Recently I decided that maybe what scares me most is exactly what I should be doing. Maybe I'll just throw a bone out and then no one will want pictures taken and then I can say "Ok God, well I tried...so there!" Except, people were so gracious. And interested. They showed up, dressed up and took me seriously. 

I've gotten the privilege to shoot their families. Freeze joy. Capture beautiful relationships. 

I would race home beaming from ear to ear (literally) after a photoshoot. My heart pounds and I feel exhilaration and I think, this is crazy. But crazy good.

I barely kiss my family when I get home since I rush to the computer and get started editing. The privilege of getting to freeze these moments in time for people is a feeling that's unmatched. 

Every shoot I do I'm scared. I show up an hour before just to perfect my camera settings and scout locations. But then the family get's there and the magic happens. To know that I've created something beautiful for them makes me so happy. To also know that I've conquered a huge fear of mine is truly an amazing feeling.

Personal growth in this short time has happened for me. Because for some reason when you do what your scared to do, everything else that used to scare you scares you a little bit less.

Will this be a career? I sure hope so. Maybe it will be a really slow process and I'm ok with that. Or maybe it will lead to something else I've never even dreamed. The most important step was starting. Pushing past my many insecurities and just...starting.

Tell me, when you are on the outside looking in for somebody that you care about. How often do they not do what you know they should because they are scared? Scared to leave a relationship, scared to start a business, scared to leave their comfort zone. 

When something scares my two year old I encourage her to face it. I want her not to be fearless, but to not marginalize her possibilities due to the inability to act in the face of fear.

The story we tell ourselves is usually very unkind and succeeds in making us believe that we are not capable of the very things that will make us great. Make a list of the possibilities of a life you want to live if fear didn't exist. Start crossing off the list today. 

Nothing great ever came from comfort zones.