Transcript

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the things you need to get done in your business, like you’ll never be able to catch up?

Does it sometimes seem like everything in your life is about to spin out of control?

Hi, I’m Carmen Sognonvi, and I know exactly how you feel.

In this video, I’m going to share with you 3 simple habits that have helped me massively reduce stress by bringing more order and control into my life.

I hope these habits will do the same for you.

By the way, for more useful tips on running a bricks-and-mortar local business, be sure to check out my blog at CarmenSognonvi.com.

I cover everything from how to get more customers to how to close more sales.

Simple habits have a way of snowballing into massive changes in your life.

And that’s especially true for this first habit I’m going to tell you about.

1. Make Your Bed

Whenever I start my day by making my bed instead of leaving it messy, it seems to trigger a chain reaction of other good behaviors throughout my day.

I’ll eat a healthy breakfast instead of running out the door on an empty stomach.

I’ll make it to my kickboxing class instead of convincing myself that I’m too busy to work out.

Also, there’s something about seeing my bed looking so nice that motivates me to keep the rest of my house neat too.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed that whenever my house gets too messy, my stress level goes up, and that messiness seems to spill over into other parts of my life.

So for me, keeping a neat home is an important stress management tactic.

So try this habit out tomorrow morning!

It takes less than a minute to make your bed, but you’ll find that it sets you on a path to feel more calm, centered, and in control the rest of the day.

2. Write Everything Down

Has this ever happened to you?

You’re out to lunch and you think yourself, I gotta remember to order more printer toner when I get back to my desk.

When you get back to your desk, you totally forget about it.

Then later as you’re driving home, the thought pops back into your mind, and you think, argh, I really need to try hard to remember that.

Well, what I just described is what productivity expert David Allen calls an open loop.

An open loop is a thought that isn’t solved, so it keeps popping up in your head all the time.

And according to Allen, it’s the number 1 cause of stress.

The way to avoid open loops is to write everything single thing down as soon as it enters your mind, no matter how important or seemingly trivial.

And this is something I do all the time.

I don’t rely on my memory because a) I know it’s flawed, and b) I know that trying not to forget something causes a background stress that I just don’t need.

If I come up with a breakthrough idea that could grow our business, I write it down.

If I realize I need to buy more diapers for the baby, I write it down.

I don’t distinguish between one being more important than the other.

I then add these items to my to-do system so I can find the right time to work on these tasks.

So give it a shot!

Once you stop relying on your brain to remember everything, your stress levels will go way down.

3. Empty Your Inbox Daily

My husband is one of those people who never deletes or archives anything in his inbox.

I’m the total opposite because for me, nothing triggers stress like seeing an inbox filled to the brim with unanswered emails.

Now, let me pause here and say I’m not perfect.

I often fall into the trap of putting off dealing with certain emails because they seem like too much work in that moment.

But whenever I force myself to go through and systematically process my email one after another, in order, without skipping any, I find that the items I thought would take ages to do actually can be done very quickly.

So here’s the rule I use.

Any email that takes less than 2 minutes to deal with, I go ahead and do right away.

If there’s an email that will take more than 2 minutes to handle, I’ll add it to my to-do system.

If I’m waiting to hear back from someone about something, I use a handy tool called Boomerang.

If you have a Gmail account, it allows you to archive a message for now, and return it to your inbox if it goes unanswered after whatever amount of time you set – 2 hours, 2 days, 2 weeks.

That way I won’t forget about it if the person fails to get back to me.

So before you leave work today, try to empty your inbox completely.

I guarantee it’ll give you a sense of order and control that is very calming.

Now before I get to our question of the week, I want to let you know that if you found this video useful, I would encourage you to sign up to get email updates from me!

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