14 | What To Do When Something Unexpected Gets in the Way of Your Biz Plans -

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Table of Contents

Podcast Description

Can I be real and point something out that maybe you didn’t even notice? I missed an episode last week because life got in the way as it usually does.

But instead of hiding it, I want to talk about it because as the Productivity Strategist and big planner that I am, I’m also a realist who knows that things won’t always go as planned and how to cope with that.

So if you’re someone who is tired of feeling frustrated and defeated whenever something comes up and you don’t get to work on your biz like you planned to do, then stay tuned because we’re going to talk about some things you can do in the moment and what to do when you come fully recharged.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, be sure to do so because we got lots of good stuff heading your way. Then dive into this episode to learn what to do when unexpected life things get in the way of your biz plans.

Links Referenced in Episode:

▶ Grab the free Weekly Planning Guide

▶ Join the waitlist for Level Up Your Biz with Trello

▶ Listen to episode 10: How To Prevent Burnout as an Entrepreneur (And Why You Should Care)

▶ Listen to episode 4: How To Prioritize Your Weekly Biz Tasks

Connect with me:

Website | FB Group | Instagram

Episode Transcript

(Note: This is a formatted AI-generated transcript to make it easier for you to read through, but is not an optimized blog post. Please excuse any spelling or grammar errors and filler words – it’s just how I speak LOL)

Episode Introduction

Can I be real and point something out that maybe you didn’t even notice? I missed an episode last week because life got in the way as it usually does, but instead of hiding it, I want to talk about it Because as the Productivity Strategist and big planner that I am, I’m also a realist who knows that things won’t always go as planned.

So I want to talk about that along with how to cope with it. So if you’re someone who is tired of feeling frustrated and defeated, whenever something comes up and you don’t get to work on your biz like you plan to do, then stay tuned because we’re going to talk about some things that you can do in the moment and what to do when you come back fully recharged.

And if you haven’t subscribed yet, be sure to do so because we have so much good stuff heading your way soon. Now are you ready to jump in and learn what to do when unexpected life things get in the way of your biz plans? Yeah me too, let’s do it!

Hey, I’m Lucy Reyes, your host of the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast, where I’m on a mission to help online entrepreneurs like you focus on all the right things and kiss overwhelm goodbye. Here, you’re going to learn strategies that will boost your productivity so that you can scale your online biz and impact lives sooner.

It’s your time to shine! So let’s get started.

I Missed an Episode

Hey, hey! Welcome back to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast, episode 14. Now I am so, so happy to be back in recording podcast episodes because just in case you’re not on my email list, and aren’t sure what happened last week.

Last week was supposed to be a podcast batch week, but I got sick and lost my voice. It was also my husband’s birthday. And then my baby girl got sick too. So not much was done last week and definitely no podcast recording happened like I had hope for.

And when I finally did come around to start recording the podcast episodes I had set out to do for these upcoming weeks, the topics no longer felt right and I knew that I needed to bring an episode to talk about the fact that things won’t always go as planned.

Life Happens… And That’s Okay!

If you suffer from any kind of illness, then you know this feeling more than most. And if you’re a parent, you also know that kids bring home germs all the time and are getting sick, and it’s something that we can’t really prevent. But if you don’t relate to these, I’m sure that you know that there’s other unexpected life things that can happen out of the blue.

And as business owners, when these things happen, it could just make us spiral and feel out of control because now we can’t dedicate or focus our time on the thing that we’ve been working so hard to grow… your business.

So besides having the feelings of whatever the thing is that happened, in the back of your mind, you’re also stressing out about your biz. But that’s not how I want you to feel. And I want you to know that it’s going to be okay. Your business will not fall apart if you can’t work on it like you normally do for weeks, days or even months.

And hypothetically, even if something does happen, you’re strong and smart enough to pick it back up and make it better than before so don’t worry.

What To Do In the Moment

However, let’s talk about the tactical thing that you can do when things don’t go as planned, due to something unexpected and out of your control starting with what to do in the actual moment.

So for instance, last week I was sick. That was me being in the moment of being sick and trying to figure out what to do. So if you’re someone, so whenever you’re in any of those types of ” something came up moments,” here are three things that I recommend that you do.

Accept it

First, you need to accept it. You need to accept the fact that things are just not going to go the way that you had hoped. Things are not going to go as planned. Your to-do list is not going to have as many tasks checked off as you would have liked.

So just accept it, but don’t marinate in that feeling of feeling defeated or overwhelmed or stressed out or upset.

Like yes, I am very, very sad that I didn’t get to record an episode last week like for a little bit there, I was really beating myself up like, oh my gosh, I just started this podcast, and now I’m already missing an episode, like what?

But you know what, in the end, my business is not falling apart. Neither is yours. So even if you miss a podcast episode or a blog post, or an email or whatever it is, social media. It’s going to be okay. So accept it.

Accept it and don’t marinate in any of those negative feelings for too long. Yes, live in the moment and feel that feeling of being sad and, you know, wishing that you could have posted, or you could have sent that email, or you could have written that blog post or whatever it is for you. But don’t stay there.

Don’t stay there and just say, okay, you know what? It’s not going to happen. And that’s it.

Review and reprioritize

Because the next thing that I want you to do is to review and reprioritize your tasks.

So don’t try to hurry and scramble and try to get everything done, even though whatever happened to you happened. Like that is not going to work well for anybody. It’s not going to work well for you.

It’s not going to work well for whatever the thing is, that’s, you know, whether you’re sick or your kids are sick or something happened in the family or your pet or whatever. Like, it’s not going to be good for them either, and it’s not going to be good for your business because you’re not giving it your all, you’re not giving it your a hundred percent.

You are not giving the best quality work that you can give it. So don’t try to do it. So you need to review and reprioritize your tasks.

And when I say reprioritize, it doesn’t mean to just move things around and keep everything on your list. I’m talking about looking at your list and seeing, okay. How much can I realistically now get done since, you know, for my case I was sick, I’m sick. So what can I actually do? And what do I just need to take off the list for this week? And on top of that, what are the things that I actually like really, really, really need to get done, like out of my long to-do list, like sure. On my list of needs is I need to get a podcast episode done. But I can’t. Right. Like, I literally can’t. I mean, technically, I guess I could but that’s not a priority.

Why? Because my business isn’t going to fall apart and nothing is, you know, not really going to happen if I miss an episode. And I know why you feel like something is going to happen. Like, oh my gosh, the algorithm is now not going to like you because you didn’t post consistently for a whole week on Instagram or Tik TOK or whatever.

Like, it’s going to be okay. You can come out of that. Okay. So it’s really looking at your to-do list and trying to see like, okay, what do I really need to get done?

And if you can just pick like one or two things from that list that it’s like, okay, these are the only things that I really actually need to get done. And if I get that done, then everything else would just be extra. If I can even get anything else done, which is okay.

So for me, like for instance, my one thing that I really wanted to do last week that I was like, okay, I need to get this out, was sending an update email for my speakers for my summit in October. And that’s because we have some due dates coming up and I have been sending them weekly updates on what has been going on, and so that was a priority for me.

That was the thing that I said, you know what, you know, as much as I wish I could get a podcast episode done, the one thing that I really, really need to do is just to send them an update and reminder that, hey, this due date is coming up.

And so look at your to-do list and see what those things are for you. So review and prioritize or reprioritize your tasks for you to do while you’re in that moment of whatever it is.

Take care of yourself

And then that just leads me into the next point, which is to take care of you. Okay. You need to take care of yourself.

You need to just rest and take a break and lay down or get your mind straight or whatever your coping mechanisms are for you. Do that. Okay. Do that. In episode 10, I do talk about preventing burnout because if you’re still trying to work on your business while you’re taking care of whatever that situation is, then you’re just going to get yourself into burnout. And it’s going to take so much longer for you to actually get out of whatever state that is. Okay.

So if you’re sick or your kids are sick or whatever it is, and then you’re still trying to do everything and you get yourself to that point of burnout. Now, instead of it taking you one week to get back up and running, like you normally would be, now it might take you two weeks because you just burnt yourself out.

And now you’re having to pick back up, not just from whatever that thing is. But because you’re burnt out and now you have to really like fully recharge.

You know, it’s like, if you’re running on a battery and right now you’re running on 50% because you’re sick. But then you get to burn out and now you’re running on 2%. Now that’s going to take a lot longer for you to recharge your battery, right?

So the three things, that’s it. Those are the three things that you need to do in the moment. One: accept it. Accept that, you know, your plan isn’t going to go as planned and it’s okay. Accept it and be okay with it. Two, you need to review and reprioritize your tasks.

Now, if you do need some help with reprioritizing your tasks, I do talk about it a little bit in episode, actually have a full episode, episode four, on how to prioritize your weekly tasks so definitely take a listen to that.

And then three is to take care of you. That’s it because when you’re in the moment, you have other things to worry about. So accept that your plans aren’t going to go as planned. Re-prioritize your tasks. And literally only do what you truly need to do. And most importantly, take care of you.

What To Do When You Come Back to Your Biz

Now, whenever you come back. Instead of just picking back up where you left off, which is honestly easier said than done. There’s something I want you to do first.

And then there’s something that I want you to make sure that you have implemented so that way you’re more better prepared when this happens again. Because let’s be real, things will always come up. Things will always happen.

So something will always happen again in the future. It’s just the way life works. And instead of trying to fight it all the time, like, let’s just prepare for that too. Right. Let’s make a plan for the unplanned. Not really, but kind of. All right.

Review and reprioritize (again)

So the first thing is you’re going to need to come back and review and reprioritize again. Okay. Because you don’t know how long, you know, it took you to recover or to get back into your right state.

Maybe it was a few days. Maybe it was a few weeks. Maybe it was a few months. So whenever you come back, you can’t just get back started on the list that you had done, you know, a few days ago, a week ago, a few months ago.

You need to look at what’s going on right now, what you were actually able to get done, what you weren’t able to get done. What is now a priority? What is now something else that’s on your list, right?

Like for example, if this had happened, before back to school, and I had some plans to get some things done because oh, you know, back to school hadn’t started yet for my kids, and I have, I don’t know, let’s say meetings scheduled during pickup hour or drop off hour, like I can just do those meetings, right. I have to now take into consideration the fact that oh, school started so now I’m not available between two and like 4:00 PM. Right.

So you have to come back and review and reprioritize again, even if it was just a few days ago, then it’s going to be a lot faster, but still do that. Okay. Once you have reprioritized.

Pick back up and continue on

Now you can pick back up and then continue on. Okay.

And you can definitely go grab my free weekly planning guide, which is really going to help you plan out your week. And if it’s something that you haven’t been using, then definitely grab it. It has three secret strategies for you to really effectively plan out your weekly schedule in a way that’s going to feel so aligned with you and your business.

But once you have reprioritized, then pick back up and continue on. Okay.

Audit your systems

Now you’re kind of back to normal, right? But to make sure that you are prepared for the next time this happens, take a look at your systems and audit them. Okay.

Make sure that whatever systems you have in place right now, make it so easy for you to be able to do all the things that we said.

Your system needs to be able to help you reallocate tasks, move things around, cross things off, whatever it is. So that way, whenever something does happen, you’re not like, oh my gosh, like where did this task go? Or what was I working on? Or now you have to scribble a bunch and scratch off a lot or white out or whatever. And then you’re starting all over again. Right?

Like you don’t even have time for that. Whenever you’re sick or whenever you’re going through things like you’re not going to make time to do all of that. And you shouldn’t.

So audit your systems and make sure that whatever you have in place is something that gives you the flexibility to let you move things around. For you to be able to see exactly where you pick back off in whatever that way is for you.

And if you’re not really even sure that you have good systems in place, you’re definitely going to want to check out my Level Up Your Biz with Trello program. It’s currently closed for enrollment, but definitely go to cheerstoproductivity.com/waitlist so that way you can be the first to know once it does open for enrollment.

Because here is where I do teach you how to implement these strategic systems in a way that’s going to allow for all of the flexibility and make it easy for you to organize your business and just know where to come back and pick back up whenever life and things don’t go as planned. Okay. So definitely be sure to hop onto the waitlist if you’re not on it yet.

Episode Wrap-Up

And doing all of these different things is going to really ensure that you are able to get back in your biz with ease with minimal worries. And remember, you need to take care of you always, but in, especially in these times.

There’s no business without you. Okay. There is no business without you so be sure to make yourself the priority, always.

If there’s one thing that you take out of this episode, it’s that. Make yourself the priority. Okay. You are always going to be your own priority for your business as well. So take care of yourself. All right.

Well, that’s it for you today. Thank you so much for tuning into another episode of the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast. If you’ve been enjoying the show, I would really appreciate a rating and review on Apple so that way the show can reach new audiences.

Thank you so much for listening to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast with me, Lucy Reyes To view the complete show notes and all the links mentioned in today’s episode, visit cheerstoproductivity.com/14. And before you go, make sure you subscribe at wherever you’re listening so you know once the next productive chat is released. Talk soon and cheers to your productivity and success!