I had a REALLY bad week, mama.
Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever had the kind of week where everything just kind of falls apart, and you can’t seem to do anything right?
That was me.
I mean, I couldn’t get ANYTHING to work.
I needed to print labels — a task I do at least weekly with no issues — but this time, the label printer wasn’t working. I checked all my connections. I restarted. I got things running — and the printer ran out of labels. The new ones wouldn’t load correctly no matter what I tried. And when I finally got it working, I managed to mislabel 12 boxes of Free Mama t-shirts that I wanted to send out to program graduates.
My kids fought.
I forgot the laundry in the machine and had to rewash an entire load.
I snapped at my husband for no reason.
Every day when I woke up, I felt worse and worse. Everything I needed to do felt hard — even things I can normally do without any problems.
I keep hitting the wall, no matter how many times I tried to power through.
The thing is, none of this felt like work stress, so it was hard for me to figure out that what I was feeling was overwhelm. It wasn’t until my coach pointed it out to me that I could take a step back and say, “Oooooohhhhhhhhh, yeah.”
Once I realized what I was up against, I knew what to do. The last time I went through this kind of experience, I actually detailed it out — so it was pretty clear to me that I needed to take myself through that process again.
I did the brain dump — wrote down allllll the things that were clamoring for space in my mind, and then I corralled all of those things into a spreadsheet, where I could make order and sense from them.
One of the big things I realized was that there are a lot of ongoing commitments in my business — those monthly Free Mama Meetups and the Free Mama Swag drops for example — but I don’t have to handle every piece of these projects.
Figuring out which parts I could ask someone else to do was key. Getting those things out of my head, so that they weren’t constantly contributing to my overwhelm — yeah. That was huge.
And then I did a thing I don’t normally do: I took a long weekend to decompress.
Yes, I don’t normally work on Fridays or on the weekend, but I do usually check in with my team just to make sure everything is running smoothly. I pop in the Facebook group to share and comment. I have a hard time turning off completely.
Not that weekend. I let everyone know not to contact me — and I went to lunch with a friend. A simple meal, completely unrelated to work. Time to talk about kids and husbands and what we’re binging on Netflix. Mama, it was so good.
I gave myself permission to disconnect over the weekend. I didn’t check in. I trusted the systems I’ve created and the people I’ve brought in to run them.
I got a pedicure.
Find your bliss, mama. If you’re waking up feeling like something is OFF, don’t keep brushing it off. Sit down, and figure out what’s happening — and take steps to get yourself back on track.
Need help and support? How about letting 11,000 mamas love on you?
We got your back, Mama. And you got this.
P.S. Are you a fan of The Daily 5, my productivity system? Then maybe it’s time for you to grab a copy of The Daily 5 Planner!