Welcome to the Elevated Edit Podcast.

I'm your host, Blakely Ramsey, and the goal of this podcast is to discuss all things personal development, wellness, and the art of editing your life in an elevated way.

From mastering morning routines to mastering your mindset, we're going to sift through the noise and empower you to take elevated action.

Make sure you catch the show notes for all the details.

Enjoy the show.

Hello and welcome back to the Elevated Edit podcast.

Today's topic is transparently a topic that a couple of years ago, if I heard someone talking about this, I.

It would have lit me up.

I would have been very sensitive towards it.

I would have been like, lucky for this girl, that's easy for her to say, oh, must be nice.

That's like, I would have came up with all of the excuses.

So if this episode makes you feel that way, I totally understand.

That was totally me a couple years ago, but it's.

It's a short and sweet one.

Just, maybe just listen with open ears and you can be mad at me afterwards and you can be like, that likely girl.

But maybe we always like to think of the most positive outcome.

Maybe your mindset will shift just a tiny bit.

And today we're going to talk about the fact that most people aren't as busy as they claim to be.

Yeah, like I said, I used to say it too.

But here's the truth.

Being busy is actually often just a sign of a lack of focus systems and a clear vision.

Because around here, we don't just want to do more, we want to do what actually matters.

Now here's the problem with a busy mindset.

And like I said, this is not coming from a place of judgment.

This was me a mere few years ago.

When you constantly tell yourself you're busy, whether you say it out loud to other people or you just say it to yourself, you are constantly reinforcing that feeling of overwhelm.

So I used to.

I'd look at my list for the next day, like, oh, I'm so busy.

I'd look at my calendar and I was busy.

I was doing lots of things.

I look at my calendar and I would.

Every single day I would just dread.

I dread going to bed because I knew I'd have to wake up and live the next day.

And like, I know that sounds so morbid, but I was just like, oh my goodness, I've been so busy the last three days and now I've got another jam packed day tomorrow.

Like, I cannot do this anymore.

And I just remember I would go to bed every night and I'd be like, I'm so busy.

And then I'd wake up in the morning and I'd be like, I'm so busy.

And so I'm constantly sitting there reinforcing to myself that I'm overwhelmed.

I'm so busy.

I was constantly telling myself that like that was the language that I always used.

I would say, oh, I don't have time for that.

Oh, I'm just so busy.

And what I found out and I, a lot of people experience this, I might not even be aware of it, but it's that many people just, they're not actually being productive.

They're just reacting all day instead of executing with intention.

And it makes me really sad when I look back on my calendar from like 2022, 2023, my days were packed.

I mean from seven in the morning to nine o'clock at night, if you go back and look at my Google calendar, there was something every single time slot of every single day and it's like, whoa, that girl was busy.

But if you actually look at each time slot, a lot of it was me being reactive.

A lot of it was me being the yes girl.

Yes, I'll do that.

Yes, I'll jump on that.

Yeah, I'll do that for you for free.

Yeah, I'll do all the things.

Instead of me actually being productive, when I look back on my, my goals for that time period versus my calendar, in was no wonder I wasn't successful.

There was no wonder why I wasn't succeeding at the level that I wanted to succeed.

Because I was not being productive.

I was busy, but I wasn't being productive.

I was being very reactive with my schedule.

There would be times where somebody would be like, hey, can you do this for me tomorrow at 1:00?

And if I had a 1245 and a 1:30, but I had that 45 minute window, I'd be like, absolutely, I can now we like lots of white space, we like lots of free buffer time.

But back then my mindset was if I'm busy, if I'm just run fast enough, I'm going to get where I'm going.

But I was on one of those, you know those treadmills where you like have to manually operate it.

That was me.

I was running, but I wasn't actually getting anywhere.

And it's just so sad to me because it took me so long to realize it that like you're not actually making progress just because you're busy.

Sometimes you're just in motion Sometimes you're just running around like a chicken with your head cut off and you're not actually accomplishing anything.

And this is why you might always feel behind.

And there's a couple different.

If this is you and you're like, lately I just always feel behind, like I'm too busy to even think about not being busy.

Just listen to what I'm about to say.

Do you feel like you're always filling up your schedule with unnecessary tasks?

Really sit down and analyze this.

Like, when I look back on my calendar, I had so many unnecessary tasks on there.

I had so much that was just A, not my responsibility, and B, if I would have just let it bump, let it slide, let it roll, it probably would have gone away.

It would have resolved itself.

It didn't need to be done that day.

It didn't need to be done by me.

It didn't need to be done at all.

There was so many tasks on, on my list that was just busy work.

But it was my fault because I'm sitting there telling myself, I'm so busy, I'm so busy.

And so my subconscious was constantly looking to reinforce what I was telling myself.

So yes, if I did have an open 45 minute window, my brain was like, panic.

There's an open spot on her calendar.

Panic, panic.

We've got to find something to fill it.

Find something to fill it.

And then it was like, okay, it's filled.

And then like in the moment, I would calm down.

But then when I had to act out on the schedule, it was like, why do I feel, why do I keep filling my calendar up?

But then I would reinforce it because I was constantly busy.

I would tell myself, I'm so busy.

And then I would be looking for ways to stay so busy.

And so it was just like a vicious cycle of like, I would tell myself I was busy, so I would look for ways that I was busy and I would create ways to be busy and that creating the ways to be busy would keep me busy.

Like, do you see why this is such a problem?

This is why it's so hard for people to a, even be aware of it, be aware of the fact they have control over it.

And look, I still have responsibilities.

I have a lot of responsibilities.

I have a lot of needles that I need to move in a day.

And I do consider myself a very productive person.

And I do still time block and I'm very effective with my time.

But I don't want to be busy.

I want to be efficient.

I want to make an impact I want to get the most value out of my time and just changing the language instead of saying, I'm busy, I'm overwhelmed, I'm stressed, I don't have time for that.

It was just an automatic language for me.

I now say things like, I'm someone who's intentional with my time.

I am someone who's disciplined.

I am someone who does deep work.

I am someone who puts a lot of white space in her calendar.

I am someone who goes on a walk in the middle of the day.

Like, just the language and the energy is just so much calmer.

And I will say this, I get more done, I'm making more money, and I'm happier now that I've changed my language.

It's not something that I expected at all, but it's been such an amazing byproduct of all this.

And you might also feel behind because you're constantly playing catch up instead of proactively structuring your time.

I, I like, will have like little glimpses of my past every once in a while.

Where I used to sit down at 9:00, now I'm in bed by 8:30.

I just sit down at 9:00 with my laptop and I would start my wind down for the day.

I'd be like, okay, I've still got to set this up for E sign.

I've still got to organize this, I've got to do this, I've got to do that.

Like, like at 9 o'clock I still have an hour's worth of work left.

But really it was my mindset around it when if I would have just put the laptop away and been like, you know what?

Today was really busy.

Like, I didn't even, I'm not even.

It's 9 o'clock and I'm just now ending for the day because I still have days where I work late.

But I go, you know what, I'm gonna put my laptop away.

There's not a lot of emergencies in my life that need to be dealt with at 9:00 at night.

Put my laptop away.

I'm gonna get a good night's rest.

I'm gonna sleep in a little bit in the morning because I used to be like, oh, well, I'm so busy, I gotta wake up early, I gotta go to frantic, Might sleep in a little bit.

I'm gonna go for a walk and then I'm gonna go to a coffee shop.

I'm gonna be in the right headspace, I'm gonna journal a little bit, feel really Good about myself, put some lipstick on, make sure my hair looks cute.

And I'm gonna spend one hour dedicated, discipline, and focused.

Whereas my old version of myself was very reactive.

I was like, I've got to do this right now.

Has to happen right now.

If it doesn't happen right now, the whole world's going to explode.

And just, like, shifting my mindset when it came to thinking about, like, slowing down, like, slowing down used to stress me out, but now I realize that slowing down actually helps you speed up.

And another way that you can maybe monitor if you're always, like, feeling behind is if you aren't creating the white space.

Space to think, Reflecting collapse time.

This is something that has been super powerful for me.

I understand we, like schedules, simply don't allow for a lot of us to have a lot of white space.

Children don't allow for a lot of us to have a lot of white space.

But even if you can get 10 minutes a day, you might have to go outside and lock yourself in the car.

I just.

When I hear that, I picture, like, kids just, like, yanking on.

This is what I picture life with children to be like, where you're just, like, begging for 10 minutes of time.

And, like, your kids, like, follow you outside and they're, like, shaking the car, and you're just, like, huddling.

That's what I picture being a mom to be like.

So that's probably why I don't have kids yet.

But whatever you have to do.

If you can only give yourself five minutes, give yourself five minutes.

If you can only give yourself 10 minutes, give yourself those 10 minutes to sit in silence.

No music, no nothing, just silence.

It will do so much for your nervous system.

It will do so much for your brain.

White space is where I come up with my best ideas.

It is where I solve my best problems.

It is where I can be the most generous.

Like, when I am trying to come up with a gift for someone, I will just sit and be like, what does this person really want?

Like, how can I creatively give them a really cool gift that they're like, it's not even about money.

It's just like, what is a gift?

That, like, they're just gonna be like, whoa, this is cool.

Like, I want people to be like, this is a good gift.

Gift yourself that white space so that you can come up with those ideas, you can have those thoughts.

Like I said, it does not have to be hours on end where you're, like, meditating on the top of a mountain.

Five minutes of quiet if you need to wake up five minutes earlier, if you need to go to bed five minutes later, whatever it is that you need to do, you can give yourself five minutes of just white space.

I will even take one of my little notebooks with me.

And I won't.

I won't force things.

Like, I won't be like, I need to be creative.

I need a problem solve.

I'll just let whatever come up, come up.

Sometimes it's a mess up there in that brain, and I'm like, okay, we need to get all this out.

But y'all know I love a tangible fix.

So let's go through some simple fixes to stop feeling so busy all the time.

Number one, audit your time.

Take inventory of how you're actually spending your hours.

You'll probably find that you're wasting a lot of time and you're calling it work, you're calling it productivity, but really you're just scrambling.

You're just fabricating stuff in order to feel accomplished and feel busy.

It's okay if you don't have anything on your schedule for a day.

Like, that used to make me feel like a failure.

I was like, well, if I don't have.

If my day is not packed, then that means there's something wrong with me, like, I'm falling behind or I am not able to, like, show my value and my worth.

Days of doing nothing can be really fantastic.

So audit your time.

Just make sure that you're being very intentional with your time.

If, if you're in a season where you do need to be busy, because it's going to happen to all of us where we're just in seasons where, you know, we've got a lot on our plate and we've got a lot of changes and we're, you know, kind of struggling with, like, changes in our, like, external world.

And, like, then you got to deal with the changes in your internal world.

That's okay.

Just make sure you're auditing your time and you're taking as much off your plate as possible.

The things on your plate are actually your responsibility and actually moving the needle and actually getting things done.

Okay.

Number two, prioritize deep work.

Set intentional focus blocks where you can eliminate distractions and execute the highest impact tasks.

This goes back to the 8020 principle.

20% of your actions create 80% of your results.

So if you focus on those 20%, you can get a ton of work done.

I can get more done in one hour focusing on my 20% than if I spent all day fiddling around, distracted, unfocused.

I'll turn my phone off.

Sometimes I'll even put it on airplane mode.

Put my phone on airplane mode.

Turn it down.

No music.

Lock my office door.

Focus for one hour.

And I can move a mountain in that one hour versus if I'm.

My cat's ran and out, and I'm fiddling on my phone.

I go down an Instagram rabbit hole, and I'm distracted.

I'm listening to music, and I don't really like that song, so I turn in, and actually, I need a snack.

So I could get a snack.

And then I need to refill my water.

And then now I need to go to the bathroom, and why don't I go ahead and make a coffee?

An hour can go by, and I'll get nothing done.

So just really prioritize deep work.

Focus on one thing at a time.

Get that thing done.

Move on to the next one.

Set a timer for an hour, 30 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever works for you.

Prioritize.

Deep work.

Number three.

Stop glorifying overwhelm.

Change your language.

Stop saying, I'm so busy.

Instead, say, I'm focused on what matters.

I try not to coach out in the wild.

I think unsolicited advice and overstepping your boundaries is so rude.

But it does make me sad because I have a lot of friends that are like, I'm so busy.

Oh, I'm just so busy.

And it's like, well, you're not actually, like, yeah, you are busy, but, like, you're.

You're also really unorganized, and, like, you don't have any systems, and you're not focused on one thing.

And so, yeah, you're busy all day long, but you're not actually getting a lot done.

Like, if you focused and set up a system and really, like, lasered in and, like, put your.

I call them like, my horse blinders.

Like, put your horse blinders on.

You could probably get all of that done and, like, a.

Like, focused three hours, and then you could go, like, you could breathe and be like, okay, I have a little room to move.

I like, I have a little freedom.

I have a little space.

It might just be, like, incremental.

It might only be 30 minutes a day at first.

Like, you might set up this whole system, work on your mindset, and be like, blakely, I only have an extra 30 minutes a day to just do nothing.

Just enjoy it.

And the more you try, the better you'll get.

It's.

Y'all are gonna be saying, we're Building a muscle.

Okay.

Every time you work out, every time you do an iteration, every time you practice, you'll get better and better and better and better, and it'll go into your subconscious.

Number four, create white space.

I said enough about white space.

It's so important.

I should actually do an episode about the science behind white space.

I've not done a ton of research on it, and I'm making a note right now that'd be really cool to do a podcast about that.

Number five, y'all know I'm a systems girl.

Use systems to simplify.

If you constantly feel behind, it's probably a sign that you lack efficient systems.

Remember that systems do not need to be complicated.

You can have the zapier Trello notion portion, or you can have a little notebook that you carry around and you just.

Throughout the day, as things come your way, you put them in your notebook and then you have a place to organize it.

At the end of the day, you can be as complex or as simple as you want.

Whatever system works for you is the best system, period.

Don't let anybody tell you that.

Oh, you have to use notion to organize your notes.

Oh, if you're not using trello, you're never going to.

Do not listen to people like that.

So simple, simple, simple.

The system that works is the simple.

Wait, the.

There's a quote.

The system.

The best system is the system that you're going to use.

Y'all know what I'm talking about.

There's a really good quote, and it's something about like the best system that.

The best system is the one you'll actually use.

I think that's it.

The best system is the one that you'll actually use.

So if it's a little notebook, if it's post itself, I mean, I'm a post its girl.

I used to work with a girl, and she would.

She had a.

Like a big dashboard in her Forerunner and she would have these organized, color coded post it notes.

It gave me wild anxiety.

I could never.

But it worked so well for her.

She would literally keep post it notes.

This was several jobs ago, but she would keep post it notes on her dashboard and she would just rip them off as the day went on.

We were.

We had a traveling job, so we were in a car all day.

She would just rip her post it notes off and I was like, that's so stressful.

But hey, it worked for her.

That was.

Was her system and it worked.

So whatever your system is, use it, utilize it.

Don't be nervous.

And be scared.

Be like, oh, I'm not using Trello so I'm doing something wrong.

Post it.

Simple.

Okay, I hope that that helped you maybe reframe your thoughts about time and realizing that you have more time than you think.

You just need to use it wisely.

Because I want all of us to stop feeding into the busy trap.

Because that's all it is, a busy trap.

And start owning our time with clutch, clarity and intention.

Because we have people to love on and dreams to chase and we've got big things to do.

We don't have time to be reactive and constantly busy and constantly stressed and constantly overwhelmed.

We want to live in a world of happiness and and abundance and joy.

At least I that's my hope for you.

Okay, Hope you got a little something out of this episode.

I hope it brought you some kind of value.

If it did, I would really appreciate if you would share this A friend.

It would mean the world to me if you would subscribe and like and leave a review and all the things.

It helps me so much.

It means so much to me every single time I get on and I've got a notification and somebody liked it or somebody followed or subscribed.

Oh like lights my heart up.

But thank you so much.

I am so thankful that you show up every single week and I'm thankful for the time that we get to spend together.

With that, I hope you have a great rest of your day and I will see you in the next episode.

Thank you for tuning in to the Elevated Edit podcast.

I hope you found today's episode inspiring and full of actionable tips.

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Keep growing, glowing and elevating your life.

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