Planning Tools
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Planning Tools

19 Aug

Posted at 09:42h in Planning Tools, Stress Management

Woman pausing to think at her laptop, illustrating the value of making time to think and plan.

When was the last time you gave yourself time to simply think? Not answer email. Not cross something off your list. Not solve the problem that was shouting the loudest. Just think.

When work is busy, thinking can feel like a luxury. There is always something more immediate demanding our attention. So we keep moving. We respond, react, solve, finish, and start again. And yet, some of our best work happens when we stop doing long enough to think about what we’re doing. That’s what planning really is. Planning is making time to think.

One of my clients once said something I’ve never forgotten: “I used to think I didn’t have time to plan. Now I realize planning is the greatest expression of self-care.” At first glance, planning and self-care might not seem to belong in the same sentence. But think about what happens when you don’t plan. You carry your work around in your head. You wonder what you’re forgetting. You remember something important while you’re making dinner, walking the dog, exercising, or trying to fall asleep. You finish a busy week having accomplished a lot, yet somehow still feel as though you should have done more.

Now imagine something different. What would change if you knew what mattered most this week? What if you could trust that the important things had been captured and considered? What if you got more of the right things done—not because you worked harder, but because you had stopped long enough to decide where your attention belonged? And perhaps most importantly: What would your time away from work feel like if you weren’t spending it worrying about work? That may be the greatest benefit of planning.

Creating Space Before You Need It

It’s especially difficult to stop and plan when you’re stressed. When there is too much to do, taking an hour to think about the work can feel almost absurd. Surely the responsible thing is to keep working. But I see the opposite happen with my clients again and again. They stop. They look at what’s coming. They sort through the things competing for their attention. They make some decisions. And the noise quiets down.

They feel less stressed. More confident. More focused. They know what they’re doing and why. Planning hasn’t created more hours in the week. It has created clarity about how to use the hours they have.

Your Best Thinking May Need Different Conditions

Thinking time doesn’t have to look a particular way. Some people like to plan at the end of the week. Others would rather spend an hour on Sunday preparing for Monday. One client might sit with a favorite coffee at a café. Another might put on music and sit outside. Someone else may move away from their desk and work at the kitchen table.

The point isn’t to find the “correct” planning ritual, it’s to find your planning ritual;  to discover the conditions that help you step out of reacting and into thinking. Monday morning often sounds like the obvious time to plan, but in practice many people simply want to get going. Friday at 4:00 may sound efficient, but by then they’re mentally finished. The best time is the time you will actually protect. And if something gets in the way? Move the time. Don’t eliminate it.

Weekly Planning Can Be Surprisingly Simple

Planning doesn’t need to become another elaborate productivity system. At its core, weekly planning can be as simple as reviewing your calendar, updating your task list, and deciding what matters most in the coming week. Everything else can be customized. Maybe you need to clear some email, schedule exercise, block time for focused work, process the sticky notes on your desk, or close the collection of browser tabs that has quietly become its own ecosystem.

I often suggest using a checklist at first—not because everyone should plan the same way, but because a checklist keeps you from having to remember how to plan while you’re trying to plan. And once you’ve done the thinking for the week, daily planning becomes much easier. Five minutes may be enough to look at the day ahead and decide what you want to accomplish.

What Would Thinking Time Give You?

There will always be more to do. The goal of planning isn’t to create a perfectly controlled week or finish every task on your list. It’s to make conscious choices about what deserves your time and attention—to work with greater confidence, to stop carrying so much unfinished thinking around in your head, to be more present when you’re working, and more present when you’re not.

Maybe planning really is an expression of self-care. Because when you make time to think about your work, you may discover that you also create more room for your life.

Better Work. Better Life.

Want to Make More Time to Think?

Planning gets easier when you have a productivity system you can trust.  In Productivity for How You’re Wired, I help you build practical systems for planning, prioritizing, managing tasks, and organizing your work in ways that fit how you’re wired. The goal isn’t to squeeze more into every day. It’s to create more clarity, make better decisions, and spend less time worrying about what you might be missing. If you’re ready to work with greater intention—and create more space for life outside of work—you’ll find practical strategies you can use right away. Available wherever books are sold, including Amazon in print, eBook, and audio.

Or, if you’d like support creating a planning and productivity approach that works for you, explore my productivity coaching options here.

30 Jun

Posted at 11:24h in Planning Tools, Productivity, Stress Management, Time Management, Tips for Easier Living

Ever stand in front of the fridge wondering what to make for dinner, only to give up and snack on crackers? Or scroll Netflix for so long you run out of time to actually watch something? It’s frustrating—and oddly common.

Here’s why: it’s not that you’re indecisive or lazy. It’s decision fatigue, and it’s draining your brainpower, making even the smallest choices feel surprisingly difficult.

One of my high-performing clients—smart, successful, and productive—once told me that the thing he and his partner argued about most wasn’t money or chores. It was what to order in for dinner.

At the end of the day, they were both exhausted. They’d scroll through endless restaurant options, debate what sounded good, get frustrated, and end up ordering late—or worse, not eating at all. That small daily choice became a major source of friction.

I suggested they make a simple list: five favorite takeout places and their top two orders from each. The result? Instant relief. They ordered faster, ate earlier, weren’t hangry, and most importantly, enjoyed their evenings together instead of wasting time figuring out what to eat. One little system turned a daily pain point into something easy—and even enjoyable.

That’s the magic of simplifying small decisions.

Decision Fatigue Is Real

Some studies estimate we make over 35,000 decisions a day—most of them small and forgettable. What to wear. What to eat. What to tackle first. Each one chips away at your mental energy.

And when your brain is tired, even “easy” decisions feel hard. You overthink. You second-guess. You procrastinate. Or you avoid the choice altogether and just do nothing (hello, standing in front of the fridge again).

The problem? All of that mental clutter spills into your personal time. You end up feeling frazzled, behind, and drained—even when nothing major went wrong.

Make the Easy Decisions Easy

You don’t have to overhaul your life. Just start by creating defaults—shortlists of pre-approved, go-to options that remove friction from your day.

Here are four areas where this can make a big difference:

1. What to Make for Dinner

Instead of reinventing the wheel every night, build your own personal menu of favorite meals. Keep your two go-to recipes from key categories—like poultry, seafood, vegetarian, meat, entrée salads, and hearty soups—in a folder, binder, or electronic file. That way, when it’s time to plan dinner, you can flip through your curated favorites and quickly pick something you’ll actually enjoy cooking and eating.

You don’t need a hundred recipes—just a dozen or so that you know and love. This makes meal planning easier and helps you avoid that overwhelmed, “I don’t know what I feel like” feeling at the end of a long day.

2.  Ordering In

Like my client, make a list of your favorite delivery spots and go-to orders. Save them in your food delivery app, jot them in your notes, or put them on the fridge. When you’re tired and hungry, this saves time, energy, and potential tension.

 3. What to Watch

Keep a “watch next” list in your streaming app or phone. When you finally sit down to relax, you don’t want to waste half the evening browsing. Make the decision once, and keep a short list ready to go.

 4. What to Read

Create a running to-read list so that when you finish one book, the next one is already lined up. You’ll read more, feel less decision fatigue, and avoid the rabbit hole of reviews and recommendations when you just want to enjoy a story.

 This Isn’t About Being Rigid

You can still try new restaurants, cook new meals, and discover new shows. But when you’re tired or low on brainpower, your defaults have your back. Think of these lists as your brain’s personal assistant—quietly saving you from unnecessary stress. Let’s keep the easy decisions easy… and free up your energy for what matters most.

Ready to Simplify More? If you’re feeling stuck in the weeds of daily decision-making, I can help. Through one-on-one coaching, I work with professionals and leaders like you to cut through the clutter, align your productivity with how you’re wired, and create systems that actually stick. Want more strategies like this? My book,  Productivity for How You’re Wired, is packed with real-life tools and ideas—and it’s available now on Amazon.

05 Jun

Posted at 19:22h in Organize to Thrive, Planning Tools, Productivity, Stress Management, Time Management

To Do List Magic

We all know we should occasionally organize our closets, and kitchens, and paper piles, but have you ever considered giving your To-Do or Task List a thorough reorganization? The results can be just as transformational. 

Before becoming a Productivity Coach, I spent years as a Professional Organizer, helping clients clear physical clutter. I discovered that truly lasting results come from a deliberate, step-by-step process:

  1. Remove EVERYTHING from the space (or section).
  2. Make intentional decisions about what to do with each item. Organizing expert Judith Kolberg introduced the concept of sorting items into three categories: friends, strangers, and acquaintances.
    • Friends go BACK into the space
    • Strangers are donated, recycled, or discarded
    • Acquaintances go into a holding zone (storage — just in case) or are returned if there’s room 

Making intentional choices about every single item—and being VERY purposeful about what occupies your valuable space—is genuinely MAGICAL. I can tell you if I go to organize my junk drawer (or any space) and open the drawer and ask myself – is there anything here that should go, I get an average result that lasts a few weeks or months. However, if I remove everything – and deliberately return the things-that-really-matter, my organization lasts a good year or more.  Try it – it’s amazing how effective it is!

But do we do this with our To DO Lists?  It’s tempting to stick with our usual weekly reviews, but just as our physical spaces benefit from an annual deep re-org, your digital or paper task list deserves the same attention. I recently did a full Task List overhaul myself, and here’s how I did it:

  1. I keep my Task List on a Google Sheet (as discussed here.)
  2. I made a backup copy, just in case.
  3. I added a new column and transferred EVERYTHING from my Critical/Hot/Sooner/Later/Waiting lists into that column.
  4. Then, I sorted and redistributed each item back into the appropriate category.
  5. I also cleaned up my sub-lists—professional development, major purchases, blog ideas, tech tools, tasks in progress with my VA—and deleted many obsolete or unnecessary items.

The result? A clean, focused, manageable list that clearly highlights what’s most important. Removing clutter is not just liberating—it drastically reduces stress and increases clarity.

A few key insights:

  • Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Does that task advance your goals or support someone important? If not, is it worth your precious time?
  • When everything feels urgent or important, nothing truly is. Time is finite—every “yes” to the unimportant takes away from what truly matters.
  • As Brené Brown reminds us, feeling resentment often signals that a task should come off your list.
  • Remember: what was a priority last week or last month may no longer be relevant today. Priorities shift, and highly productive people are ruthless about removing unnecessary tasks.

So, what will you REMOVE today?

If you enjoy my blog, you’ll love the insights in my book, Productivity for How You’re Wired, available on Audible, in print, and as an ebook all on Amazon.

24 Apr

Posted at 13:23h in Meeting Best Practices, Planning Tools, Productivity, Tips for Easier Living

Coaching offers clients a safe space to discuss workplace challenges.  Often our conversations focus on navigating interpersonal conflict, figuring out appropriate levels of information to share within a team, or strategies to get clear on what others are thinking. A great tool I often use in these situations is reframing.

Reframing involves consciously shifting your perspective on a situation. I ask my clients to envision taking the issue out of the anxiety evoking “picture frame” and moving it into a different frame. This technique is helpful when you’re feeling stressed about addressing workplace dilemmas. Here are three examples:

From Fear to Opportunity

Difficult conversations or disagreements can be overwhelming, and many of us instinctively avoid them. However, confidence comes through practice. The more you engage in these necessary discussions, the more manageable they become, frequently yielding easier outcomes than anticipated.

In my early days as a hotel manager, I was nervous about speaking with upset guests. Over time, as I handled these situations repeatedly, my perspective changed. Instead of dreading complaints, I began to see them as opportunities to transform an unhappy guest into a satisfied one. The more complex the issue, the more motivated I felt to resolve it creatively, benefiting both the guest and the hotel.

The Reframe: Shift from a “Fear” frame (“This is scary” or “They’ll be angry”) to an “Opportunity” frame (“How can I turn this challenge into a win-win?” or “This is a chance to understand and improve”). This change can turn anxiety into a proactive desire to make a positive difference.

From Fear to Empowerment and Trust

Deciding how much information to share, especially as a team leader, can pose a challenge. Often, the hesitation stems from a fear of misspeaking or potential repercussions, sometimes fueled by past experiences with rigid corporate communication protocols.

However, withholding information often backfires. Team members sense when something is withheld, and the assumptions made in an information vacuum can be more damaging than the reality. This uncertainty also consumes energy that could be focused on productive work.

The Reframe: Move away from the “Fear” frame (“I can’t tell them anything!” or “What if I screw this up?”). Shift into an “Empowerment & Trust” frame. Think: “Sharing helps my team do their best work,” or “Being open builds trust and stops the rumor mill.” See communication less as a risk and more as your job to help everyone focus and do their best work.

From Fear to Becoming an Information Gathering Detective

If I had a dollar (maybe ten!) for every time I’ve asked a client, “Have you actually asked them what they’re thinking?” and they sheepishly say “No”… well, I’d probably be sending you this blog post from the beach! It’s like we’re hardwired to play guessing games instead of just asking. But imagine how much easier problem-solving could be if we simply asked clarifying questions.

Consider these scenarios:

  • A manager can’t figure out why an employee isn’t following instructions correctly. Instead of assuming incompetence or defiance, what if the manager asked, “Is there anything I can explain more clearly to help you with this task?”
  • Someone worries about how going to the gym after work might impact their partner. Instead of stressing, they could ask, “I’m trying to fit workouts into my schedule. How would you feel about me going to the gym after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays?”

The Reframe: Stop the “I’m scared to ask,” “I should just know,” or “I’ll guess” cycle. Put on your “Information Gathering Detective Hat” frame instead. Asking clear, kind questions isn’t nosy; it’s the quickest and smartest way to understand what’s really going on, solve the actual problem, and strengthen relationships.

Applying the Reframe to My Own Work

Speaking of asking questions, I’ve been blogging somewhat regularly since 2008 – that’s a minute! Sometimes I’m not clear about what would be helpful to you for me to write about.

So, instead of guessing (my old frame!), I’m putting on my Information Gathering hat (my new frame!) and asking you directly:

  • What are your biggest challenges when it comes to productivity or leading others?
  • If you had me as your coach for an hour, what’s the one thing you’d want to tackle?
  • How can I make this little corner of the internet genuinely helpful for you as you strive to work better and live better?

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Please share in the comments below or email me directly at [ellen at ellenfaye dot com]. I’m excited to find out what’s on your mind and address your questions in future posts. 

If you enjoy my blog, you’ll love the insights in my book, Productivity for How You’re Wired, available on Audible, in print, and as an ebook all on Amazon.

12 Mar

Posted at 12:38h in Meeting Best Practices, Planning Tools, Productivity, Tips for Easier Living

Meetings and breaks are often viewed as disruptions to a productive day, but I’ve come to see them as essential anchors that provide structure to an otherwise unstructured day.

I’m not talking about a day where you have appointments all day long, rather one of those wide open days where you plan to accomplish boat-loads of work and where you see yourself getting tons of tasks marked off your list or make great progress on a big project.  What happens instead is the lack of structure results in lagging, procrastination, and the feeling you have so much time that you don’t move into action.

Don’t get me wrong, I can usually get a ton done on those days designated for “focus” work.  However, my productivity soars when I have a couple of meetings or appointments scattered throughout the day.  Let’s say I have a meeting at 11. Instead of frittering my morning away, my mind knows it has a couple of hours to complete tasks before I have to stop for the meeting.  This does two things:

  1. It pushes me into action much earlier
  2. It pushes me to push towards completion of the task I’m working on before the meeting.

Even scheduling activities like going to the gym can serve as a productivity boost. Actually, I love that as a pusher, since if I want to work another 30 or 60 minutes I can without consequence. It’s the idea that there is some structure in my day to help me be my best and do my best work.

I love discovering new productivity tools, and the stopping point is one such discovery for me. I imagine this is like what Frances Cirillo discovered with his Pomodoro technique.  Cirillo coined the term Pomodoro Technique in the late 1980s when he created a system to help him move through work with greater ease.  He built regular breaks into his work time.  A typical pomodoro (named for the tomato shaped egg time he used…pomodoro is Italian for tomato) is 25 minutes of work, and a 5-minute break  repeated 4 times.  You know when a break is coming, which is helpful  to keep you working.  I personally get frustrated with the 25-minute/5-minute cycle. I’m just getting into flow at 25 minutes and the last thing I want to do is stop. And 5 minutes is certainly not a long enough break for me.  But since we can make our own productivity rules, I changed my cycle to 50 minutes on and 10 minutes off.  You can experiment with this as well.

Incorporating structure into an otherwise unstructured day, along with strategically timed breaks, offers a powerful opportunity to test and discover the ideal amount of structure you need to do your best work and reach your peak productivity.

If you enjoy my blog, you’ll love the insights in my book, Productivity for How You’re Wired, available on Audible, in print, and as an ebook all on Amazon.

09 Sep

Posted at 16:40h in Envision Success, Planning Tools, Productivity, Productivity for How You're Wired, Stress Management, Tips for Easier Living

The last year of blog posts has shared excerpts from my new book, “Productivity For How You’re Wired.” Today’s post is the final entry in the series and serves as the conclusion to the book. It is relevant to any change you want to make. In a couple of weeks, I’ll share a post with you that isn’t from my book. I’ve been collecting blog ideas, and I’m excited to share new content with you. Remember, you can review the book highlights anytime at ellenfaye.com/blog.  I hope you enjoy this last “book” post.

Making Change Stick: I know you are eager to bring more order, peace, and control to your life. However, if you are serious about real change, you can’t rush the process. Quick fixes don’t deliver sustainable results.

I once heard a speaker say that when you change one thing at a time, you have a 90% chance of success. If you change two things at once, your chance of success declines to 63%. I haven’t been able to source this data, however, the concept makes sense. If you put your attention toward one thing, you end up with results. If you spread yourself too thin, you’re often left with nothing to show.

When I work with my clients, we start with one thing at a time. First, we consider the topic, then we study what has worked for them in the past in similar circumstances. We then strategize and come up with a plan. After that, my client will spend the time between our sessions to experiment and practice. They come back and we discuss what worked, what didn’t work, and where we need to tweak. We keep practicing and tweaking until it works and is integrated into their routines.

As you’re evaluating your own productivity and how you’re wired, keep in mind that focusing on one change at a time will drive results. Getting you from where you are to where you want to be is a process.

Integrate the change before adding something new — Keep your energy and focus on one new thing at a time. If you change too many variables at once you won’t know what made the difference. You are the experiment and you’re looking for your best solution. Observe and tweak. Work out the bugs and practice. When it feels comfortable, it is time to add another behavior change.

Understand the science — The brain learns through repetition. The 21-day habit theory has been disproven. The real science indicates the time it takes to create a new behavior is reflective of how often the neuropathways of that behavior are traveled in the brain. Think of a trail in the woods. If you take it occasionally, you’re fighting through new brush and undergrowth. But with frequent travel the path becomes clear and recognized. Brain scientists say nerve cells that fire together, wire together. The more you fire the cells and travel the path, the sooner the nerve cells will wire together and the sooner you will have integrated the new behavior.

Be kind to yourself — Set realistic goals and expectations. Backsliding (three steps forward, one step back) is completely normal. Keep yourself supported.

Be patient with yourself — Don’t undermine your success by rushing the process. It took years to create your habits. You’re not going to undo them in a week. Lasting change is a process. Give it the time and commitment you deserve.

This is from the conclusion of my new book Productivity for How You’re Wired available on Amazon. Many templates are included via the time tools link discussed in the book.