Systems for Ease
As I write this blog, we are in our second winter of the pandemic and closing in on the 1-year mark of when COVID-19 started to impact our lives.
I remember the week leading up to the announcement of restrictions on travel, and our daily habits. I was actually visiting Kingston, part family trip but for the most part a work trip. The work part involved connecting with the wonderful Kingston-based team members that support Find Your Voice Music Therapy’s clients. Little did I know that this would be the end of my quarterly trips to Ontario until… well we still don’t know.
The impact of this pandemic has been staggering. There were many ups and downs in those early days as the therapists at Find Your Voice Music Therapy had to juggle shifting all in person services to online so that we could continue to support our clients who are vulnerable and often isolated.
We saw a glimmer of hope this fall: some shifts back to in-person and a sense that we would soon be able to fully support our clients. Then, we were again in a lock down for our Kingston location. Financial struggles continue for many individuals and organizations that we serve, often leaving them unable to access the support they need through our music therapy and counselling services.
As I have shared in prior blogs, I suffer from anxiety and, as you can well imagine, these times have pushed every trigger for me. My anxiety manifests in over-control, perfectionism and endless ‘to-do-list’ building. I have been wrangling this beast since I was a little girl. The 5-year-old me had a specific way that my stuffed animals had to be placed on my bed when it was being made. I shifted this to list building what I was going to wear each month and so it continues into business today.
My need for list building, over control and perfectionism in business has been one of my biggest struggles. There are many things to remember as an entrepreneur, so lists are absolutely necessary, but the longer the list gets the more my anxiety increases. This pushes my need for control and my perfectionism is always along for the ride.
In my past journals, I have talked about the space that I was trying to create for myself, and the self-care habits that I try to use to stay in a place of light. But the reality is that as a business owner there remains a need to find practical tools to help manage the business.
During 2020 the to-do-list was endless. I was updating and rewriting this to-do-list often, ultimately increasing my anxiety. I needed to make a change – so it was time to lean into my strengths.
I am a highly organized person by nature so I knew it was time to embrace something that would make the list manageable, help me prioritize and ultimately, I was praying it would help with my anxiety. I started to work with a cloud-based project management tool. I chose Asana, but there are many out there like Trello and Monday.
What has Asana provided for me?
Clarity: with the organization of my lists in a systematic way to ensure that I am focusing on what is most important with my business- providing the best care possible to the clients we serve
Collaboration: tool to communicate with colleagues and team members to manage projects, responsibilities and timelines
Comfort: the cultivation of trust in knowing that with a well organized system I can “just be” in the natural flow of the entrepreneurial journey.
Managing workflow can be overwhelming at times, especially amidst a pandemic! My hope is that this journal entry invites you to find ways to cultivate an abundance of ease. If you’re finding the creation of a workflow system daunting please reach out! I would be happy and honoured to hold space for you!
