Do you feel stressed when you look at your desk and distract yourself so you don’t have to deal with it?
Do you find yourself spending a lot of time doing your “to-dos” but feeling like you’ve hardly done a thing?
Do you need to boost your productivity and sharpen your focus?
When you finally sit down to do your to-dos, do you know what to do?
Do your paper piles seem like they are growing bigger by the day with no end in sight?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, chances are you need help managing your actionables.

What are actionables?

Actionables are paper that needs action to be taken from it. In the Prepare to Act System ™, tasks are identified by actions such as call, event and pending. The action word will automatically tell you the main action you need to perform. To do does not. That only tells you you need to do something but not what to do.

An example of an actionable would be your dentist sending you a postcard reminding you it’s time for your annual check-up. Not only do you need to manage the postcard with the number to schedule your appointment, but, you need to actually perform the task of calling the dentist.

Seems simple enough right?

Well, unless you are that one in a billion person that can do a to-do as soon as you get it, each and every time, you will have to look at your calendar to see when you will have time to call the dentist.

Not only that, but you have to look at your calendar to see when you can make an appointment to visit the dentist.

Maybe before you schedule your visit, you have to check in with your boss, employees, partner, kids or higher self (to tell you it’s ok to take some time off for self-care).

Let’s not forget (no pun intended), to remind ourselves to call AND go to our appointment. Bells and whistles, as annoying as they can be, can be your best friends if you use them right.

And you thought all you just had to do was just pick up the phone and call them?

Maybe in the 1950s, it was that simple. But in today’s world, it just simply is not.

Having Time to Do Your To-dos

So let’s just say you know all the tasks and sub-tasks needing to be done to accomplish your to-do, now you have to actually take the time to do them.

The problem with most people’s way of handling to do’s is to put them in a big pile of other to do’s and say they will spend the day the coming weekend getting caught up.

But the weekend comes and Mark and Gina have invited you to sail around the bay while listening to yacht rock (that’s an actual station on Alexa and it’s fabulous) while drinking mimosas. That pile of to-dos doesn’t stand a chance against yacht rock and you find yourself saying, once again, “I’ll do it next weekend.”

Finally, you find that weekend six months later and now what might have taken half a day to get caught up turns into the whole weekend, if not longer.

Sounds exhausting right?

If you don’t have a simple system in place to manage your actionables so they don’t pile up to epic proportions, then you’re darn right it will be exhausting.

The Prepare Act System ™ To The Rescue

Well, now there’s a way to transform your exhaustion into efficiency with my Prepare to Act System ™.

After spending years feeling overwhelmed and burden from all the tasks and responsibilities in my life that seem to multiply like Gremlins, I was inspired to create this system.

As my task list grew, my stress levels grew, my productivity decreased and my sleepless nights increased. It was a vicious cycle. Fed up, I thought there had to be an easier way to manage it all.

As much as I wanted to sit down for hours and work on my tasks (ya, I’m that person) being a business owner and single mom I had to accept the reality that I only had small chunks of time to get things done. I was basically forced into finding more efficient ways to handle it all.

Through trial and error, I developed each and every step to be easy and flexible whether I had 15 minutes or 5 hours to work on my tasks.

The more I practiced each step in the system, the more efficient I became. As I became more efficient, my stress levels decreased, my productivity levels increased and my overall sense of well being dramatically improved.

As an unexpected benefit, both my clients and I have noticed practicing each step in the system has re-trained our brains to become more effective decision-makers, better planners and more clear and focused thinkers.

What I have discovered about tasks is the majority of the work is not in doing the task itself, but in the prep work necessary to perform the task. For example, finding the number, scheduling the call and reminding yourself to make the call. The more prep work can be done, the better the chances of the task getting done. Hence, the inspiration for the name of The Prepare to Act System ™.

Instead of waiting for your to-do pile to pile up so high that it becomes too overwhelming to deal with it, why not try chipping away at it a little at a time, getting little mini wins along the way and a sense of feeling productive and accomplished?

Using my exclusive 7 step approach, this system is designed to handle actionables in a step by step way. Each step is easy to accomplish and leaves you knowing exactly what the next step is.

Instead of just telling yourself to do it, the Prepare to Act System ™ teaches you how to ask more detailed questions like:

What needs to be done?
When does it need to be done by?
What do you need to do it?
How long will it take?

You’ll then learn how to take that information, store it where it can be found easily and take action on it promptly when you’re ready to and set reminders to alert you when it needs to be done.

Not only that, but the system helps you to corral your incoming papers that need only to be filed and dispose of the papers that require no action or filing.

A Clear Desk = A Clear Mind

In addition to helping you get your actionables under control, you’ll learn how to get your desk under control. A cluttered desk can impact your productivity, focus, creativity, and clarity. Not to mention really stress you out. Using my exclusive Stressed? Stop and Sort strategy ™, you will learn how you can clear your desk in 15 minutes or less and get your brain back to a state of calm and focus.

But Wait There’s More

Along with that, you will learn other strategies like Think in Threes ™, the 5 Ws ™, and At Least ™. These exclusive, brain re-training strategies will increase your decision making speed, reduce overwhelm and boost efficiency making your to-dos get completed faster than you thought possible.

Easy to set up and easy to learn, I’ll walk you through how to put the pieces of the system together using the following items:

That’s it!

Clearing the Mess To Relieve Your Stress!

Once you get your actionables under control, you will feel a sense of peace of mind and control. You will find you have more time throughout your day to do the things you enjoy and truly matter. Your stress levels will reduce dramatically and you will no longer feel at the mercy of your to-dos.