Have you ever felt like no matter how hard you work or how well you plan, your to-do list just keeps getting longer and longer?

Many of us are constantly trying to manage an overwhelming number of tasks, finding ourselves barely scratching the surface of our to-do lists, despite our best efforts.

But what if I told you that the answer might be simpler than you think?

By the time you finish listening to today’s episode of Unshakable Habits, you’ll find out:

• Why time management tools often fail you and what you should really be focusing on instead.
• The surprising truth about why you can't seem to get ahead of your tasks, no matter how hard you try.
• A simple yet powerful skill that you can develop to regain control of your time and priorities.

When you finish listening, I'd love to hear your biggest takeaway from today’s episode. Take a screenshot of you listening on your device, share it to your Instagram stories and tag me, @UnshakableHabits

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Do you in most days feel like you've barely even scratched

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the surface on your to do list?

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On today's episode, I'm going to share with you a simple skill that

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you can develop that is going to help you take back control of your time.

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That's coming up next, right here on the Unshakable Habits Podcast.

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The right habits can help you have it all.

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More time, better health, improved relationships, and less stress.

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But most people lack the tools to stick with those habits

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long enough to see results.

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That is about to change.

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Welcome to Unshakable Habits with your host, Stephen Box.

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It's time to take your habits from unsustainable to unshakable.

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Welcome back.

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I am your host, Stephen Box, and this is episode number 68 of

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the Unshakable Habits Podcast.

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Today, we are talking about the skill that you need to develop.

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If you are finding yourself barely scratching your to do list most days.

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And just a quick story I wanted to share with you guys about something

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that, where I can relate to this, right?

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A few years ago, I launched the podcast and it was a time in my life that was

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probably not honestly the best idea.

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And my intention really wasn't even to honestly launch the podcast.

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I went in with this intention of setting up my accounts, just getting things

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ready so that when I was ready to do it, it would be there and within, I

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want to say maybe a couple of days, memory's a little fuzzy on it, but I

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want to say it was within a few days, I was already getting inundated with

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people going, I love the name, Unshakable Habits, want to be on your show.

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and keep in mind I had never published a single episode.

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No one had heard anything out of me.

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This was totally new.

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Just based on the name, people were like, I love it.

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I want to be on it.

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I want to be a guest.

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I want to come talk about habits.

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And so all of a sudden I had all these people and I want to say maybe it was

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around about 30 people when all was said and done who wanted to be on the podcast.

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And I'm replying to emails and scheduling because I didn't want

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to let these people go, right?

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We're always told, especially in business and in sales,

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get people while they're hot.

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And these were hot people, right?

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They wanted to be on the show now.

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And I felt this obligation to get them on the show.

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And I just, I had a lot going on personally at that time.

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And it probably wasn't really the best time for me to launch.

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There's a reason why my initial intention was just to get my stuff set up.

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I knew I didn't really have the bandwidth for it, but I

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felt obligated to take it on.

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And I think this is something that a lot of you might be able to relate

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to, is you have a lot of things on your plate and it feels honestly

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like they all need to be there.

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They all feel super important, which brings me to what

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we're talking about today.

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And that is this skill that I personally had to develop, and I'm

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going to share with you today so that you can also utilize this skill

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to take back control of your time.

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before we can really dive into the skill, we need to dive into

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this topic a little bit deeper.

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So if you are someone out there who is finding yourself really, I'm going

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to say at least a two to three times a week, maybe more, barely touching that

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to do list, barely scratching the surface on it, then you probably have some

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other things that are going on as well.

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For example, you might be bringing work home with you on a pretty

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regular basis, or maybe you're constantly having to check your emails

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or your text messaging from work.

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at night or even on the weekends when you're supposed to be spending time

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with family, which then of course leads to a lot of conflict at home, right?

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You end up arguing with your spouse because you're constantly distracted,

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you feel disconnected from the family, maybe you're missing out on

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events that are important to you.

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it's one of those things where you feel like, man, I really want

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to be able to have this balance.

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I want to be able to spend time with my family.

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I want to feel connected with my spouse, but I also recognize that work

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is really important and I need to be able to take care of these things.

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And so you, again, going back to what I was saying before, in my example,

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where you just feel like everything is so important and it has to be there.

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And you might be feeling like, man, how do I balance all of this out?

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How do I make this happen?

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And I find for a lot of people, especially those who.

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are successful with work.

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A lot of times the struggle is why is it that I can be successful over here, but

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I can't be successful everywhere else,

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Now, the real issue here is, and this might feel obvious, but maybe you

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haven't stopped to think about it.

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It's that you simply have too much on your plate you may have heard that

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before people it's Oh, you just need to you know cut back or better manage

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your time or things like that but the reality is Again, all of those things

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feel super important how do we take some of those things off of our plate really

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starts to become the question, right?

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I'm willing to bet that you have Tried time management tools You've

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tried being more productive, right?

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You've tried to do time blocking or different techniques

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to get more work done.

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You've maybe trying to set some boundaries at work but the time management thing

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really ends up not working out for you.

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Now, here's the thing.

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I want to be very clear about this.

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It makes sense when we think about time management that The

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problem is I have a lack of time.

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I need to better learn to manage my time.

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The problem with time management is it focuses on this idea of arranging things.

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And when you're already over committed, rearranging your time using time

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management tools is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, right?

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It doesn't matter how efficiently you organize the chairs.

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The ship is sinking and the chairs aren't going to stop it from happening, right?

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That's a lot of times what happens when we're trying to use time management

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tools and we're just basically Taking the pieces that are already there and

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moving them around and we're trying to figure out why is the ship still sinking?

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The question is, what does work?

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What can you do that's actually going to help you to get

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those results that you want?

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And the good news is, it's actually really simple.

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And it's learning to say no.

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Now, maybe when I said that, your very first thought was, I can't say no.

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Too hard.

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Not gonna do it.

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Don't like to be the person who says no.

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And look, I get it.

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When I feel like I'm adding value to other people, that fires me up, right?

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So I get why it can be very difficult to say no, but I had to learn to do it.

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Because the reality is, not everything on your plate is as important as it

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seems to be right now, I had to get my values, my priorities in line.

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I had to figure out, What was important?

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It gives you control of your schedule and it allows you to decide what is truly

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important and what is not so important.

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Now if you're sitting there right now listening to my voice and

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you're saying, Okay Stephen, I'm not 100 percent sure I can do this.

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But I see the value in it and I recognize that if I learn to say no, it can help me.

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But I am a little bit worried about doing this.

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I am worried about ruffling feathers, upsetting people, disappointing

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people, all those things.

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If that's the case, I want to invite you back to our next episode because

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I'm going to give you a framework for how to say no without disappointing

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people without sounding like a jerk without coming across as being This

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selfish self absorbed person i'm going to show you how to say no without any

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of those negative things happening, that's going to be on our next episode.

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And if you enjoyed today's episode, if you got that value out of it, and

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you want to be that person who, helps other people out, I would very much

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appreciate if you guys could leave us a review on either Apple or Spotify,

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whichever one you're listening to right now, that would really help us out

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in terms of the growth of the show.

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And with that.

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I want to remind you, as always, that while none of us are born unshakable,

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we can all become unshakable.