We all have those days.
You have a million things to do.
You know what needs to be done.
But somehow…
You do nothing.
You look at the list.
You think about where to start.
You think about what should come first.
And suddenly your brain just goes:
Nope.
This is what I mean by the mental freeze.
And sometimes, the more overwhelmed we feel, the harder it becomes to do anything.
So today, I want to talk about pre-planning.
Not because we need to become more productive.
Not because we need to fill every minute of our day.
But because pre-planning can reduce the number of decisions we have to make when we are already overwhelmed.
Why do we freeze?
When we have a big to-do list, it can feel like everything needs to happen at once.
The washing.
The dishes.
The housework.
The emails.
The errands.
The work stuff.
The personal stuff.
The thing you’ve been putting off for three weeks.
And suddenly it all feels like one giant mountain.
So instead of climbing the mountain…
We stand at the bottom staring at it.
And sometimes we stay there.
This is where pre-planning can help.
Because instead of waking up and asking:
“What do I need to do today?”
You’ve already decided.
You already know.
And that can make things feel so much easier.
Question 1: What needs to happen?
If you have a massive list in your head, get it out.
You don’t need to organise it perfectly.
You don’t need a beautiful planner.
You don’t need colour-coded pens.
Just get the things out of your head.
What needs to happen this week?
What needs to happen this month?
What can wait?
What matters?
Sometimes we carry around this huge list of things that feel urgent…
When half of them don’t need to happen right now.
And that alone can reduce the mental load.
Question 2: Can you decide now instead of later?
This is the big one.
Instead of waiting until Saturday morning to decide what you’re going to do…
Decide now.
Instead of waking up and thinking:
“Should I clean today?”
Decide which day you’re going to clean.
Instead of thinking:
“When am I going to work on that course?”
Put it in the calendar.
Instead of thinking:
“I really need to sort out the garden.”
Pick a weekend.
The decision has already been made.
So, when that day arrives, you don’t have to spend your energy figuring out what to do.
You just do the thing.
One of my clients was moving house
One of my clients is currently selling her house and moving.
She also recently got married.
She has a stressful job.
So, there is a lot going on.
She was getting to the weekend and looking at everything that needed to be done around the house and thinking:
“I don’t even know where to start.”
So we broke it down.
We planned things across the weekends.
This weekend was gardening.
The next weekend was painting a particular room.
Another weekend was another job.
And suddenly, it wasn’t:
“I have to get the entire house ready.”
It was:
“This weekend, I just need to do this.”
Much easier.
And there was another benefit.
Because she knew what she was doing on the weekend, she could prepare during the week.
She could buy the paint.
She could get the gardening supplies.
She could pick things up while she was already out.
She wasn’t getting to Saturday morning and thinking:
“Shit. I don’t have anything I need.”
Pre-planning meant she could prepare.
And preparation removes barriers.
Question 3: What can you make easier?
This is something I love.
Don’t just think about what you need to do.
Think about how you can make it easier.
One of my clients works a rotating roster.
So having a Monday-to-Friday routine doesn’t really work for her.
Instead, we planned things around her days off.
Day one of your time off, you do this.
Day two, you do that.
Day three, you do this.
And we made things as easy as possible.
One of the little things we talked about was washing.
She was struggling with getting her washing done.
So I told her something I do when I’ve been on the tools.
I take my work clothes off and put them straight into the washing machine.
She loved the idea.
Because now, instead of thinking:
“When am I going to do the washing?”
It’s already part of the routine.
She gets home.
Work clothes go in.
Washing machine goes on.
And one thing is already moving.
That’s it.
Nothing complicated.
But she’s already ticked something off.
And sometimes that little feeling of:
“Yep. I’ve done something.”
is enough to get you moving.
Question 4: What decisions can you make in advance?
This doesn’t just work for chores.
It can work for bigger things too.
Maybe you’re studying.
Maybe you’ve got an assignment due.
Maybe you’re doing a course.
Maybe you’ve got a big project coming up.
Maybe there’s something you’ve been putting off because it feels too big.
You don’t have to do the whole thing today.
Look at your calendar.
If you know you need a full weekend to work on something, put it in.
If you know you need two weekends, put them in.
If you know you need an hour every Tuesday night, put it in.
Make the decision now.
Because when the time comes, you don’t have to think about whether you should do it.
You’ve already decided.
You can use the things around you
Sometimes we make things harder than they need to be.
We have calendars.
Timers.
Reminders.
Washing machines with timers.
Phone alarms.
Notes.
Lists.
Use them.
I use my washing machine timer.
I put the washing in.
I set it to finish in the morning.
And when I wake up, it’s ready.
That’s one less thing I have to think about.
It might seem like such a tiny thing.
But these tiny things add up.
The goal is to remove as many little decisions and barriers as we can.
And if you work a rotating roster?
Don’t worry about the days of the week.
Use your days off.
Day one.
Day two.
Day three.
Whatever works for you.
Maybe day one is washing and housework.
Maybe day two is errands.
Maybe day three is seeing your friends.
Maybe after night shift, you need a day just to feel like a human again.
That’s okay too.
The point isn’t to create the perfect schedule.
The point is to create something that works for you.
This isn’t about doing more
And I really want to make this clear.
We’re not pre-planning because we need to constantly get shit done.
We’re not trying to turn ourselves into productivity machines.
We’re doing it so we can stop freezing.
So instead of spending three hours overwhelmed and not knowing where to start…
We can get the thing done.
And then go and enjoy ourselves.
We can finish the chores in the morning and go see our friends.
We can work on the assignment and then watch our Netflix show.
Purposefully.
Not because we’re using Netflix to avoid something.
Because we’ve already done what we needed to do.
That’s the difference.
You don’t need a perfect system
There isn’t one perfect way to pre-plan.
Maybe you use a calendar.
Maybe you use your phone.
Maybe you write things on a piece of paper.
Maybe you plan your weekends.
Maybe you plan your days off.
Maybe you set timers.
Maybe you put things straight into a routine so you don’t have to think about them anymore.
It doesn’t matter.
What matters is that it reduces the amount of thinking you have to do when your brain is already tired.
Because sometimes we don’t need more motivation.
We just need fewer decisions.
The real purpose of pre-planning
Pre-planning isn’t about squeezing more out of yourself.
It’s about making life feel a little lighter.
It’s about looking at something that feels huge and breaking it into smaller pieces.
It’s about knowing what you’re doing before the overwhelm arrives.
It’s about removing the:
“Where do I even start?”
moment.
Because when you’ve already made the decision…
You don’t have to make it again.
And again.
And again.
Final Thought
You don’t have to do everything at once.
You don’t have to have your whole life figured out.
And you definitely don’t have to earn rest by completely exhausting yourself first.
Sometimes the kindest thing you can do for yourself is make a decision in advance.
Put it in the calendar.
Break it down.
Make it easier.
Remove the barriers.
And then let yourself move through it one thing at a time.
Because the goal isn’t to become someone who is constantly getting shit done.
The goal is to have enough space in your life to actually enjoy it.
So if you’re feeling overwhelmed right now…
Don’t ask yourself:
“How am I going to do all of this?”
Ask:
“What is the one thing I can decide now that will make this easier later?”
Start there.
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