Hi everyone. Jasmine here, and today is a very special episode of Productivity with Zest. Not only is it a sneak preview from More Zest, which is our private podcast inside the Productivity Gin, but it is also a birthday celebration. Productivity with Zest officially turns 1-year-old tomorrow. Can you believe it?

When I launched this podcast on the 17th of October, 2024, I had no idea how many of you would tune in, how many would message me and share their own aha moments. So before anything else, I just want to say thank you. Whether this is the first episode you’ve ever listened to or you’ve listened to all of them, I am so grateful that you take the time to listen.

And I love hearing how this is impacting your work and your life. So thank you. Because of you, productivity with Zest has now been downloaded over 5,700 times across 59 countries and 561 cities. 77% of you are here in the UK with Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, Birmingham, and London leading the way.

Not surprising with me living in the north of England, but we’ve also got listeners in Bordentown, New Jersey. You are officially my top US City

and actually 10% of my listeners are from the US so thank you so much for tuning in. Plus my other top countries are Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and Sweden. So hello, if you are tuning in in any of those places, I hope you are enjoying my Yorkshire accent, which is winging its way over to your ears, wherever you are. So we have now hit 38 full episodes, including six amazing guest interviews, plus three bonus episodes, and I’m honestly so grateful for every single listen message and share.

So today’s episode is my little thank you gift, another sneak peek from Inside the Productivity Gym and my More Zest Private podcast where we take the themes you hear on this podcast and actually train them together. So this episode is from our Planning and Organization series, and if you’ve ever fallen down a rabbit hole of new planners, fancy apps are endless to-do lists.

Then this one is for you. It’s called One Plan to Rule Them All. Nah, just pick something and stick to it. And a quick reminder, the Productivity Gym Doors closed tomorrow, Friday, the 17th of October. If you’ve been meaning to join from wherever you are in the world, now is the time. You’ll start with your productivity fitness test.

Get your personalized roadmap, access, live workshops, group coaching, co-working sessions, and the entire Moss podcast library , including episodes like this one, plus other ones on boundaries, energy management. Focus on much more. Okay, let’s get into today’s episode and talk about how to stop planning yourself into paralysis, and finally find a system that sticks.

 Today I wanted to kick off with one of the most popular areas that you guys are focusing on after taking the productivity fitness test, and that is planning an organization.

This episode is called One Plan to Rule Them All. Nah, just pick something and stick to it. So if you’ve already binge listened to Productivity with Zest, you’ll know I’ve said plenty on long-term dreaming and goals, monthly planning, weekly setups. So on this episode, we’re doing something a little bit different.

We’re gonna call it a planning audit and reset. After doing this planning audit, if you wanna delve deeper into your action point, head to my website, zest productivity.com/podcast and search for planning and organization in the topics. This will bring up all episodes tagged with this, and you can choose to listen to the most relevant one to you.

So step one in the planning, audit, and reset is take stock without the drama. You do not need to overhaul your whole life this week. Instead, take a deep breath and ask where exactly are things falling through the cracks right now? What systems are routines are feeling clunky, non-existent, or off? What used to work?

It just doesn’t anymore. Life’s changed. What areas feel chaotic, scattered, or rushed? You do not need a 12 tab spreadsheet to answer these questions. Just a simple notes app or your planner or a notebook, sticky notes, a 10 minute session with yourself. I’m sure things are popping into your brain. When I ask those questions, grab them, write them down. Step two is don’t fix everything. Zoom in now. This is where you pick just one area in the big area of planning an organization to focus on.

Pick the one that is causing you the most stress, or that is holding everything else back, or is the one thing that if improved, would have a ripple effect. Maybe your calendar isn’t a mess. Maybe it’s overbooked. There’s no margin. There’s no rest. There’s no space you haven’t got in the things that you want.

Like that walk in nature like that coffee with a friend, like that moment to just sit and read your book. Maybe you’re planning too much at once with all the tabs open and no follow through. You’ve fallen into that trap of multitasking. You know that you’re just task switching and trying to do too much though.

Maybe you’ve got great ideas, but zero follow up systems for capturing or actioning them. So they’re following by the wayside. And if you’re anything like me, I then feel frustrated about all the great ideas I have probably forgotten. So what we’re doing here is zooming in on the zooming in the productivity fitness test gave you a key area to work on, but we don’t wanna work on everything because that’s overwhelming.

We are zooming in on the zooming in. Step three is to visualize the after, and this is what we do in coaching. So coaching is all about fully understanding where you are now, fully understanding where you wanna be, and then working out your best steps. So this is what we’re doing today. We’re doing some self-coaching.

So before you start making some tweaks, visualize yourself in the future and ask yourself, how do I want to feel about planning? How do I want to feel in this area? What would organized look like for me? Not Pinterest perfect, but practical. Not looking at someone else’s curated, organized social feed, but what would it look like for you to feel organized?

We are all different and aiming for someone else’s idea of organization and a perfectly clear desk could make you feel claustrophobic or aiming for someone else’s Organized chaos could bring you out in hives. We are all different. So what do you want? Another question to ask yourself is, if I felt calm and clear, what would my day or week look like?

Let yourself imagine the you who’s not drowning in stickies and mental tabs. Who feels in control. This isn’t fluff. It gives your brain something to aim at, a version of planning that actually fits your life. Step four is to try one tweak, and here’s a challenge. Just try one of these things this week based on what came up.

You could try a daily top three instead of a 25 item list, a Friday planning ritual. Use just five to 10 minutes to prep next week a digital declutter to clear your desktop or inbox labels a physical declutter. So out your desk, your workspace, give it a good old dust. Out a read diffuser or light a candle spray a room spray.

Next time you’re working, throw away old papers and stuff that no longer serves you. Clearing away what you don’t need, either digitally or physically can have a really strong impact on you. You could try batching similar tasks like admin or social content for the week. You could set up a visual command center, a Trello board, use a whiteboard, post it, but just use one system for planning.

And remember, don’t do all of them. Just pick the one that feels doable. I have some reflection questions for you before we finish, for you to journal or just brain dump in the moment. What impact have my current planning habits had? Good or bad? What’s working that I want to keep? Where have I been making things more complicated than they need to be?

And what am I ready to let go of? So your planning isn’t broken? It’s just unaligned. You don’t need a new app. You don’t need a fancy planner. You need clarity and the courage to say, this is enough when it is. So this week, your mission is reflect and you can use the Zest in Action kit to do this. Pick one thing, make one small change and celebrate it, because that’s how we build productivity fitness, not all at once, but one rep at a time.

Until next time, let’s keep things S day and not

overwhelming.

 I really hope you enjoyed that sneak peek from inside Mozet. If you loved it, imagine having a full library of episodes like this. Released every other week, all designed to help you build your productivity fitness step by step with community support coaching and the structure to make it stick inside the productivity.

Gym members are working on everything from planning an organization to boundaries, focus, energy, even their procrastination habits and prioritization. Each month, they tackle one key area with live workshops, mini toolkits, and plenty of accountability. And this is your final call.

The doors close tomorrow night, Friday, the 17th of October. And when they’re due, they won’t open again until January. So if you’ve been listening for a while and thinking, I just need that nudge, that structure, that consistency, this is it. Give it a try. Go to zest productivity.com/tpg to join before the doors close.

And if you’re listening to this after, make sure you get on the wait list so that you are ready when the doors reopen again next year in 2026. Same link zest productivity.com/tpg because I’d love to see you inside and help you turn all this inspiration into action. And finally, a huge thank you again for being part of Productivity with Zest this past year.

Whether you’ve listened from the school running leads or the commute in New Jersey, you’ve helped me turn an idea into something truly special, and we’re just getting started. Here’s to more clarity, more calm, and more zest. Have a great day.