Last month, after reading Coley’s post, How to Create Your Own Get Your Shit Together (GYST) Day and going down a YouTube rabbit hole watching Kalyn Nicholson (the gal Coley learned the GYST Day concept from), I challenged myself to try a GYST Day.
You can read my blog post about trying out a GYST Day over on my blog.
Coley read my post and thought it would be interesting to share out how my GYST Day went, and here we are!
A GYST Day’s main purpose is two-fold:
1) Get tasks done that usually get neglected throughout the week.
2) Complete tasks that will set you up well for the next week. With that in mind, a GYST to-do list should be broken down into the following categories: maintain, prep, and self-care buckets.
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Tips from my GYST Day experiment
Tip 1: Write down your GYST list the day before you have it
I wrote out my GYST list the day before I had my GYST Day, and I did that because I wanted to think as logically as possible about how to execute it (this was my first time trying one out), and for me, thinking through execution takes time and preparation.
If I had written it out the morning of and tried to execute, I know I would’ve felt more stressed out because there were a lot of menial tasks that I needed to get done in the “maintain” category, and I hate mundane tasks (which is why they are neglected during the week 😂). Writing those tasks out the night before allowed me to better mentally prepare for having to deal with those tasks.
Tip 2: Start early and do the tasks that you hate first
If you’re going to be getting your shit together, then it makes sense to wake up early and get the ball rolling so you have plenty of time to execute and be productive. The night before, I made sure to went to bed at a reasonable hour and got plenty of sleep. I woke up well-rested and ready to tackle my GYST list.
As I mentioned, I despise mundane tasks, which my “maintain” bucket was full of. Doing the tasks that I hate first was a strategy I employed so they wouldn’t be lingering in the back of my mind throughout the day as well as using Gretchen Rubin’s “Power Hour” philosophy to mentally help me get my nagging tasks done. Because of this, my personal efficiency felt higher throughout my GYST day because I wasn’t dreading the future tasks that I needed to get done – I had done all the annoying to-do’s first.
Tip 3: Take short breaks to check off your list and assess next steps
Checking off a to-do list is a simple pleasure in my life, so taking the time to check off the tasks that I completed felt rewarding.
On top of that, it also allowed me to reassess my list and determine what items should be done next.
After my “maintain” category was complete, I wanted to multi-task as best as I could to knock down tasks as efficiently as possible. I mixed my “prep” tasks together with my “self-care” tasks, which was quite easy to do.
For example, I put on a face mask before I decided what to cook for the week, then I placed an online order for groceries, and then I rinsed off the face mask – pretty simple way to knock out multiple tasks at once.
When I was walking my dog, I thought about potential outfit options for an upcoming family photoshoot, and then when we got back inside, I knew what to pull out of my closet to try on and see if the outfit looked like how I imagined it would.
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My GYST Day results
The day I dedicated to getting my shit together, I had all morning and until 2 pm to do it.
I began around 8am with my “maintain” tasks, which I was able to complete all of them in two hours total (it would’ve been like 1.5 hours but laundry takes a while to dry!). It was a gorgeous fall day so I walked my dog multiple times and thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine beating down on us.
Deciding what to cook for the week, ordering and getting groceries delivered, and actually meal prepping two meals was the most time-consuming series of related tasks, but I was able to finish that by 2 pm.
From the entire list, the only to-do I didn’t do was lifting weights for 30 minutes. Usually, I would’ve felt bad about this, but I went on multiple walks with my dog and later in the day, my best friend came over, and we walked outside, too, so I took advantage of the great weather in lieu of lifting weights and didn’t feel bad about it.
Overall, I appreciated the structure and thoughtfulness behind the GYST Day as well as the intentionality behind weaving in self-care for yourself, too. It also felt like a sustainable way to approach a laundry list of to-do’s.
I definitely will be incorporating more GYST Days in my life and would love to hear about any GYST Days that y’all do or have done and your own tips ‘n tricks.
