How to Avoid Overwhelm and Find Peace in Your Day: A Faith-Based Approach to Productivity
Episode #6: How to Avoid Overwhelm and Find Peace in Your Day: A Faith-Based Approach to Productivity
When Life Claws Back: Finding Calm in the Chaos
If you’ve ever felt pulled in a hundred directions, today’s episode is for you.
Val shares her personal story of learning to manage her days with grace, structure, and a whole lot of faith — even when life gets messy (or when your cat literally claws you awake!).
After years of juggling full-time ministry, raising 15 children, and building a business, Val discovered the power of margin — that white space in life that keeps us from running on empty.
In this episode, she shares:
✅ How to plan your days without packing them full
✅ The importance of morning routines that set the tone
✅ Why “less is more” applies to both design and daily life
✅ A personal story from this week that proves margin really works
✅ The simple 3-step approach she uses to balance business, home, and faith
You’ll walk away feeling inspired to slow down, prioritize what truly matters, and invite peace back into your day — no matter how busy life gets.
Transcript
Hello, Val Frania here again with episode six of Flipping Furniture for Profit. I'm glad you're here. Today we're gonna talk about managing our days to avoid overwhelm. I was going to talk about antiques today, whether we should paint them or not. That's a really controversial subject, and I have definite opinions about that, but I'm going to put that off for next week. I was talking to a new flipper friend just a few days ago, and she was telling me about how, you know, in starting her business and starting, you know, learning all of the ins and outs of furniture redesign and paints and that kind of thing, that she was feeling overwhelmed. So we chatted for quite a while. I gave her a few tips and I thought, well, maybe we'll talk about this in episode six. So that's what we're going to do today, along with many other things that I do.
Val Frania (:I'm a graphic designer, and if I want my design to stand out and grab attention, I need to leave some white space or, you know, margin around my graphic. My copy needs to be short to the point and catch it, you know, to grab the attention of the people I am trying to serve or talk to. Some of the things I keep in mind when I design is "a dot is a lot," and "less is more." This one's my favorite. "A line is a dot that went for a walk," and those remind me that our lives need white space too. We can't go full speed every day and expect to live joyful, productive lives. Maybe you are feeling overwhelmed.
Val Frania (:When we push too hard, our over our outlook suffers. And believe it or not, our productive productivity does too. Overwhelm steals our joy and keeps us from putting out our best work. So our lives consist of a bunch of dots that when all put together are supposed to create a beautiful picture, one that honors God, and, and also blesses those around us. And really that's all we want, isn't it, to know that we've made a difference in this life, but we can't have a victorious, beautiful life that honors God if we're constantly worried and afraid, discouraged or overwhelmed. All those emotions we face as entrepreneurs trying to build something meaningful that blesses others and provides for our families too. So how do I know? Because I spent years living and overwhelm.
Val Frania (:Just as I think I've mastered the balance, life reminds me that I am still learning. So let me tell you what happened today. Last night I came home after nine days away, we have been spending a good share of our summer, putting together a permanent campsite with a new trailer. And I ended up staying over. We had only been going up weekends, but I ended up staying through the week to the next weekend, which meant I was away from home nine days because I had to meet up with someone that was gonna fix something in the trailer. So I ended up staying back. Anyway this morning I woke at 6:00 AM in terrible pain. My cat Mia, who sleeps tucked up under my chin, must have had a bad dream because she bolted awake and launched herself off of me with her back claws slicing into my ring finger and my arm on her way out.
Val Frania (:She's done this before. It's not a big surprise, and it's because I neglected to trim her claws.
The garden needs attending before I leave again. And we were nearly out of cat food (and I can't make that at the trailer.) Laundry had to be done. And yeah, two podcast episodes need to be written, recorded, and uploaded along with all the other stuff that goes along with it. And to top it all off, when I was reaching for the Turkey bone broth I needed for the cat food, the lid apparently wasn't sealed because when I tipped it, the content spilled all over my pantry shelves and all over the stuff that was on the floor. It was a total mess.
Val Frania (:And I had to do all this stuff one handed because of my cut finger. So how am I not overwhelmed? Well, I did start to be overwhelmed, to be honest. I could feel it creeping in, but then I stopped and reminded myself, I've got systems and if you know me, you've heard about them because I like to talk about 'em. I've got routines. I've learned to keep margin in my days because I've built structure into my mornings and priorities in my life. Unexpected chaos does not throw me into panic anymore. I've learned to pivot to keep my peace even when life goes sideways, like this morning's claw attack. But it wasn't always this way during the years that we were in full-time ministry back in Michigan, just looking back on it, it's like one big blur.
DH was assistant to the pastor, and I was the, I was the overachiever, and I always have been that way. I started ladies discipleship in evenings. I taught Sunday school. I was in the choir along with a lot of my kids. We were both busy in the youth program, which was another evening. I was a church and school photographer. I was the yearbook advisor. I did all the church and school publications. And on top of that, I was teaching full-time, 11 of our kids in our church school's independent study class, all in different grades, along a half a dozen other kids in the school were in my classroom. And plus I had to track four more of our kids in the school's.traditional classrooms, you know, homework, making sure it's done, making sure they're keeping their grades up, handling issues with their behavior and conflicts and all that stuff.
Val Frania (:We were raising 15 kids, many with special needs, and you can imagine it what that meant, 24/7. So yes, I was busy. Now how did I do it? Well, I learned to schedule, manage and innovate. When something didn't work, I had to figure out a way to make it work. But I do wish I could have done it without the overwhelm, because with the overwhelm then comes doubt and discouragement, always thinking I wasn't doing enough. I don't know, looking back on that time, I don't know what I was thinking, but being an overachiever plus I tended to be a perfectionist.
So many of our evenings were taken up just being with our kids and helping in the concessions. And I was the photographer, the sports photographer as well. So you can imagine how busy our life was. I didn't have margin though, you know, I would stay up till 2:00 AM and get up at 6:00 AM. It just, it was a blur. And I remember talking to my principal and telling him that I was so overwhelmed and he just gave me two words, which really surprised me. Two words of advice. Can you guess what they were? He said, do less. I didn't know how to do less back then, but that has stuck with me through the years, especially during these years of being an entrepreneur in the flipping furniture business. I have tried to keep that in mind as I am working out a way to really enjoy, even though being super busy, I have a couple verses that have really helped me over the past few years of getting that margin in place and understanding I don't have to do it all.
Val Frania (:Ecclesiastes 12:13 says, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man." And then I Corinthians 4:2, "Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." Those verses remind me that my only real obligation is to faithfully honor God and with everything that goes along with that in my personal and business life. And to understand that I am to use the talents and abilities that he's given me within the time and opportunities that arise. So if I'm doing my best in those things in the time allowed, then I'm right where I need to be. No more overwhelm, no more doubting, no more, no more frustration. And when I remember to apply that truth
Now, how do I balance it all? Now, there's a whole lot more to this. I'm just gonna give you a few key things, and in the future we'll talk more. I'll give you some of my experience on how to manage my day, both personal, you know, obligations and business obligations and always be moving forward. But let's talk a little bit about practical stuff. I just have three key points for you, for now, more later. Number one, decide your priorities and stick to them. Don't let the urgent crowd out the important. Add other things only as time allows. Two, start with a morning routine. This is so important. I took a, with Brennan Bouchard's, a, program. I took a self, personal development course. This was several years ago and it really made a difference. And this is where I got this morning routine thing in place, and I've done it ever since.
Val Frania (:And it's helped tremendously because how you begin your day sets the tone for the whole day. So I have my routine all laid out and faithfully, I follow it. It makes such a difference. I, one of the things I like to do is get my personal stuff and my housework out of the way in the first hour so I don't stress about it later or feel guilty for not doing enough. That is a common problem with furniture flippers because, you know, we're creative artists, you know, we'd rather just paint all day, right? And, you know, get other things done because it feels like that it is such an obligation to stick with our business and make it work. But we also have personal stuff to do, laundry and dishes, and the floor needs mopping and the bathroom needs cleaning. And that's one of the things that I hear a lot from furniture flippers that it's hard to balance, you know, your personal responsibilities in the home and you know, with family and, you know, we've got grandkids too.
Val Frania (:So if we get, you know, if we can balance that out, it makes such a difference. So that's why I do that the first hour to get outta the way. Okay, number three. And this one applies to the furniture flipping because I hear often that people are saying, I just don't have time to paint. I don't have time to get my, you know, furniture done. But you can just do one thing every day that will move your business forward. Even small steps count, it builds momentum. We'll talk more about that in the future. I have, my members, the people in the Blueprint, they know I talk about this all the time because it's so important that you do even if it's a small thing. Even if it's just laying out your drop cloth. Do one thing each day to move the needle. And one of my favorite principles is, "Eat the frog first."
Val Frania (:Now, this is a tough one. I struggle with this one, but "Eat the frog first," means that, means doing the hardest thing or the one that you're most tempted to avoid first thing in the morning. Once it's done, you feel lighter and more focused and feel like you can move on with your day. And no more things stressing you out, stressing you out. I'm a list writer through and through, though some, you know, there's something so satisfying about crossing things off. I've recently started using the Bullet Journal method. I'll let you know how that goes after a few weeks. But to be able to cross things off as you accomplish them is really the reward in itself. And even if I don't have something on my list, and I did it, and it was an important thing, I'll write it down and cross it off.
Val Frania (:There's so much more I could tell you about how I stay productive in my personal life and furniture flipping business. I'll save that for another episode. But for today, I just wanna remind you to give yourself a margin. Find something you know, in that margin. You know, even I even tell people to plan fun things to do, you know, and that's one of the reasons that we decide to buy a trailer and get a permanent campsite because it's really good to get a change of scenery and to put your feet up and just relax and enjoy life. And then you, when you get back at the work, back at your responsibilities, you can do it so much happier. You can be so much more productive if you're not burned out. And it gives you peace, honestly, you'll find you're more creative, more focused if you're at peace.
Val Frania (:So give yourself margin and figure into your schedule some fun things, some things that you enjoy doing. Honestly painting furniture.
Let's see if we can stir the pot a little bit. If you're interested in some helpful tips, especially if you're a new flipper, grab my guide for new flippers: ValFrania.com/flipforprofit. That's ValFrania.com/flipforprofit and you'll be able to download, I think it's four or five pages of tips that will help you put stuff together that will make life easier as you're flipping. You have a great rest of your week. I know I'm going to, and let me know if this was helpful to you and if you have any tips yourself that I can share. Have a great week.
