I have decided that my life needs more organization. Those of you who ever visited my formally messy home in Cincinnati will appreciate the truth of this statement. Moving to San Francisco allowed me to get rid of a lot of stuff, and I have been continuing to downsize and organize what’s left ever since I got here. But there are so many things to do, and only so many hours in a day, so I get off track and don’t make a lot of progress sometimes.
All the time management gurus are now emailing newsletters about accomplishing the goals you set for yourself for 2010. The year is more than half over and they are asking how it is going. I must say that while some things are going forward well, other things are not. I am following up on a lot of good suggestions, but I tend to over-commit and then not have enough time to do everything I have committed to do. Not some of my best work, I will admit.
So I sat down to look at my life and decide what are the three most important goals I have, not just for 2010, but always. For me, those were easy to identify. I want to maintain my health and wellness. I want to maintain my relationships with the people I love. And I want to have a good livelihood doing work I love that really helps people.
Once I identified my goals, I looked at the next level of achieving them. What strategies do I need to accomplish my goals? For example, what strategies do I need to maintain my health and wellness? Again, when I looked at it like that, the answer was easy – eating right, exercising, and meditating.
The final step is to take each strategy and break it down into a series of tasks. For example, eating right involves buying and eating healthy food in proper proportions at reasonable times. Once I have identified what tasks are needed, I can decide whether I want to invest the time to do them myself or ask for help (depending upon my available time and budget).
When all my tasks support my strategies which then in turn help me achieve my goals, I feel better about the process. It’s not just some long to-do list, but actual progress toward creating what I want out of life. Looking at what I need to do within this kind of structure allows me to build on something as I move forward. I have found it very helpful. Hopefully, you will too! Enjoy!