September arrives, and with it, the the desire to accomplish everything. On more than one day, tasks pile up, and you end the day feeling like you haven't accomplished anything. Starting from the premise that, as I told you, it's okay to have moments of NOT doing, you need to choose when to have those moments. Get organized better, and you'll achieve it.
After listening to many podcasts and reading books on time management, I've come up with a method that works. In this post, I'll tell you how to set priorities and organize yourself to have productive weeks in various aspects of your life.
Create personal inventories
This idea isn't mine; it's from Robin Sharma once again. The bestselling author of "The monk who sold his ferrariis my number one ally when it comes to preparing my weeks. He suggests creating these inventories or lists where you jot down your top actions in different areas of your life. For example, I have an inventory for my leisure time, another for my professional life, and a financial inventory.
For instance, my leisure inventory includes visiting my grandmother, taking a walk in the forest, going out to dinner with my partner, visiting my parents, a pilates class with my favorite instructor, or a meeting with friends.
On the other hand, in my professional inventory I've noted down actions that help me perform better in my day-to-day life: having all my email checked, keeping communication records up to date, or reviewing the planner every Monday planner to organize weekly priorities.
Now, let me explain why these inventories will be useful for you.
If you plan it, you'll do it
In the A3 planners I mentioned in previous posts of the pocket attitude, we need to have a column for each day of the week, and each row represents an hour. It's like a giant table of the time available for the entire week, including weekends.
I leave the hours of sleep unmarked because they are sacred to me. So, my days start at 6 a.m. and end at 11 p.m.
To save time on creating this table by hand every week, I bought these planners on Amazon, which are working really well for me. This way, I only have to note down the hours, which I do only on the left side.
I jot down what I have to do or want to do each week by the hour. This is where the inventories come into play. Each inventory should correspond to a color. For example, my professional tasks are in blue, my leisure plans are in pink, and my financial tasks are in green. Within leisure plans, you could differentiate between exercise, social activities, and knowledge. But that's for when you get the hang of planning.
El secreto de un buen equipo está en el orden, que todos sepan lo que hay que hacer.
Pep Guardiola
Seek balance
In addition to noting the things you want to do that week, the notes and colors will help you see if your week is balanced. If one color dominates too much, for example, the color for professional tasks, try to review and see where you can change or add an action from your leisure list.
The idea is that once your week is over, you can look back and feel fulfilled, knowing that you've had your moments in all the areas that are important to you.
For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.
Benjamin Franklin
So, get to work! Grab a piece of paper and a pen or get your weekly planners. Start thinking today about what you want to accomplish this week and how much time each task will take. Knowing what you have to do and whenwill save you time and help you make the most of it.
See you soon and happy reading!
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