Beginners guide to organize life - Part 3

So I am late by two days to post this blog post..... party party all around.

With just 11 days remaining to 2019 I am in a super-panicky mode.

Every year I make almost a zillion plans and I am high on energy and happy that I'll do them all. As the year progresses some become a part of my life, some are guests for a few days and some are readily forgotten.

As December approaches, it starts making me sad and depressed and I panic most times thinking that another year has gone by and I haven't done much. Where's my life heading... nowhere, it is where it was a year back..no changes.

When most people are merry making new plans and celebrating, I do attend parties but at times sulking inside.

Things have changed a bit since I have started organizing and planning my days, some part of which I share here, and so I hope it'll be better in 2019.

At times the question is not planning but expectations. And I fear the most is the expectations I have from myself. It is these expectations that make me want to work at times go beyond what my body wants.

This made me think of the importance of our body and the rhythm that our mind, body and soul have. When all the three are in sync we are elated and when either of these is going in a different direction I feel stressed and I won't be wrong in saying frustrated to some extent.

So this is what brought me to this entire set up of organizing life.

It is to set a routine, a system for oneself. A very specific and personalized system. It works as per one's mind, body and soul's rhythm.

So far, we have about 3 lists. I know many people don't like to write so I have a way out for that as well, which you can see as a cheat-code at the end.

Well I am one of the "lists-people" and so I work accordingly and today we'll be collating all the three lists that we have made to date through my blog posts - part 1 and part 2.

Now using these 3 we can work on our yearly goals or plans.

The best way to do this is by working in reverse order and so we need to put a date and day to every activity or event.

This process can be easily done on pen and paper where one has made the lists or on spreadsheet by using another column ahead.

The idea is to break all of these down and get a clear picture of - yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and finally daily goals.

It may get tedious at first and one may feel mechanical in doing this but that is just the initial phase.

Infact it helps in checking the rhythm. If one is feeling tedious or stressed, it means one needs to challenge out fewer things per day and insert some more free time.

For example -

The below mentioned is one of my TO-DOs and TO-BEs  on Nov 25th. Just the sight of same was giving me jitters as how I will manage it.

Nov 25th

Sandra's Birthday Party
Book reading event
TEDx event
Guests will be home for dinner
Conference-Video-call to girls

So I decided to cancel everything except going to the TEDx event and hosting the guests for dinner. If in between I get more time I'll make that conference video call to my girls.

I don't want to pinpoint a minimum or maximum number of activities for a day let your body, mind and soul decide it for you.

Some may function more with more tasks at hand and others may feel burdened by the same. The customization is the key to doing it and enjoying it.

So listen to closely to your internal system to build your functional system.

Now for the cheat-code......for people who are averse to list making, or anything to do with writing, the tip is simple...if you have got all the three lists till now, that will take us through. No further writing or making lists. Just an hour with your phone and the calendar installed. Now pick what you need to do and what you want to do, on the date chosen by you with a reminder. Follow the system here as well. If you know you'll need more than one reminder do so, if you need a reminder few days before, do so too.

Try it and let me know what worked or didn't worked for you.

Every alternate Wednesday is dedicated to stories or instances or learnings that I learn or implement at work. So stay tuned for #WorkWednesdays