General Organization Suggestions to Organize Your Life Since organization is a necessary practical skill we all need at some time in our lives, here are a few practical suggestions to organize your life:
1. Gain motivation to organize your life by
asking yourself the question, "What is my motivating vision?" It's important to always remind yourself of why you are doing what you are doing. This helps you get through the tough times much easier. 2. Set some long-term goals. Long-term goals for me are goals that take years to accomplish. All goals need to be ownable (goals you really want to do), reachable (goals you can actually reach), and measurable (goals you know when you have reached them). 3. Set some short-term goals. Short-term goals for me take place over a matter of months. Short-term goals are like "benchmarks" that help us determine if we
are on track to reaching our long-term goals or if we need to adjust what we are doing to reach long-term goals better. 4. Why neglect personal growth goals? One thing I always have found interesting is how many of us set career, financial, or business goals, but never think about our own personal growth and development. What I've seen of a healthy self-esteem is that humility and happiness are all connected with it and personal goals naturally follow a healthy self-esteem. People who see personal growth and development as applicable to every area of life tend to be more integrated and happier people.
5. Write out a flexible schedule(s). So what do I mean by a "flexible schedule?" What I've found for myself is that a very rigid schedule rarely works out the way it's planned. It's best to have a plan but allow it to be flexible somehow. Here's one application of this concept that I use:
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Create a monthly task schedule. My monthly task schedule has miscellaneous tasks listed that only need done once or twice a month. These tasks include washing my car, vacuuming and cleaning it from the inside, pulling weeds, etc. Create a weekly task schedule. A weekly task schedule has tasks or events that take place once a week or more. My
weekly task schedule includes time to plan out the next week, paying bills, social events, etc. ¡2
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Use a daily appointment calendar or something similiar like a daytimer. This calendar or it's equivalent has appointments written down on specific days of the month. When I go to plan my week, this is the first calendar I look at to remind me of my appointments for that week. Keep in mind the only calendar I write specific times on is my appointment calendar. All the other calendars just list activities that can be done and about how long it would be expected to complete this activity. This allows for flexiblity in planning and how we follow
through with those plans.
6. Create lists for tasks that need done that are easily forgotten. I have two separate lists: Time-sensitive and nontime-sensitive tasks.
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Time -sensitive tasks are the more important tasks to get done. I keep a list
of these in my desk or on display if needed and if keeping them on display does not create unnecessary stress. You can chose to have a "due date" next to each task or not. ¡5
Nontime-sensitive tasks are kept in a list mainly so they are not forgotten. These kind of tasks are the most neglected and easily forgotten. A little organization in the form of a list helps keep track of them until their completion.
Some Practical Suggestions for Scheduling 1. Schedule tasks according to the most efficient use of time. This is something learned from experience and helps us all to accomplish more in a shorter amount of time. One example is planning to make
multiple stops in one trip helps save time, energy, and fuel for our vehicle. 2. Schedule tasks for the most efficient use of energy. For those of you who work out, this is why some trainers suggest alternating between muscle groups as you go through your workout. When one muscle group gets a little more rest, the other is getting the most workout. In our daily planning energy becomes a factor when our progress is slowed by similar tasks burning us out. Sometimes staggering different tasks in a way to keep our energy higher actually helps us get more done. 3. Schedule tasks according to the most efficient use of money. For example, it
doesn't make sense to increase your electric bill when you can use natural light to read during the daytime. It doesn't make sense in terms of the cost of gas to make two separate trips to go to the bank and grocery shop if the bank and grocery store are nearby or at the same location.
Weekly and Biweekly Evaluating It's a good practice to evaluate if we are reaching our goals and/or accomplishing tasks weekly or biweekly and make the necessary adjustments in goal setting and/or planning. It's not always how hard we work, but how efficient and focused we are in our work. Annual Reflections and Celebrations At the end of every year is a good time to once again evaluate our progress and celebrate our accomplishments and what we are happy with in the passing year. We
can also set new long-term or short-term goals. In Summation Suggestions and tools for getting organized include having a motivating vision, having long-term, short-term, and personal goals, having task lists, weekly or biweekly evaluating, annual reflections and celebrations. It's Your Turn Now What in the previously mentioned suggestions can you apply to your life in order to organize your life? When and how
do you plan on applying these suggestions? This article was written by an SFM affiliate. If you would like more information on how to organize a business plan that will help you financially, feel free to check out this link: http://connect.thesixfigurementors.com/sp/ free-trial-long-vid/sales-pages?id=skmartin