Are you drowning in a sea of never-ending responsibilities? Are you living your dreams and reaching your full potential? Or do you have trouble making ends meet and finding the time and motivation to complete even the small tasks?
The Sky is The Limit
I was once the world's greatest procrastinator. Every job I had to do was too big to accomplish. I would shut down under the weight of all the dreams I had. It was all too much.
Then I changed. I wrote and published a novel in less than a year. Then I recorded and published an audio version of my novel. While I was doing that, I travelled around the world, created a photography course, and launched a freelance career as a writer, and all that in just 6 months. To top it all off, I found time to start a family, start learning a new language and I discovered how to earn extra money by writing articles online.
All of a sudden I pushed through the barrier that had stopped me from reaching my goals and I made all my dreams come true.
And it was so easy, too!
How to Organise Your Time
When you think about all the things you want in life, it can look like an unsolved puzzle with all the pieces scattered around and disconnected.
We need to untangle our lives in much the same way that we would finish that puzzle.
The Big Picture
When you start a new puzzle, you begin by looking at the picture on the box so you can see what big result you want to achieve.
Take out a notepad and a pen and write down everything you want for yourself in 20 years. Don't let yourself be weighed down by uncertainty. My list looks something like this:
My Life in 20 Years:
- In 20 years I'll have $20 million dollars in property investments
- My house will be a good, solid clean house with character! It will have a balcony all the way around the house, 4 bedrooms and a large fenced yard. I'll grow some fruit trees and I'll have a vegetable patch.
- I want at least 2 dogs. I would like a cattle dog, a beagle, Jack Russell, Foxie, Chihuahua … but I don't care about pedigree. I'll rescue my dogs from the pound.
- In 20 years I'll be 50 … young! I'd like to be completely retired by then and living off my investments
- My children will be young adults and will probably still be living at home
- We'll do a lot of travelling around the world. The kids can come, but [my husband] and I will travel by ourselves to romantic places.
And the list continues, progressively painting a more detailed picture of my life in 20 years as I see it and I want it!
Start collecting pictures of things you like and want, stick them in a scrapbook or file them in a folder. Visual images help you see the big picture.
Build The Dream
You know what you're trying to create for your life, but now you need to build the stepping stones to get there.
It's very simple. Compile 4 more lists under the headings:
- My Life in 10 Years
- My Life in 5 Years
- My Life in 1 Year
- My Life in 6 Months
Write down what you want, starting at 10 years and working your way down to 6 months.
It's important to start big, because when we try to focus on the details of our lives we can't see through the big fog that clouds our thoughts, feelings, ideas and emotions in our everyday life.
When you work on a puzzle you start with the corners, then you find all the edge pieces and build the frame, and then you find yourself naturally working on sections of the puzzle with the pieces sorted into colours and patterns.
This is the same process we need to apply to organise our lives into manageable pieces.
When you are done with your lists, pin them on your corkboard or stick them on the wall so you always know they're there.
Plan Your Week
Now it's time to stop day-dreaming and get organised.
Buy yourself a Weekly Planner. You can buy an A2 desk pad or you might prefer a diary. Make sure it's big enough to write down all your goals, and add to them as new ones pop up.
You're going to start writing yourself a weekly To Do list every Sunday night. It will take about 10 minutes to come up with a list of tasks for the week.
This week's list looks like this for me:
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