We are now one week into the new year and you might be looking around you and noticing how organised people around you are. Maybe--your mother, roommate, co-workers--always seem so organized? Like they were born that way?
While others--often defined as creative or spontaneous-- need constant reminders if there's any hope of getting anything done? Like a sticky note on the bathroom mirror saying, 'brush and floss.'
Even if you're not born organized, you can look and feel like you are. How? By acting that way. By changing what you do so it reflects how you want to be. And how do you do that? By working to develop routines like those of our friends and family who were 'just born that way'.
1) What's Important? Goals
What is most important to you? Keeping your house spotless? Knitting afghans for your best friends' babies? Running every morning? Volunteering at your kids' school? Your goals are the basis of your routines. Success isn't a one off event, its lots of little things done over and over.
2) What's Urgent? Priorities
What are the tasks that you can't put off or delegate to someone else? Driving morning carpool? Working your 9-to-5 job? Taking your mother-in-law to weekly medical appointments? Your priorities are an important part of your routines.
3) What Comes First?
What are the tasks that have to be done first thing when you get up? Dressing quickly for morning carpool? Brushing and flossing? Starting that pot of coffee that helps you get moving? These will be the first steps of your daily routine.
4) What Comes Next?
Then what do you have to do? Wake the kids? Take the dog out? Fix breakfast? These will be the next steps of your daily routine.
5) Making Lists
List your 'what comes first' tasks. Then add your 'what comes next' tasks. Next come your goals. Followed by your priorities.
6) Checking it Twice
Read through your list several times, making sure you've included everything that you really have to get done, and everything that you really, really want to do. Your list might have 20 tasks. It might have 80. Don't worry. You don't have to do these tasks--at least for now. Just get them on your list.
7) Organizing Routines by Time of Day
Divide your day into several segments that make sense to you. Perhaps your day divides into AM; Noon; PM; and Evening. Or into four-hour segments such as 6 to 10; 10 to 2; 2 to 6; and 6 to 10.
8) Dividing Routines into Steps
Now mark, color code, or number your tasks by which segment they belong in. Most will be obvious. Morning car pool has to be in the AM or 6 to 10 segment. Others are tasks you usually do at one time of day or another. Mark these for any time segment, or even have an additional category for 'anytime' tasks.
9) Starting Small
Make your first daily routine list short. At least three items; but no more than five. For example, the five items on your list will start with the first two tasks for your morning routine, followed by one goal and two priorities. Your starting small list might be: (1) brush and floss; (2) start coffee; (3) take morning run; (4) drive morning car pool; and (5) check in with mother-in-law.
10) Building a Foundation
The goal of this exercise is to establish daily routines. At this point it is not to see how many tasks you can complete before you fall into bed exhausted at midnight. By completing the five tasks on your list every day without fail you will start to develop your routine muscle. It's generally believed that it takes about three or four weeks to make or break a habit. So, keep working at your short list of daily routines for that long.
11) Keeping Track
For the first few days, completing the same tasks one right after the other may be difficult, even if your list is only three or four or five tasks long . But keep at it. Possibly even make a chart, checking off the tasks as completed or writing the number of tasks completed.
12) Getting Better
As you find you're able to complete all the tasks on your short list, start adding more tasks, going as slowly or as quickly as feels comfortable to you. You're not in a race. You're developing routines. You're building habits. You have nothing to prove to anyone -- not even yourself.
13) Falling Behind
One day you might complete 20 tasks on a list of 30. Another day you might get stalled after your original five. Or even your first task. We all do. Developing routines is difficult, especially when we're not used to doing things in the same order every day.
14) Not Getting Discouraged
Don't let yourself get discouraged. You can develop routines. Even if you've spent your entire life of 20 or 30 or 60 years doing things as you think of them. Or putting them off for another day or week or month. You just need to keep at it. One day you'll discover that you're completing five or even 25 tasks without even looking at your list.
15) Forgiving Yourself
Even if you drop down to just that first item on your list, don't start dumping on yourself. You would be supportive if it was your best friend who was trying to develop routines, so be a good friend and forgive yourself.
16) Starting Over
Perhaps you've worked your way up to completing 20 items on your 30-item checklist. Perhaps you're still working on five. And then you find yourself in a slump. Several days pass by when urgent items take up all of your time. Or you're depressed for a week. Or your kids are sick. Just start over again when you can. Start by doing the first task on your list. Or the first two. The number doesn't matter. Completing your daily routine checklist does. Even if there is only one item on that checklist.
Soon someone will say about you, 'Oh, he was just born organized.'
While others--often defined as creative or spontaneous-- need constant reminders if there's any hope of getting anything done? Like a sticky note on the bathroom mirror saying, 'brush and floss.'
Even if you're not born organized, you can look and feel like you are. How? By acting that way. By changing what you do so it reflects how you want to be. And how do you do that? By working to develop routines like those of our friends and family who were 'just born that way'.
1) What's Important? Goals
What is most important to you? Keeping your house spotless? Knitting afghans for your best friends' babies? Running every morning? Volunteering at your kids' school? Your goals are the basis of your routines. Success isn't a one off event, its lots of little things done over and over.
2) What's Urgent? Priorities
What are the tasks that you can't put off or delegate to someone else? Driving morning carpool? Working your 9-to-5 job? Taking your mother-in-law to weekly medical appointments? Your priorities are an important part of your routines.
3) What Comes First?
What are the tasks that have to be done first thing when you get up? Dressing quickly for morning carpool? Brushing and flossing? Starting that pot of coffee that helps you get moving? These will be the first steps of your daily routine.
4) What Comes Next?
Then what do you have to do? Wake the kids? Take the dog out? Fix breakfast? These will be the next steps of your daily routine.
5) Making Lists
List your 'what comes first' tasks. Then add your 'what comes next' tasks. Next come your goals. Followed by your priorities.
6) Checking it Twice
Read through your list several times, making sure you've included everything that you really have to get done, and everything that you really, really want to do. Your list might have 20 tasks. It might have 80. Don't worry. You don't have to do these tasks--at least for now. Just get them on your list.
7) Organizing Routines by Time of Day
Divide your day into several segments that make sense to you. Perhaps your day divides into AM; Noon; PM; and Evening. Or into four-hour segments such as 6 to 10; 10 to 2; 2 to 6; and 6 to 10.
8) Dividing Routines into Steps
Now mark, color code, or number your tasks by which segment they belong in. Most will be obvious. Morning car pool has to be in the AM or 6 to 10 segment. Others are tasks you usually do at one time of day or another. Mark these for any time segment, or even have an additional category for 'anytime' tasks.
9) Starting Small
Make your first daily routine list short. At least three items; but no more than five. For example, the five items on your list will start with the first two tasks for your morning routine, followed by one goal and two priorities. Your starting small list might be: (1) brush and floss; (2) start coffee; (3) take morning run; (4) drive morning car pool; and (5) check in with mother-in-law.
10) Building a Foundation
The goal of this exercise is to establish daily routines. At this point it is not to see how many tasks you can complete before you fall into bed exhausted at midnight. By completing the five tasks on your list every day without fail you will start to develop your routine muscle. It's generally believed that it takes about three or four weeks to make or break a habit. So, keep working at your short list of daily routines for that long.
11) Keeping Track
For the first few days, completing the same tasks one right after the other may be difficult, even if your list is only three or four or five tasks long . But keep at it. Possibly even make a chart, checking off the tasks as completed or writing the number of tasks completed.
12) Getting Better
As you find you're able to complete all the tasks on your short list, start adding more tasks, going as slowly or as quickly as feels comfortable to you. You're not in a race. You're developing routines. You're building habits. You have nothing to prove to anyone -- not even yourself.
13) Falling Behind
One day you might complete 20 tasks on a list of 30. Another day you might get stalled after your original five. Or even your first task. We all do. Developing routines is difficult, especially when we're not used to doing things in the same order every day.
14) Not Getting Discouraged
Don't let yourself get discouraged. You can develop routines. Even if you've spent your entire life of 20 or 30 or 60 years doing things as you think of them. Or putting them off for another day or week or month. You just need to keep at it. One day you'll discover that you're completing five or even 25 tasks without even looking at your list.
15) Forgiving Yourself
Even if you drop down to just that first item on your list, don't start dumping on yourself. You would be supportive if it was your best friend who was trying to develop routines, so be a good friend and forgive yourself.
16) Starting Over
Perhaps you've worked your way up to completing 20 items on your 30-item checklist. Perhaps you're still working on five. And then you find yourself in a slump. Several days pass by when urgent items take up all of your time. Or you're depressed for a week. Or your kids are sick. Just start over again when you can. Start by doing the first task on your list. Or the first two. The number doesn't matter. Completing your daily routine checklist does. Even if there is only one item on that checklist.
Soon someone will say about you, 'Oh, he was just born organized.'
Igniting lives on fire
www.fraserstirling.co.nz
