Finally! All of the Frat Boys are over the horrid tummy yuckiness that invaded our house, so I have time to get this video up.
Here’s a video showing how I do my weekly project planning using pages from Philofaxy in my Desk size planner in conjunction with DIYFish’sLife Mapping Inserts v02 pages in my Personal size planner.
Sitting down and setting goals can be tough. Intimidating. A daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be any of those nasty adjectives. Just like your planner (if you keep one), there is no Right or Wrong way to set goals. If you want to do things with your life, you just have to set goals.
And then Do Them.
It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you do it. However, if you feel you lack direction, it can feel overwhelming to force yourself to sit down and really think about exactly what you’d like to achieve. So, my next series of posts is going to let you in on my majorly easy, nearly-painless, hopefully-helpful way to at least start yourself on the road to setting and achieving your goals.
Today, we talk about The Big List.
The Big List is just that — a big list. Find yourself 15 minutes to start a list of all of the things you want to achieve, big and small.
Don’t worry about the format. If you love paper, write it out on paper. If you want more room, ask a local library if you can use a conference room for a half-hour and use their dry erase board (just remember to at least take a picture of it when you’re done or all of your work will be for naught).
It doesn’t matter where or how you make your Big List. It’s the Doing that matters.
Go crazy. What do you want? Splurge. No barriers, no holds barred. Write until you can’t think of another
single thing to add to the list.
Write down even the things that the cynical part of your brain says are crazy.
Writing out The Big List serves three purposes:
Getting all of these great intentions out of your head, where they’re taking up valuable real estate, frees up your brain for productive thoughts instead of simply wishful ones.
Seeing this fantastic list in front of your eyes instead of just pictured in your mind makes it all more tangible.
The physical act of writing actually changes your brain chemistry and motivates you to pursue these goals. Really. Physically writing things down activates the RAS (reticular activating system) in the base of your brain that serves as a kind of filter for everything your brain needs to focus on at any given moment. Writing things down honestly, physically, chemically, changes your brain’s perspective on those things. Cool, huh? (Here’s a great article discussing this phenomenon.)
Now walk away from it. Let your brain really start to process what you’ve put out there. I assure you, if you’ve never tried anything like this before, you’ll be shocked by how often you find yourself thinking about Your List. Writing all of that down will get your brain going. Unbidden, other ideas will come to you. Jot them down the moment you think of them, because the really good ones will escape your brain forever if you don’t catch them right away.
That’s Step One. Just get it all out there, any way you like.
Next time we’ll discuss Step Two… Dissecting The Big List.
Maybe you feel like you aren’t doing enough with your life. Or maybe you have so much going on that you feel overwhelmed and don’t know how to find a higher purpose for yourself in the midst of the chaos.
It’s ok.
There’s a solution.
(Well, there’s a solution that works for me. Your mileage may vary.)
Write Stuff Down.
That’s honestly it. Just write stuff down. Write everything down.
This solution tends to work well because it can apply to any situation, really.
If you feel like you’re not doing enough with your life, writing everything down shows you what you are doing with your time. Examining everything you’ve written down for, say, a week, will tell you where you can schedule time to pursue what you truly want to do. Keeping track of everything you do will expose your habits and your routines in stark black & white, which will enable you to add or remove activities as you see fit.
If you feel overwhelmed by everything going on around you, writing everything down still shows what you’re doing with your time. When you realize you have personal goals that you aren’t making any action toward meeting, you might start to get down on yourself. You might ask yourself why you can’t seem to meet these personal expectations. (This is me, all over, through and through.) When you keep track of everything you’ve done for a week and look back on it, you’ll probably find that you’ve been doing what everyone else needed done but haven’t had much time left over for your stuff. Seeing your days broken down, hour by hour, can help you to find tiny niches of time in which to take steps toward your own goals.
So, write stuff down. Write all of the Stuff Down. You will be amazed at what you learn about yourself.
(Do you already practice this? Are you going to try it for a week? Either way, please share how it’s working and what you’ve learned!)