time you cross completed tasks off your list. Jolt! Endorphins are powerful, so get ready. We will discuss them again later on in the book.
GET STARTED LISTING
As noted, you might prefer to write everything on a single master list. Or, depending on your responsibilities, it might work better for you to divide business and personal tasks between two separate lists:
1.A personal to-do list
2.A business tasks list
You might think this is going overboard, but some people find it easier to make separate lists for everything: shopping lists, domestic tasks lists, business tasks lists, and Honey-Do lists. (That last one is the one you give your spouse or kids to be sure repairs and other chores get done around the house.) If you choose the multi-list method, be sure to keep your lists together so you can stay organized.
If you’re not familiar with list making, do what comes easiest for now. You can always refine your system later.
The purpose of listing is to stay organized, not to feed your OCD, so be sure to create a system you feel comfortable with. Guidelines are simple. Just write in a stream of consciousness.
Write down all the tasks you need to complete in the order they occur to you. Remember to list projects, errands, and decisions you need to make.
Once you’ve written down every task you can think of, minor to massive, categorize tasks according to the system you created. This is easiest if done on your computer. Create a Word document, or if you are comfortable with Excel, create a spreadsheet. A timeline-style listing might work for you.
Long-Term Goals
List your dreams and aspirations—for the year and way down the road.
Monthly Goals
Monthly goals don’t necessarily come with a sense of urgency but may have to be completed during the month or repeated every month; paying bills, for instance.
Weekly Goals
What do you need to accomplish in a week’s time? Grocery shopping, appointments, weekly meetings….
Daily Goals
These are activities and tasks you need to complete every day. Exercise, take supplements, uh, call Mom.
You might want to have a category for your social gigs. Things like soccer games, recitals, and girls’ night out may involve reprioritizing in other areas.
Organizing Email
A ton of correspondence is done by email for most people these days. Depending on how active you are on email, you could receive anywhere from five to several hundred emails a day.
And how many do you send? I’m not talking about mass email blasts. I mean the one-offs. Go back and count them sometime.
It might be a good idea to set up two separate email accounts: one for business and one personal.
In the business account, create master files for major categories.
For example, I have files for:
•Leads
•Follow ups
•Events
•Travel (I even break this down monthly and by trip)
•Company
•Team
•Products
•Marketing
•Subscriptions
•Confirmations
Create your own digital system and e-files for whatever applies to your life and business.
Scan your email every day; when an email comes in, file it in one of the master files. If it helps, you can also have sub-files in any category.
Minimize stress by organizing your life. My husband Wes is always asking me where his wallet is, where his keys are, where his glasses are….
I know where everything of MINE is.
My purse is always in the same place, and all of my cabinets are or-gan-ized! Even the drawers in my bathroom are organized. And I don’t hang on to stuff I don’t need. I cleanse every few months. That means getting rid of anything I have not used in a while!
Ready? You try. What one simple aspect of your life can YOU organize immediately?
If you work at organizing in small pieces, you’ll make it happen. Come up with your own arrangement. It’ll provide a solid platform on which to build your success.
Begin today with ONE THING. Get it done!
All good? Good. Let’s keep going.
Emotionally, Mentally, and Physically
Making space means more than cleaning out your closet or selling a few broken toys or worn-out sweatshirts at a yard sale. Now, it’s still important to rid your living space of clutter, so don’t get attached to Grandma’s end table. But for our purposes, making space also refers to inner space.
That’s where you start. Out with the old, in with the new.
Making space will give you room for more of what you want. While you’re de-junking your environment, grab a shovel and dig out of the mind clutter you’ve been hanging onto. It’s been weighing you down, and the time has come to get over it. Clear your mind and focus on the tasks at hand—like taking the first steps to fulfilling that dream of yours.
Now, I’m not totally without sympathy. It’s super easy to become snowed under by life. It can feel like falling into a deep hole you’ll never get out of.
Seriously, think about everything you do in a single day.
If you tracked every task you completed from the time you roll out of bed until you turn off the lights at night, you’d probably be shocked by how much you actually do. You’d also probably wonder how the heck you manage to get all of it done.
Well, when you sometimes get it all done.
Sometimes
