Content:
The Art of Saying 'No'
Live by the calendar
The Only-3 List Strategy
Have good routines
Have your ever felt overwhelmed with everything around you. Does situations in your life seems out of hand at times? We all have been in that messy space of mind once a while. This may happen when we are not being managing certain areas of our life well. Like having a messed up bedroom. To have your dibs on life back, here are 8 ways to get life decluttered and organized.
1. The Art of Saying 'No'
We all have written down our goals, wishlists and bucketlists. Many of us have tried all apps and methods to keep us reminding of our priorities. I am rather guilty of having made too many of those. But when it comes to actual implementation or realization of those goals, we tend to either procrastinate or let ourselves get distracted. The key to it is prioritization. Saying NO to oneself is impossible at times. Like getting up early each morning, stopping ones hand from taking second helpings of desserts, or simply letting work stall or pile up. Work from home, or online education have not been much helpful in this regard too.
Now What: Always aim to do less than you think you can. Less is more. Focus on what needs to be done immediately and choose to do the things that would make the most difference. If spending time on LinkedIn is important, then you have to cut your FB or Instagram time to 90%.
Trick: Take the next 15 minutes and ask yourself that among all interesting things that you can do, which one is most important and then go for it. Try doing this for the next 5-7 days, and it will bring a great sense of organization to your life.
2. Live by the calendar
Big leaders in corporates, live their day to day by their calendars. They rely on them so much that they would not plan on doing anything if it is not on the calendar. You might see this as too extreme and maybe not for you. Calendar-based time management is more efficient than to-do lists is what many leaders swear by. First, it let you block your minutes and hours into chunks of activities, and also, you hardly get to forget something important, unless you have forgotten to update the calendar at first place.
Now What: Schedule your time, but do not be too optimistic like the author. She used to have impossible ideas about putting up a calendar. Keep breathing space into the day's schedule. The best calendar would be the one with your email service provider. There are tons of mobile apps too that can help you in scheduling your days. Bullet Journaling or BuJo is also a popular artistic method of organizing your time. All this boil downs to one thing - scheduling your day as per priorities.
Scheduling gives you time to prepare for the future events. And calendars helps in keeping tab on what and how much you managed to do.
The Hack: If any daily item in a calendar is missed for four consecutive times, respectfully remove it from the calendar. Here you are telling yourself that you respect your own commitments and you are the sole owner of your routine. Also, be a minute minder than hourly planner.
3. The Only-3 List Strategy
I know, we love love lists. Lists are like crushes. We want to achieve them but we hardly accomplish it at the end, which can build up our agony and frustrations. But no worries. Go for a only-3 list strategy. Every night before going to bed, put just three things down in a paper or notebook or on your phone notes. Three tasks that you want to achieve this the next day. This should not go beyond 3 is the rule. Resist temptation to add more. Neither go for anything less. 3 is the key!
The Hack: The first thing after opening your eyes, you must read the this three tasks, and mentally see yourself accomplishing them as the day advances. Why three? Because you are very likely to achieve the these important activities everyday. Priority beyond any three activities is not priority. There is no fourth prize in competitions, no third runners up.
4. Have good routines
Bringing routine is personally my biggest challenge. And yet, the old schoolers are right about having a good routine. It is a proved way to get the life declutters. Routine sets pattern, and that sets down order to our plans, helps in getting at Point no. 1, and calendarise your time.
Routine should not be boring if you feel that it is the same thing all over. It can have all fun activities our anything that brings your mood up.
The Hack: Try out the one routine for a week, and block your calendar for 15-20 mins to sit and check at the end of the week and see how it went, the challenges you faced and the changes you can make in the next week routine.
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