Last week I told you how I’m making my fuzzy goals concrete by making them specific, realistic, and attainable. But some of my goals are so big–and so vague–that it’s daunting to follow my own advice. The number one offender is my personal goal to “be more on top of things.” It would be hard to get much vaguer than that, right?
But if I am going to achieve half the things I’d like to in 2012, it’s essential that I’m not always spending half an hour I don’t have looking for paperwork I’ve misplaced. (This really happens. All the time.)
Since getting organized is a big goal, I’m breaking it down into bite-sized pieces. Here’s my plan for getting it together in 2012:
1. Make a to-do list for the next day every night.
2. Dump my brain once a day.
3. Set up a tickler file. By January 31.
4. Set quarterly goals for each quarter, to be revised as necessary. By January 31.
5. Re-read Making It All Work by David Allen. This book is the follow-up to Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity. I love Allen’s system and find that it works really well for me–as long as I’m actually working the system. By January 31.
6. Decide when I will perform my weekly reviews and quarterly reviews (per Getting Things Done) and schedule them on the calendar through the end of the year. By January 31.
7. Tackle every project in the “Organizing Your Mind” and “Organizing Your Space” categories in One Bite at a Time by March 31. These include things I need to do like organize photos, file important papers, etc. Like I said in my review, having them broken into small, manageable chunks with a checklist is an enormous help for me. Also regularly working on this checklist and this category will keep me focused on my organizational habits–so I’ll get better simply by paying more attention.
8. Re-read Getting Things Done in the third quarter to keep me focused on staying organized and rescue me if I’ve fallen off the wagon.
So, that’s my plan to be more on top of things in 2012. Am I missing anything? What would you recommend I add?
What are you doing to get organized this year?
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photo credit: Mike Rohde
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15 comments
For me, deadlines are important. However, I also have to work on having the self-discipline to do the work before the deadlines and not just say, “Oh well, March 1st came and went and I haven’t made any progress towards X” – which is super easy for me to do and happens a lot. That’s something I want to change this year (and I touched on that in my blog post today – great minds, I tell you!).
I look forward to following your progress!
This sounds like a great list. I just saw on another blog the other day the idea of “work blitzes”: you clear your regular schedule for a day and focus all-out on one thing you really need/want to get done and finished. That fits my personality perfectly, so I’m totally going to try it! :0)
I started doing flylady at the beginning of the year. She encourages you to set up daily, weekly and monthly routines, but to do it slowly, adding one habit at a time. It is designed to get on top of your housework, but I have found it helping me in every part of my life! I can’t reccomend it enough for anyone who feels overwhelmed with day to day things like laundry and dishes!
Anne, This seems really great. But it also seems like a lot of pressure, especially considering all the other responsibilities you have (just guessing with kids, job, etc). Pelase speak kindly to yourself on days it doesn’t all happen.
Paperwork is a killer for me as well.
What’s a tickler file?
It’s a small file box that holds 31 folders–one folder for each day of the month. Since you check it daily, you can put things in your tickler that you only need to remember to access or remember to do on that particular day. This link describes it although I just use cheap manila file folders from Staples and not this $$$ system here!
Oh cool, like a 3-d calendar. I like that.
I dump my brain with morning pages 🙂
Your list is impressive. The only place I really need to be organized anymore is at work and I have a lot of wiggle room there. One of the best things about being is my mid 50’s is the freedom to go easier on myself. Granted, I may have loosened up a bit too much. I would have liked your idea of the small file box – the brain dump. Now I just dump my brain all over my poor, dear reverend. I’m glad I found your blog. Love the name! I would have to agree with Dfrazzled, be mindful to go easy on yourself. Eventually what needs to get done, gets done and what doesn’t, well…that’s often ok too.
Blessings to you!
Oooh! You always give me great book suggestions! Saving it at the library…right….now!
You are an inspiration to help me get a few more things done, organized, cleaned out. Photos is one of them.
Thanks for this, many good ideas but no time to look at tonight.
Inspired by your process, but I’m a few steps behind you. This is my “step zero”: http://www.longdistancelobsters.com/2012/01/eat-snow.html?m=1
I have my husband write me a to do list every night for the next day. Although I’ll often tell him some of the things to add to to, I really like him writing it because I can often be oblivious to things that need to get done around the house and because when I read the “to dos” they are new and exciting (well as exciting as “wash the sheets” can be) because I didn’t know what to expect.
I really want to get all my pictures (digital and printed) organized and finish all the scrapbooking/album projects I have unfinished this year.