True Path/New Path

This is the latest addition to my planning system, yet paradoxically it has become the underpinning for my entire system.

For the past four years, I take a break from the holiday excitement and spend an evening building my goals for the upcoming year. I usually have a nice dinner and then sit with a notebook and just noodle on what I'd like to accomplish, things I didn't get to in the current year, projects that are half finished. Then I write up a list of goals, along with the steps I need to accomplish the goals. I find goals so much less intimidating if they are broken up into bite sized bits.

Then I make a copy of my goals and their steps and keep in in a pocket that gets tucked into the current month of my calendar. I found that made a huge difference in achieving my goals. Previously I had kept my goals on a file in my computer and often forgot about them. Keeping them close by makes it easier for me to work on my goals as I plan my week.

This isn't entirely foolproof. This year, I realized in June that I simply didn't have any enthusiasm about my goals for the year and I had made very little progress on achieving them. I spent an evening thinking about what did interest me and wrote up a new list incorporating the few goals I was really excited about and adding a few more that had popped up on my radar. Since then, I've made alot more progress in achieving my goals for 2008.

So I learned an important lesson: Planning is important, but then again, so is enthusiasm!

In 1999, I was at my wits' end with my life. I had a job that I loved, but it was so overwhelming that I felt my only option was to leave. I had no clue what my next step in life would be and I felt like I was wasting my time and energy.

One night, I just started writing. I wrote about how I felt about my job and my life, what I loved, what was lacking. I did a time line of my life and its important events. I drew a map of all the elements of my life and what needed improvement.

It seemed simple at the time, but it changed my life. I realized that I didn't want to leave my job, I just wanted it to be reasonable. I got in touch with my yearning to have a house of my own and started working toward making that yearning a reality. I started dating again and soon met a terrific guy I spent the next six years with.

I now have a binder on my "life" bookshelf that is labelled "The Life Project". Whenever I feel stuck, overwhelmed, or simply in need of a change, I get some paper and start writing. I review earlier entries in my Life Project. Then I start working on ways to achieve the goals the Life Project inspires.

I've used a day planner for decades and every year I refine the system a bit more. Some improvements fall by the wayside, others become part of the lexicon.

I use a version of the Franklin-Covey pyramid. There are the themes of my life, then the yearly goals, monthly goals, weekly goals and daily goals. I try to regularly review these elements and tweak as necessary. This year, I spent alot of time deciding my annual goals, but for some reason, they fell short of the mark. I recalibrated my goals recently and feel much more enthusiastic about them. So I don't consider any of these elements to be written in stone.

In upcoming posts, I'll discuss each of the elements of my life planning.

Labels: day planner, systems, Time management

For the next few months, I am going to take this blog in a different direction. I've decided to play with one of my favorite "geeknesses" ("geek" + "weakness" = "geekness") and see where it leads me.

I've been using various time management techniques my entire life. Each year I refine the system a bit more. Right now, I use a Personal size Filofax for managing my yearly goals, projects and daily to do lists. I also have a smaller wallet/planner that I carry with me everywhere I go to jot down notes and dates that I then transfer to my Filofax.

Being a systems person, I've been working on various tweaks. Right now, I'm working on a new insert that would allow me to track, on a daily basis, my progress on my fitness and eating goals. I don't know if this will blossom into a business, but I'm having tremendous fun with it.

So please bear with me while I play with this idea and share what I find.

All year I've struggled with my goals. At the end of last year, I did my usual writing of goals, put them in the monthly section of my planner. And there they sat, getting moved from month to month, with very little done towards them.

They were all very good goals, but I came to realize I hadn't built them out of enthusiasm, but from figuring they were the next steps I "should" do.

So I finally decided to scrap the "old" 2008 goals and start afresh for the last quarter of the year. And I am creating only goals that I feel enthusiastic about. One of them is my business plan. I am going back to a business plan that I have had in the back of my head for years. It's not a plan that will make me a millionaire, but it's something that makes my brain tingle and I love working on it.

Here's to enthusiasm!

I don't know if it's summer or whether my brain is occupied with work projects and the changes in my personal life, but the usual flow of ideas has slowed to a trickle, more like a faucet that occasional drips a drop. The business idea I had last year seems much less practical in the current economy but I haven't come up with a compelling idea in its place. We went away for a few days last week, that usually stimulates new thought for me, but I haven't gotten any good ideas. I'm doing my tried and true strategies: long walks, browses in bookstores, gardening, going to different types of events, but no luck. I don't know if I am merely fallow right now or if I need to seek out new strategies for generating ideas and creative energy.

It's been quite an ordeal trying to get back into this blog. I had alot of problems with passwords and access after Blogger was acquired by Google and I was about to give up. Then a fellow poster on my favorite BB sent me a kind email praising my work on True Path and I was inspired to carry on.

So, what's gone on since December 2006? Alot and not much. I'm still employed in the corporate world. I finished and am editing my first novel and have started doing historical research for an artist in my area. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do when I grow up. The bumpy economy has not helped my courage.

On the bright side, my long distance boyfriend and I have moved in together. Dave is an entrepreneur who encourages me to continue on my path and it's good for me to have him here with me, providing a good example and lots of encouragement.

I promise it won't be 18 months until my next posting! How are you doing these days? Let me know!

Vidya