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Permalink Reply by Kenneth Flamer - Moderator on February 7, 2012 at 2:24pm

Atsushi,
Your desire to plan your time, and spend it wisely is a huge first step. Time management books and philosophies abound. Stephen Covey and Brian Tracy are my favorite time philosophers. "Dont start your day until you finish it on paper first," is a good thought. "You dont plan to fail, you fail to plan," is another.

I try to break my big rocks, or significant achievements/tasks, down into 4 minute moves, or activities I can finish in 4 minutes. Writing things down keeps me organized and gives me a sense of accomplishment when I cross them out.

Covey says to "begin with the end in mind." Try this. Start with your goal and work backwards. Write down all the big rocks you need to move to accomplish your goal, and then break them down into 4 minute moves.

Kenny

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Hitt on March 18, 2012 at 9:30am

I'm not the best with a day planner either, but I have managed to find a way to "get it all done". For me, it's prioritizing. I remind myself each day that there is always enough time to do what's important. I make the choices as to what is most important for my time. I think about the ultimate goal I need to accomplish and mentally strategize the steps to accomplish my goal the fastest way. Anything that doesn't help me get there faster gets tabled until after the goal is achieved whether it's cleaning my house or formulating a business plan.

When I was struggling with time management, and not having work-home life balance, I had to do a little inventory of where I spent my time. For a week I recorded the activities I was doing and how much time was spent doing them. It was amazing the unproductive time that was lost, and lost for good!

That was enough of a wake up call for me. Now I just remind myself that there is always enough time if I choose to make the time.

Another tip is to do the worse activity first. For me, expense reports! Do it first and get it done, and you won't be subconsciously procrastinating it all day. You will also have a sense of relief and accomplishment for getting it done versus gloom and doom hanging over you thinking about having to do it. The activities you enjoy you will breeze through quickly with amazing speed if you do the worse activity first.

In addition to the Franklin Covey also check out Bubble Planners, available online! They were extremely helpful for me, and with ADHD they were right up my ally!

Best of luck to you!!!

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Permalink Reply by Bruce on September 6, 2012 at 9:22am

An organisation system that you enjoy using will largely depend on your preferences. 

After experimenting for years, I found one (or rather, created one) that I quite like--though I continue to improve it to this day.

I've tried solutions that are read-made by other people, but those weren't individualised enough for me—I really required something tailored to me. 

I mostly built my organisation system using ideas that I learned along my exploration of the subject, and by naturally creating new solutions for what I wanted to do as I felt inspired to, until eventually over time I could see what worked for me and what I liked, then I did more of that. 

It changes, though--depending on what I'm doing. So it's more so a living system that's always adapting to me and what I need--I've just become better and designing systems that are suited to what I need, and exploring different things to learn what resonates with me. 

Books can be  a nice place to start, since they can give you ideas of what type of system you'd like to use. Some ideas they suggest may only work if you force yourself to use them. In that case, perhaps try another idea. :D

There are lots of organisation systems and books written by very action-oriented people, which is fine, but not necessarily for you. I'm a highly intuitive person, so the system I use today supports me with that, rather than trying to make me action-oriented (which I am not). 

Also, think of "being organised" as more of an outcome, with different ways to go about achieving that. But for me, organisation wasn't really my outcome, although I thought it was at first. For me, I wanted a system that supported me and allowed me to do what I wanted to do in an easy way.

So being clear on what you want helps, too (and is something you discover over time). 

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