For those who’ve known me a while or following TapDancingSpiders.com know that I tend to reject self-help kind of items. I’ve never read the Four-Hour Work Week; I screw my nose up at fad diets. Expensive, pretty planners get laughed at. I had it all together with my notebooks of scribbles and to-do lists and the occasional Trello board. The rest was in my head. And don’t get me started on life coaches or mentoring.
Until last month. Everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.
So while I’m not the Avatar and the Fire Nation didn’t attack, work and life did. A side-hustle client’s site exploded, I started with a new client 40 hours per week, I became ill. It all happened and it wasn’t fun. As it came to an end, I caught a cold. Bleurgh. Did I mention, not fun?
Something had to change. I don’t want to have another month like that.
Introducing Operation: Organization
Being the nerdy geek I am I launched Operation: Organization. I’ve decided I need to plan better so nothing gets missed and I can balance my time better.
Panda Planner
I don’t recall how I stumbled upon it, but I’ve bought a Panda Planner and I promise to use it. Pinky promise even. I started with it last night after procrastinating a week. Oh, shush. It was nerve-wracking. I never realized my commitment thoughts and FOMO extended to a simple book, but it does.
The Panda Planner is a great concept and promises increased productivity and happiness. While I can’t see how increased productivity can not increase happiness, it’s a cute concept. And that comment showed I’m still a bit cynical. The Panda Planner has three sections. The first is a series of monthly double-page calendars. I do the usual of adding in events, but then I have to choose a focus for the month and a habit I want to form. Then I set three goals and three distractions to avoid. At the end of the month I get to review.
Then the weekly and daily pages focus in on these but tighter. Weekly also prompts how I’ll make the week great with family/friends, personal, work and relationship. I love how it steps it all out and forces me to think about what I’m doing. Daily level sets priorities and has a short task list. Way too short for my mammoth list, so I’ve supplemented with a to-do list pad from Knock Knock. I’m not meaning to brand name drop, but I do love the quirky fun of Knock Knock’s products. I use one of their weekly task planner pads for larger clients.
So for accountability and transparency, here are my April goals. Oh, I am using a couple of codes because I have one project that hasn’t gone live yet.
Focus: Organization
Habit: To use the Panda Planner
Monthly Goals: 1. Rebuild massconsternation.com – this site, more on that in a moment 2. Get organized!!! 3. T3S.com
Distractions to Avoid: Multi-tasking and new projects. Both are proving difficult.
Coaching
While waiting for the Panda Planner to be delivered, Fearless Future Coaching offered me a complimentary three-hour breakthrough coaching session. So that session is now part of Operation: Organization. The session is this Saturday morning, so I’ll let you know how that goes.
Accountability Aids
Finally, we know that most self-improvement plans fail without an accountability step. I heard recently that posting on social media doesn’t work as an accountability tool, but I revamped this site to use as one. I also have a couple of friends checking in, so I’m not really slacking off. I also encourage you to comment and check in.
But now I’m off to list my wins for today.
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