Other women often ask me how I juggle everything I do. And, I can’t say that I do much more than the average “go-getter” woman who is nurturing a family, navigating through a career, and pursuing a business. We each carry heavy loads in our perspectives. Some days are better than others. Often, I can get it all done and still have a sense of sanity present. To be completely honest with you, I get overwhelmed and a bit frustrated, at times, with having loads to do. However, I reach into my toolkit to navigate through the noise and eventually get things done.
For years now, I have relied on using a planning system to help me. And, there are so many digital planning options (now that we are fully immersed in the digital age) to help you plan your days. I personally choose to use my actual planner because I enjoy writing down my thoughts. I call it “downloading”.
Most recently, I found that I have not been writing in my daily planner as much as I have done in the past few years. Because my days are consumed with events, meetings, and after-school activities with my daughters, I rarely get to open the pages of my planner and cross off-the-things. I have a notebook on my desk that I use to download the day’s tasks and that has worked for me as of late. But, I just can’t let my planner go. So I began to think about how I could plan out my week all in one place and use that system when I would not use my daily planner. I needed something that I could document my goals and then incorporate them into my weeks with tasks to lead me to where I ultimately needed to be by a period of time.
I essentially wanted to simplify my goals even more than I had done in the past. I desired to make them so simple that I could not put them off to another moment. One day, I mapped out prompts needed to help me determine what I needed to know about myself, my week and my goals so that I could actively seek a plan for that week.
With this information, I could then go to my daily planner and begin to assign these tasks to days that would offer me the best time to work on specific tasks. And, if I didn’t pull out the planner, I would have my Weekly Planning Journal to use as a guide. Let me tell you, it has worked great for me. I look forward to each Sunday (my designated planning day) to fill out the one-page planning worksheet. Friend, I am a believer that if there is something that you need and you cannot find it, CREATE IT. And, that’s just what I did.
Although this tool is my prototype, it is my goal to offer it to you soon. The test run is my experiment to see if it truly helped me reach my goals with a clearer and more simplified plan.
So, why share this tool with you before it’s ready to be released? Simply to inspire you to do what you have to do to get important things done. Not just things that will benefit others but will benefit your own dreams and goals. Simplify your life as much as you can (even with a busy schedule) so that you just won’t be on a hamster wheel traveling fast to nowhere. Each day, make an effort to do something towards your goals. And, if you need a tool that you don’t have access to or can’t find…create it.
I’ll be sure to keep you posted on my newest productivity tool. And, if you have questions about how I use my Weekly Planner Journal, ask me.
Plan Well and Conquer,
Tish
