The Hard

All of it’s related this week.

Bad Times in My Head

Depression. Guilt about depression. Shame for said depression. Believing my feelings are invalid. :-/ Not good times.

Is it over? It’s not as bad as it was over the weekend, but not sure it’s over yet. We’ll see.

Feeling a bit burned out on sewing

Mostly because I’m not sure I can get it and other things I want to do done in time. I can probably get the cotehardies finished, but the hose and the hood and the shifts… not so much. Unless I take time off work, which I can’t since I’m already going to be out of days due to Pennsic. Alas.

Not really able to enjoy my me time… even though I need it

Has to do with the burnout and the guilt. How can I be spending time on me when X, Y, and Z need to get done too?! Not that I have energy to work on X, Y, and Z. It’s just bad.

May have taken on more than I can handle

Gave up one SCA position for another. The other’s more aligned with what I want to do, but it may end up being more work than I bargained for. We’ll see.

The Good

Bweesness for Blogging

Last week I thought of a way to get some valuable experience for this blog. I’d love to be able to tell people to go out and start a business doing what you enjoy doing, but as of today I’ve never actually had a side business of my own. So, I think I’m going to start one… and blog about the experience. The one caveat being that I’m already feeling overwhelmed. How can I take on more?

Also that’ll mean my life will consist almost entirely of money making or potential money making activities. I don’t know how comfortable I am with that. :-/

Still this is a good thing. It’ll be valuable life experience if nothing else.

Chore Schedule

We have a roommate now, so we came up with a chore schedule with everything that needs to be done in order to make everyone happy. So far so good, although it’s only been up for half a week. Methinks think it’ll work, though, because of the accountability. I don’t want to frustrate both Aaron and the Roommate.

The Learning

Sovereignty

Havi writes a lot about Sovereignty, and for a while I didn’t see the value of applying those ideas to my life. Respecting your capacity is over-rated. A lot of people do less than they are capable of. I don’t want to sell myself short. Etc. But this weekend I started thinking that respecting my current capacity to do things might be a good idea.

I have a hard time saying no to things I would want to do if I had infinite time and energy. So I say yes to positions, or go to events and then don’t enjoy myself because I really ought to be doing something else. At events I’ll often beg out early if I realize that’s what I did. I feel better afterward. Positions are a lot harder for me to quit for some reason. :-/

The thing is, no one is happy when I say yes to things I can’t really do or stay in positions I can’t do well. I just need to say something like, “I’m sorry, my intuition says that that’s not the right thing for me to be doing right now. Have Fun/Good Luck!” It’s hard because it’s rejection. I don’t like to be rejected. I don’t like to dole out rejections. But people still aren’t happy when I say yes when I really should have said no.

So, I need to figure out what my boundaries are. I have a lot of data to work with now. I should be able to come up with something reasonable.

The Hard

The Heat

The weather’s been in the 90s this week, so it’s been a bit unpleasant. On Monday, I had very little energy, and I’m pretty sure the heat was the main cause. Alas. A day off from work and I didn’t have the energy to use it productively. I even went for a walk to try to get more energy, but that didn’t work.

Also, Aaron and I have been snippy at each other because of the weather. Luckily neither of us takes it too seriously.

So much to do

And so little discipline. On Wednesday I came home from work and instead of doing the things I said I’d do (make food for the cat, calculate fabric amounts for Pennsic clothes, and do some cleaning) I read World Without End, practiced music, and read some more. It was fun, and I did get the music practiced, but I felt guilty about the time spent on the book.

Working 9 – 9.5 hour days.

We’re leaving early today for a wedding this weekend in Ohio, so I had to flex out those hours over the week. While I’m at work I don’t feel the extra hour. It’s when I come home and there’s not much time left that I start to feel resentful. Yeah I know people have it worse… that still doesn’t make me feel better.

The Good

Sno-cone Maker!

Last summer we bought a sno-cone maker and it’s turned out to be a great purchase. Yeah, we have an ice-crusher built into the fridge, but this thing does a much better job. Very refreshing.

Exercise!

Biked to work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week. Took a walk on Monday. Friday we’ll be leaving for Ohio, so no biking. Yay!

Got writing done.

Just about finished a post for the future. Started a few more.

Singing

We’re singing and playing music at the wedding this weekend, so we did some practicing on Wednesday. A lot of the music I already knew, and it’s in a good range for my voice.

Enjoyed Reading about Underground Houses

A goal Aaron and I have is to one day build our own hobbit hole. I got a book from the library called $50 & Up Underground House Book on just that topic. It’s dated (published in 1978 dated), but the information is still good, and it’s very entertaining. Well, entertaining for me since the author’s a back-to-the-land hippie…

The Learning

Exercise makes me happy… but only up to a certain point.

Last Friday I biked to work and felt ecstatic for the first few hours of my workday. This week I’ve been biking daily and my mood hasn’t been lifted nearly as much. As I mentioned, on Monday I went for a walk in the hope that it would wake me up and it didn’t. I didn’t feel worse afterward, I just didn’t feel much better either.

I’ll keep on exercising regularly, but I’ll try not to be disappointed on the days I don’t get a euphoric boost.

Pleasant rituals are hard to break

I start my day reading my personal email and checking feeds. This feels good and comfy, but I know I’m not as productive when I do start my day this way. The obvious thing to do is to replace my morning “check email and feeds” ritual with some other pleasant ritual, but I haven’t come up with one that’s sufficiently pleasant and sufficiently motivating. Apparently going through my to-do list isn’t that motivating to me. I will think about it.

Fun is as important as other stuff

I have this ongoing fear that if I do the things that need to be done I won’t have time for fun. Take Thursday. After choir we packed for Ohio and made kitty food. By the time we were done with that it was 10:40pm. Our bed-time is 11pm. Instead of dropping everything and reading for the last 20 minutes I wanted to make an icy drink and turn off some of the lights upstairs. If I had done that it would have been 10:50pm and at that point I might as well go to bed, fulfilling the “I can’t do work and have time for fun” prophecy. Luckily Aaron insisted I just go and read.

I don’t want to binge on fun stuff and feel guilty about it later, so I’m going to start including fun stuff in my “things to get done” list. I’ll keep it at the end of the list so I don’t procrastinate on less fun stuff, but I’ll make time to do it. I have a feeling this will work. That’s it for this week.

After I read Pillars of the Earth last summer I decided to put off reading the next book, World Without End, because Pillars destroyed my week. In a good way, mind you, but still. I couldn’t afford that kind of thing two weeks in a row. Or even two weeks in as many months. Also I wanted something to look forward to.

Now that the wedding’s over and we don’t have any TV shows to compulsively watch, I decided last weekend that I was ready to have my life eaten by a good book again. World Without End has definitely been delivering. I’m still not done with it, and I’ve had to read the book summary and skip around to the sections I was really looking forward to in order to keep myself from going insane.

Life is a Lot Better When You Want to Improve at Your Job

You’ll make more money. You’ll be more effective. You’ll more easily be able to switch jobs. People will be more able to handle it when you make mistakes. Etc.

Conversely, if you don’t want to improve at your job you won’t maximize your earning potential, you won’t be very effective, you’ll have a hard time finding another job in your field, and you won’t be very happy. It’s not fun feeling like you could be making more of your life if you were doing something else.

8 Hours Is Not Enough

I like the feeling of not being busy. I like playing with the cat, chit-chatting with Aaron, watching favorite TV shows, and spending time with friends and family. (Although sometimes the last one can feel like a chore…) I like choosing what to do based on what I feel like doing rather than based on what’s on my list.

I also like making progress on projects. I like being able to say I’m one step closer to my goals. I like making things. I like working through my mental blocks. I like practicing musics. I like learning about new things.

The 8 hours when I’m not at work and I’m not sleeping often don’t feel like enough time to relax, produce things, and do dishes. I also tend to get resentful about not having enough time to pursue worthwhile projects or having to choose between a Project and playing with the kitty (or the husband). Saying no is hard when I really do want to say yes.

I think the solution is to accept where I am… that I don’t have all the time in the world. I also need to remind myself that this state is temporary, and eventually my time will be much better aligned with my aspirations.

Online Shareable Lists are Cool

One of the reasons I wanted an iPhone was to have shared lists with Aaron. When I finally got one last fall I didn’t end up putting any list sharing software on it because there didn’t seem to be any good ones.

This week I had another look and found Listingly, which does just about everything I want. Aaron and I now have simple, shareable lists available anywhere that has internet access. Easy to update using my phone too. If there’s anyone you’d like to share to-do lists with, you should take a look at this site.

Building a Backlog of Content

I’m working on writing a backlog of well written content for TPLT. Once I get enough posts in there I’ll start posting them on Wednesdays in addition to the weekly check-in.

That’s it for now. Have a good weekend!

I Am Not a Multi-tasker.

I got a lot accomplished sewing wise this week, and a lot of that happened Monday evening when I didn’t have any distractions. (Well… aside from kitty.) When people came over to help with wedding stuff things got done… they just didn’t get done by me. I guess this means I need to block out periods of time for myself in order to make progress on things.

Weddings Are a Lot More Work Than They Appear To Be

There are two reasons for this:

1. Expectations: If you’re having a standard wedding people expect the service of a nice restaurant combined with a fun dance party. They expect things to run smoothly. They expect to never set foot in the kitchen. They expect their table to stay there the whole night.This isn’t too bad if you have the wedding at a hall where catering’s included. Sure the food is pricey and not that good, but you don’t have to worry about who’s going to pour the wine. We’re just getting food from the restaurant and in lieu of professional waitstaff we’re having some of our awesome friends help out with the service part. Not as simple as it sounds. There’s a lot that has to be thought out… especially since we want to let our friends have fun at the party too!Of course none of this would be so hard if it wasn’t for the fact that…
2. The Bride and Groom can’t be event stewards. We’re the guests of honor. That means we need to have someone else be in charge of making sure stuff happens when it needs to happen. If we could be in charge we probably wouldn’t have thought through as thoroughly what needs to be done… but we can’t afford to do that. All in all I think it’s a good thing, since this way we get to enjoy our party. It’s just a lot more work than I was expecting. I’ve thrown parties before… they didn’t require nearly as much prep as this. Granted I’ve thrown some where I ended up drained by the end too…

Methinks I’ll be glad to not have to think about wedding stuff in a few weeks. And we can return to more normal essays.

I do have one big assumption: you aren’t currently making use of your in-between time. By in-between time, I mean the time spent waiting in line at the post office or while you’re driving to and from work or class or that five minutes between when you get home and your next scheduled task. These are the moments this techniques utilize.

I have another smaller assumption: you don’t have a deadline for when your system needs to be totally in place. If you really don’t have the ability to take a large chunk of time out in the beginning, you can’t expect to be off and running any time soon.

So, with that, here’s the technique.

Step 1: Day dream During those in between moments visualize what your system will look like. How it would make you feel to be using it. What elements will it have. Get excited about it. The more clarity you can get the better. You don’t need to write anything down yet, so you can do this anywhere.

Step 2: Read Getting Things Done This system is probably the best for the person who feels swamped. It’ll give you a method for doing things more efficiently so that you may have a few extra moments to do some long term planning. You can get the book from the library or your local bookstore in book form or audio form. If you get the book form, keep it with you at all times. It’s one of those reads that doesn’t take much to pick up where you left off. If you get the audio version you can play it during your commute or your run or whatever.

Step 3: Day dream Some more, maybe with a pencil Focus on clarity. What exactly do you want from your system. When you get the feeling you know what you want, take 10 minutes somewhere… anywhere… to jot it down. Set a timer if you have to so you don’t spend more time on this task than you want to.
The main question to answer here is, what supplies do I need to purchase?

Chances are you’ll probably need:

• A physical planner that holds 5.5inx8.5in sheets
• 8.5inx11in paper
• Three hole punch with movable hole punchers
• A paper guillotine (check to see if your workplace already has one)
• Nice Pen
• Nice Pencil
• Divider Stickers
• Heavier card-stock paper (8.5inx11in) for turning into dividers
• “Today” tabs

Step 4: Purchase items when convenient Keep your shopping list with you. Whenever you’re in the appropriate store where you could buy these things check to see if they’re there. Don’t make a separate shopping trip unless you have time to spare. Remember, there’s no deadline for getting this done. Do it when it’s convenient

Step 5: More day dreaming maybe with a pencil Same deal as before. Don’t spend too much time writing down what sheets you need for your physical planner. (Take as much time as you want to think, though. That isn’t wasting any time.) Action pages? Waiting for pages? Shopping list? Agendas? Figure this out. Then write down your list. Set a timer.

This might not be a bad time to browse DIY planner’s set of pages. Remember, you’ll want to print the 2-up version. It’ll save you a lot of hassle.

Step 6: Print, cut, and hole punch your pages Here you might want to set aside 20 minutes. But maybe you could combine this task with watching TV or something. You can also spread this task out over several days. Do the printing one day, cutting another, hole punching yet another. Again, there’s no deadline here.

Step 7: Fill in your planner during your in between time While you’re waiting in line at the grocery store, write down some tasks you need to do when you get home. Same thing when you’re waiting for a movie at the movie theater, or while you’re waiting for the all-staff meeting to get started. Use the minutes to empty everything stored in your head.

Step 8: If you can spare it, do a weekly review But maybe limit your time to 20 minutes. Only recopy pages that are mostly full. Or don’t even recopy, just add to it. When one’s finished you can get rid of it. Make it as sparse a review as possible. Using a timer’s a good idea to keep it from eating your day.

Using this method it’ll probably take you quite a while to get your system up and running. Maybe a month or two. But that’s OK because at least in a month or two you’ll have a working system. If you don’t do anything, 2 months from now you definitely won’t have a system. And maybe along the way you’ll find that you actually do have more time to spare than you realize. Maybe you’ll be able to get your system up and running way earlier than you expected to.

1. Organized People are Not Good people There are two things you need to do in order to be organized and stay your same sweet self. The first is to make sure organization/cleanliness stays as a means to an end. Using organization as a means to do the things you want to do keeps your mind focused on what’s really important to you, whatever that may be. Being organized is not the goal. Doing the things you want to do is.
   
   The second thing to do is to avoid identifying yourself as an organized person. If being organized really gives you an ego boost it’s only a small step to looking down on people who don’t meet your cleanliness standards.
   
   It’s really not that hard to do either of these things. When your projects are important to you, it’s hard to see organization as anything but a means to an end. And when you see it as a means to an end it’s hard to identify yourself with it. It’s like identifying yourself as a person who brushes her teeth daily. It’d just be silly.
2. People will make fun of you for having changed It’s true that this could happen to you, but does it really matter? Their discomfort with your changing is their problem, not yours. If you’re confident that you’re moving in the right direction, that organizing your life is the right thing for you to do, to hell with all of the nay-sayers.
   
   Once you’ve been living this way for a while, people will get used to it. It’ll be your new normal.
3. Identity Crisis The truth is people change. You will change. The question is not whether or not you’ll be you, but is this the right direction for you? Is an organized life more preferable to a disorganized one? If yes, then go for it. You’ll get used to your new skin after a while, especially since it’s something you develop for yourself. Your system will be uniquely you. How could that feel strange?
4. You can’t be spontaneous anymore If you’re following a rigid schedule, then I guess this would be true, but if you’re going to have a system that really works for you it’s going to have to be flexible. Few things go exactly as planned anyway. If you want to be go somewhere on a whim no organization system can or should stop you. It’ll just make you aware of the consequences of that whim and how to get back on track.
   
   A key aspect of a good organization system is the ability to renegotiate commitments you’ve made to yourself and others. If it’s for the sake of some random fun time, all the better!
5. You’ll have to face your limits Yep, you will. But is that bad? Knowing the truth of what you’re able to do right now is important for your personal development. If you can commit to the system, then you’ll have to exercise courage to say no to the unimportant. You’ll be a better person for it. And over time you’ll be able to do more of the things you want to do.
6. You’ll look funny You’ll look even funnier when you either have a hard time keep your commitments or do very little with your time. And after a while, you’ll get used to the weird looks anyway.
7. You’ll spend your whole day doing stuff you don’t want to do I used to feel this way a lot when I was still in school. If I made a schedule of things I was supposed to do or needed to do, I’d end up spending my whole day doing unpleasant things. I’d never get around to having fun.
   
   The truth is, the amount of unpleasant stuff you have to do is totally up to you. Also you don’t have to get it all done in one day. Spread the work out over several days. Don’t do mind intensive work when you’re tired and you’ll go a long way toward avoiding burnout. Or make fun things a higher priority.
8. You won’t have time to do what you want to do The solution to this problem is the same as above. Let your to-do list last over several days and only do mind intensive work when you have the energy to do it. When your brain is tired do something that you want to do.
   
   Of course, if the kinds of things you want to do are mind intensive–taking a leadership position in a club for instance–you may find yourself in a more difficult situation. But you’d be there with or without a planning system. At least with a planning system you can make a more realistic assessment of your ability to succeed in all the things you do.
9. Actually implementing the organization scheme will take more time than it saves When you first implement a new organization scheme, for the first few weeks it will take a lot of time to use. You haven’t come up with ways to streamline the system, nor is it set up to your satisfaction. There’s no getting around the growing pains.In spite of that, even in the early stages a good planning system will give you piece of mind. You’ll know what you have to work on, what stage projects are on, what stuff you’re waiting on, what you need to buy at the supermarket. That piece of mind, I think, is worth the extra time it takes to use the system. And in the end, once you’ve set it up to meet your needs, using it should take little time at all.
10. You don’t have time to get organized If you really believe this, then you don’t have time not to get organized. Seriously. There’s only so long that you can run on empty before you burn out. Things will slip here and there because your mind isn’t really meant for the task of keeping your life in order, and if you have trained your mind to do that task you wouldn’t be disorganized, would you?

So, as you can see, the excuses don’t really hold up to much scrutiny. (At least they don’t stand up to my scrutiny ) There is only one good reason I can think of to not implement a planning system, and that’s if your life is simple enough not to call for it. If you already know at every moment what you need to be doing, then you’re all set. That’s the main purpose of a planning system, after all: to confidently know what it is you should be doing right now.

Are there any reasons you have to not get organized?

Maybe what’s blocking you is in this list.

1. Organized People are Not Good people There’s a great episode of Wife Swap (which for the record I don’t usually watch) that swaps a new-agey mom with an uptight uber-clean mom. For all the faults the new-agey mom has, namely not keeping her house clean and not being on time to things, I’d much rather grow up to be her than the uber-clean punctual one. To give you an idea of what I mean, here’s a clip from the show of what uber-clean mom thinks of the value of meditating.When I think of many people who keep incredibly tidy homes I tend to see bits of this personality. That punctuality and cleanliness are the most important things in their life, even though it’s obvious that they aren’t really happy with where they are. Also, new-agey mom, for all her faults, comes across as way happier than uber-clean mom, and again, I’ve seen this in my real life as well. Of course I’ve also seen unhappy messy people too.It doesn’t take much to see how this could turn into a mental block. If leading a clean, organized, virtuous life means that you’ll be unhappy why would you ever want to do that to yourself?
2. People will make fun of you for having changed I’ve experienced this in my life. There’s always a whiplash from loved-ones when you make a change for the better. When I started to exercise I remember some of my friends and family asking “what changed”, and not in an encouraging way. Same thing with becoming vegetarian. Same thing with organizing.I think this happened to me because I used to be very antagonistic toward doing any of these things years ago. They’d try to get me to change and it wouldn’t happen. So now out of the blue I have changed and not because of their excellent persuasive technique. So it’s not really that surprising that they’re not entirely happy for me.
3. Identity Crisis Maybe you just can’t see yourself as an organized person. If you start living an effective life, if you change who you are, will you still be you? It’s a scary thought!
4. You can’t be spontaneous anymore If you know when you’re going to do everything in your life, how can you possibly go off somewhere on a whim? Do you really want to give that up?
5. You’ll have to face your limits When attempting to find a time for everything that’s important to you, you may discover that you can’t do it without some sacrifices. Prior to actually using a planning system you can always tell yourself, “If I got organized I could fit everything in”. That won’t work after you’ve done it.
6. You’ll look funny Carrying around a day planner is not what most people do. It’s not nearly as hip as an iPhone or a Blackberry and it doesn’t fit in your pocket. If you’re really using it, you’re going to end up taking it out in public, not just at home or in the office. People might stare at you.
7. You’ll spend your whole day doing stuff you don’t want to do When you’re in planning mode it feels good to think about getting all the necessary but unpleasant things done. Before you know it your days are full of Work, Laundry, and Taxes. Yuk. Looks good on paper, but not so good in real life.
8. Won’t have time to do what you Want Sort of a combination of 7 and 5, in order to do the stuff you need to do and really would like to do you won’t have time to do things that are just fun. Reading fantasy novels. Watching TV. Those are rewards you’ll never get to experience if you use a planning system.
9. Actually implementing the organization scheme will take more time than it saves Between all of the writing/rewriting of stuff in the planner and the weekly review, there’s no way you’ll be saving time.
10. You don’t have time to get organized In spite of needing to get on top of your life, right now if you took any time out of your day for it you’d be weeks behind. It’s too late for you.

At some point or another I’ve felt all of these things, and many of them have blocked me from successfully using a planning system. They, of course, are not actually good reasons to not use a planning system, and in the next post I’ll show you why.

Read Your Favorite Stuff Management Book Twice

Of course, this doesn’t just apply to stuff management. Relationship books, personal development books, and fitness and music technique books are all the sorts of books that ought to be read more than once if you want to really implement their systems. The first time you read the book, you’re probably doing it to get a feel for the system. Does it resonate with you? Can you envision yourself using it? You get excited about the system, but you won’t retain everything in it nor will you know what does or doesn’t work for you.

The second time you read the book should be while you’re in the midst of implementing version 1.0 of your system. That way you can get ideas on how to improve it, and see what of the book’s system doesn’t work for you and why. Also reading about how to improve your life gets you excited about improving your life. It’s a way to motivate yourself to stick with the program until it’s second nature.

I first read GTD in March 2008. I read it the second time earlier this month. I definitely resonated with it the first time around, enough so that I started using the file folder system, but I didn’t use the whole system. When I decided to try using the whole thing, I thought I remembered the essentials of the system, but there was still stuff I missed. (That happens when you haven’t read a book for a year and a half…) For instance, I’d completely forgotten all of the chapters on project management, or that I could use my online calendar as a tickler file, both things I’ve found immensely useful. And, of course, reading the book during the first few weeks of implementation got me very excited about organizing my life.

Figure Out What You Want Your System To Do For You

After or during your first read of the book, figure out what you want the system to do for you. The book undoubtably promises a lot of good things for you if you use its system. Which ones seem the most enticing to you? You can do it in your head, but writing it down forces you to clarify your thoughts. The reason for this step is so that you can filter out the ideas that don’t help you achieve what you want.

Here’s the list of things I want out of my SMS

• Confidence that I’m keeping track of all my open loops
• Ability to keep schedule and things to do out of my head and in a place I can always access
• Greater Awareness of the status of my life
• Ability to be easily reminded of what’s important to me
• I don’t want it to be too obvious that I’m using the system. (i.e. planner can’t be too giant)
• Ability to use system on autopilot
• Ability to brainstorm anywhere

This list filters out some stuff. A legal size planner is right out. I’d need a giant purse to lug it with me, and as soon as pulled it out I’d feel like everyone was looking at me. It can’t be too small either, though, because I can’t brainstorm on tiny paper or an iPhone. The system can’t be too complicated, otherwise I don’t stand a chance at doing it on auto-pilot. And it can’t strictly be a series of to-do lists, because I can’t get the big picture with to-do lists.

What Do You Already Sorta Know You Want?

Do you envision yourself carrying a planner? Can you see yourself typing in your notes to self on your blackberry? Do you see yourself using your online calendar? What stuff do you already use? Can you make it better?

It’s best to use stuff that you want to use, since you’ll be more motivated to use it. (Duh!) If your SMS book recommends a paper planner, but you hate writing by hand, don’t get the paper planner! You won’t use it anyway. Similarly if you already use some tools, and like using them, why stop? Find ways to integrate those tools in to your new system. Find ways to make them better.

Get the Basics; Go for Adjustable

If you envision yourself using an expensive fountain pen to write in your shiny executive Day Runner planner, think about getting the expensive fountain pen and the top-of-the-line planner after you’ve been using your system for a while. Like a few months. At least. You may find out after a few days that you want something smaller that fits in your pocket. Or you may find that the pen is too cumbersome to carry around. You could have found all that stuff out without spending an arm and a leg first.

Instead in the beginning get a planning system that’s not too pricy and that lets you adjust things to your needs. If you’re never going to use the Goal Development pages, you shouldn’t have to have them taking up room in your planner. If you aren’t going to keep phone numbers in your planner, you don’t need those address sheets either. Similarly, you’ll want to be able to add to the system as you go. A three-hole binder type of paper planner is ideal. Simple expandable PDA programs are also ideal.

If you’re thinking about using a paper planner, the place for printing out your own planner sheets is definitely DIY Planner. You can’t get more adjustable than printing out your own planner pages. There are great basic forms there, and if something doesn’t quite fit they have templates you can adjust with Open Office Draw. Very cool. And free. (well.. except for the paper, ink, and time… but you know.) They have plenty of advice for setting up your paper planner, so I won’t repeat it here. I will say this, though, if you’re going to print out the sheets, use the 2-up version. I have a fancy laser printer that can print on 5.5 x 8.5, but it won’t duplex paper and that small and duplexing it manually jams the printer. Very frustrating. Much easier (and faster!) to print first and then cut the paper to size.

Commit to Sticking With It

Version 1.0 of your system won’t be quite right. Some things don’t work as well in practice as they do in theory. Some things you won’t realize you need until you’ve started using your system for a few days. Expect your system to undergo many changes before it starts to feel right. The fact that it doesn’t work right the first time isn’t an indication that you should quit.

In Version 1.0 of my system I had a bunch of sheets that I didn’t end up using. Goal planning… yeah not so much. Turns out my goal development was better done with simple notes pages. Same thing with the potentials list. Also a week or so later I got a stipend from my new job for a phone so I got an iPhone, meaning a lot of SMS options opened up for me. Voice memos while driving and keeping my notes in Evernote for easy syncing between computer and phone were things I hadn’t expected to be using when I started using version 1.0.

Bottom line is, I’ve been improving my system since I first started using it. A month later things are beginning to settle, but at the beginning it was really time consuming! And that’s normal. At the beginning it will taking you longer to use your system than it did before you started using it, but after a while you’ll get used to it and it’ll get easier. Trust that it will get simpler, and at the same time start thinking of ways to make the system simpler to use.

Also trust that the initial awkwardness will go away. I must say leaving notes to myself on my phone, while effective, made me feel like a second rate villain. Pulling out the planner in the farmer’s market to write down how much I spent was also weird, but most people didn’t care as long as I wasn’t in their way. Again, rereading your time-management book will help keep you motivated.

A Good Planning System Doesn’t Solve All Your Stuff Problems

But it can highlight some of them. If you’re overcommitted, you’ll see it as soon as you start scheduling time for your important things. If there’s stuff you’re procrastinating on, you’ll notice it since and item will be on your action list for a few weeks. Seeing it in front of you so bluntly isn’t fun, of course, but it is good for you. The trick is to guiltlessly reflect on it. What’s unnecessary that you can cut out. How can you improve your schedule; how can you better manage your energy? Why don’t you want to do that item? Does it need to be broken down into smaller steps. Is it something you should be doing a few months from now instead of today? You get the idea.

Any of you use a stuff management system? Which one? How well does it work for you? Any advice?