How I Got Organized
I often get asked the question: "How do you get organized?" The way that I got organized and by this I mean how do you organize your life. I have found the best way to do this is to "clear the slate." Much like you would do if you were trying to organize your closet. You would take everything out and start by putting the most important things back in or those items that would only fit in certain spaces and then you would build around it. The same is true for organizing your agenda/schedule, i.e. - YOUR LIFE.
The formula that I have found for success is consistency in a routine. The easiest way to develop a routine is to start with a clean schedule or least remove everything that is not a "fixed" appointment. I transferred all of my appointments and reminders to paper and then made a to do list for everything else. I then took those appointments or items that had to occur at a specific time either every week or every day and put them into my calendar. Once you have your "fixed" appointments in your schedule then you can "build" the rest of your schedule around these items. For instance, you have to pick your kids up from daycare at 5:30 every day; this is a "fixed" event which must occur by a specific time so you put this in your calendar. If you have to drop them off at a specific time, then put that in your calendar. Now you have your free time in between which you can use for the rest of the items you need to complete each day or each week. The key is to know what these weekly or daily "recurring" items are and commit them to memory because they are the basis for your routine.
For example, I like to workout every evening around 6 p.m. Does this always work for me? No. However, I have found that having an extremely organized Monday is an essential element to getting my week off to a great start. Therefore, I workout religiously on Monday evening at 6 p.m. It doesn't matter what comes up as I have found there are very few crisises in life. Rather we tend to make things a crisis unintentionally by our responses. The key is to be proactive and not re-active. You need to know what might come up and prevent it or build-in extra time so that you are prepared.
Then I take this set routine and I build the rest of my week from it. I repeat these same steps every week because as with everything else practice makes perfect. I do not know many successful people who fly through life by the seat of their pants. I take my weekly to-do list and go over it and put everything into my calendar either on Sunday evening or Monday morning. I don't take any phone calls or do ANYTHING on Monday morning until that weekly to do list is completed. Then I can build the rest of my schedule around this so that I get everything done in the most efficient manner with the least amount of trips. This has been a huge tool which has contributed to my success.
In the words of Zig Zaglar: "Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days."
Robert Rogers is a REALTOR® with Prudential Georgia Realty in Suwanee.