People spend a lot of time organising and planning their holiday, but how many people actually spend time organising and planning their life?
The fact that we can’t travel right now is making me miss traveling.
Then it made me remember and realize that people would go beyond lengths to make sure that they are prepared for their holiday.
And then I realized how I noticed that people prepare and organize themselves more for a holiday, what they’re going to do to how they’re going to get there. They plan everything down to a T… more than their own life!
It’s interesting to think about actually, especially since a holiday is a short term event that would happen, while our life is… well, long term.
Because analogies are my favorite, this blog post is going to explain how we can organize our lives, just like how we would organize our holidays.
Maybe you’ve heard of the quote that “life is a journey”, and we can literally use that to our advantage. We can think about how we are technically organizing ourselves for a trip that we are going to go on… life.
1) Set Your Priorities
One of the first things that you may do while preparing for a trip is listing the first few places that you absolutely want to go first. Just like planning a trip to Paris, the first place you’d probably want to go to is the Eiffel Tower.
It’s the same with organizing our life. The first thing to do is to list our priorities that we must do first. It’s pretty much doing everything in order of importance, and continuing to do that.
So if we’re going on a trip, we’re probably going to schedule them months in advance. Then, a couple of weeks before we go on our holiday, we plan out our schedule for what we’re going to do in the holiday, and we also plan what we need to get done before we begin our holiday.
We list all our tasks in order of importance, such as getting our passports sorted, packing all our belongings, or finding our house-sitters, so we can ensure that we are properly prepared before we begin our trip.
It’s the same with organizing our lives. I know whenever I have assessments or exams coming up, they are usually scheduled a couple of months in advance. So, at the start of the semester, I plan out my schedule on when I am going to work on those assessments, and also incorporate my other priorities as well, in order of importance. This helps me to stay on track and enhance your productivity.
How to set your priorities:
So you can do the same as well, you can stay on track by knowing what is most important in your life, and continue to do them from order of importance.
Look at your daily routine. Look at what you do daily. What do you mostly spend your time doing? Because if you spend most of your time doing one particular activity, then it may be something that you are placing high priority on. Is this particular activity that you always do something that you claim is your priority? If not, then it may be time to rethink.
2) Place priorities in your calendar
If you’re on a holiday, if something is not on your itinerary, then you’d probably not do it as it won’t give you the opportunity to do the other things that you want to do.
It’s the same with our lives. I have this personal saying that “if something is not on my calendar, then it doesn’t exist“. Hence, if there is something important, it has to go on the calendar.
It’s one thing to know what our priorities are, it’s another to actually find the time to do them. One way to do that, is to schedule it out in our calendar. It’s just like how we would schedule all our desired activities in the itinerary of our holiday.
How to place your priorities in your calendar:
You can use a paperback calendar, or you can go electronically. You may want to use a paperback calendar or binder if you prefer not to use technology, but sometimes it may be easier to do it electronically (such as Google Calendar) so that you can always make changes if something happens.
Place out your non-negotiable priorities in your calendar first. This may include work, exercise, and/or family time.
Then proceed to placing out your other priorities, figure out what time would work best to do them, ensuring that it doesn’t conflict with your non-negotiable priorities.
Just remember that unexpected events do happen that may cause you to make adjustments to your schedule, but nevertheless, it’s always a good idea to know ahead of time what your day is going to look like. It will also help reassure you that what you need to get done will get completed on time.
One other suggestion is to plan out your calendar and schedule at the start of the week, rather than doing it every night. The reason for this suggestion is that you’ll get to save a lot of time during the week.
Rather than spending 15-20 minutes planning out your schedule every night, being uncertain whether you’ll get to complete other important projects on time, you can just do it one go at the start of the week already, so that everything is already spaced out, and you already know that if you stick to it, you’ll finish your other projects or tasks on time.
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3) Allow a Little Time for the Unexpected
Of course, during a holiday, you have to allow time for the unexpected. These include unexpected delays or unexpected issues such as lost luggage and all. We have to prepare to allow time for the unexpected so that we can stick to our itinerary as much as possible.
It’s the same with our lives. There are so many interruptions that are prone to happen. These may include unexpected emergencies, or even unexpected traffic when going somewhere. It’s best to take those into consideration.
How to allow little time for the unexpected:
Personally, I don’t like having my calendar fully booked, and I prefer to have some space during the day, just for those very interruptions. So, if something were to come up, I’m still able to do some of my other priorities.
So, on top of scheduling your priorities in your calendar, aim to give your space for the unexpected. This is so that you don’t get overwhelmed if something unexpected happens, and give you reassurance that you still have time in the day to do them. Being flexible is a key skill in being productive.
4) Do Projects One at a Time
Like on a holiday, you’re obviously going to do one activity at a time. This is so that you get to enjoy the moment of every single activity you’re doing on that trip. Because, how fun would the holiday actually be if you’re trying to do several things at once? It’s probably going to be hard to enjoy the holiday right?
It’s the same with organizing our life. It’s going to be overwhelming having so many projects needed to get done. If we multi-task them, then the work may not be of high quality. So, we got to work on our projects one at a time, so that we can actually produce higher quality work.
How to do projects one at a time:
Applying what was mentioned above about placing your priorities in order of importance, you list your projects by order of importance. You can organize them by deadlines, or by the workload.
Then, work on them, one at a time. Work on the next one until the other one is finished. If you have several projects due at the same time, still work on them one at a time.
Focus on them one at a time, so you can produce your best quality work. Multi-tasking is probably not going to be the way to go, especially since it’s not going to affect just one project… it’s affect all the projects that you’re trying to do.
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5) Organise your Work Space
Obviously, when we go on holiday, we do need to pack… and it has to be organized as well!
We’ve got to organize everything from our clothes, our toiletries, and our most important documents such as our passport and boarding pass. If all of these were put together, imagine how much of a mess it would be. Hence, we need to keep all of those items separate so nothing gets lost.
Just like having a nicely packed organized luggage, we need to have a nicely organized space, especially if we have a work space. Not having a neat workspace is one of the ways you can ruin your work routine.
How to organize your work space:
If you get separate rooms or areas around the house, then it’s a great opportunity to separate your work spaces to your leisure spaces. Hence, you only do work in your work space, and do your relaxing time in your leisure space.
Since our brain works in mysterious ways, it wants to associate a particular space for a particular activity so that we can actually get into the activity. Why do you think many people recommend to not study or do work on your bed? It’s because you only want to associate that bed for just sleeping.
If you don’t get to have separate rooms or areas around the house (like me!), then you can use your room to separate your spaces, regardless of your room size.
It can even be little things, such as using the bed just for sleep and relaxing, and using the desk just for work. The bed is just your relaxing space, and your desk is just your work space.
6) Work According to Your Temperament
On your holiday, you obviously do activities that are most fun and suitable for you. Just because an activity is popular, it doesn’t mean that you have to do it. For instance, if you’re going on a holiday to Los Angeles, Disneyland may be one popular activity to do. But, if you’re not a person to enjoy theme parks and rides, then you don’t have to go there.
It’s the same with our life. One popular advice is to wake up early to make the most of your day. But just because it’s popular, it doesn’t mean that we have to do it. If we work better late at night, then we can work late at night. We work according to our temperament so that we’re able to work as effectively as we can.
I know that for me, I am more of a morning person than a night owl when it comes to working on my most important projects. However, sometimes I’ll have appointments in the morning which would force me to work at other times in the day. I don’t want to let the weaknesses of my temperament stop me from completing my tasks.
How to work according to your temperament:
If you’re unsure, then you can do some trial and error here.
Schedule out your work time at different times of the day throughout the week, and evaluate what time suits you most based on the following factors:
- How focused you are.
- How much you get done.
- How effective your work is.
Of course, sometimes we may not get to work according to our temperament. For example, we may focus best in the morning, but that time is taken up due to work, and the only time we get to work on other projects is late in the afternoon. If this is the case, then we find ways to adjust our temperament. This may include getting enough sleep the night before so at the end of the day, we’re not that tired.
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7) Using travel time for light work and growth
Sometimes, we have no choice but to do some work while we’re on holiday. What I know what some people have done is to do their work while on the plane, so that they don’t have to worry about doing the work once they’re at their destination.
We can do the same thing for our lives. There may be times where we may experience delays such as traffic. Instead of dreading it, we can make the most of it.
I know that for me, I like to use my driving time to listen to audiobooks and podcasts. This is helpful for me because if I get stuck in traffic, I’ll still get to learn something while I am in the car. Also, it saves me from any additional learning that is needed to get done at home.
How to make the most of travel time:
Maybe instead of listening to the same music over and over again, you can actually end up learning something, just by replacing music with a podcast.
Have you ever experienced getting a song stuck in your head because you’ve heard it so many times? You can use that to your advantage!
Imagine listening to a helpful podcast or audiobook over and over again, imagine what would end up getting stuck in your head.
Maybe you’re not an audiobook or podcast person, but think about this – think about how many hours in a week that you travel… it’s got to add up to several hours right? Imagine if you spent those several hours learning something through a podcast.
What would you rather have by the end of the week… a song stuck in your head OR something new that you’ve learned stuck in your head? Think about it. Your diet isn’t just the food you physically eat, it’s also what you put in your mind too!
8) Develop Systems that Work for You
Systems includes all the processes and steps to get to our goals.
In the case for traveling, our systems includes everything we prepare for before the holiday, the travel time, and of course, the actual holiday in the destination.
Having an organized system for all of them would allow us to make effective use of our time, and hence enjoy our holiday more. If our system for traveling is getting things all over the place, then it may be time to reconsider improving them in the next holiday.
It’s the same with our lives – our systems includes all the processes and steps to get to our goals. These may include setting our priorities and scheduling them in our calendar. The more effective they are, the more effective our work would be and the more time we get to save.
How to Develop Systems:
I’ve written a blog post on how to develop systems as well as developing habits.
Pretty much, once you establish your goal, you think about steps and the habits you need to develop to get closer to that goal.
Once you establish that system, you give it time to see whether or not it’s getting you closer to your goals. If it is, then that means to keep going with the system. If it is not, then that’s the time to work on improving them, so that we can continue to get closer to our goals, and improve our results.
When you think about it, when it comes to two sports team playing a game, the difference between the winning and the losing team isn’t the goal to win. Instead, it is the system that they implemented that allows them to win or lose.
So once you figure out your goal, don’t just stop there. Think about the steps to get to those goals so you can actually accomplish them.
9) Plan Dead Time
On the flight to your destination, and on the flight back, you’re probably thinking about how you’re going to entertain yourself on the plane. You may think about watching the in-flight entertainment, or you may download some movies on your laptop, or just read a book instead. Regardless, you want to do something on that flight.
Of course, it’s the same with organizing our life. We can actually save time later on in the day by planning what we’re going to do in our dead time. The dead time refers to that little block of time you have in between doing something. For example, you may be waiting in line for an appointment. That waiting time you have is your dead time.
Pretty much, we want to plan out what we want to do at that little block of time. This brings me to the following…
How to plan dead time:
First of all, list small tasks that you can do anywhere in short amounts of time. For me, it includes answering messages, checking some emails, and doing some blog brainstoming. So whenever I find myself with a short block of time, like if I was awaiting my appointment, those are the tasks that I would do. This would allow me to save time later on in the day from doing them.
Keep that list of small tasks on hand so that the next time you find yourself with some dead time, you can make the most of that time.
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10) Focus on Results, Not the Activity
When we’re thinking about our holiday, we are going to think more about our destination more than the travel time and the travel preparation.
It’s the same with our life. As we spend our time doing the activities that help us get to our goals, we have to remember that we are not going to like 100% of the entire process to get to that goal.
Just like how we’re not going to love every minute of the traveling, we’re not going to love everything about the process needed to get to our goals.
It’s going to get us to our destination anyway. That is the same mindset we should use for our goals.
How to Focus on Results not the Activity:
This is similar to number 8 where we focus more on our systems than our goals.
We think about our goal, then we need to think about the processes and steps to get there. That is the system that we develop.
Once we develop the system, then we keep focusing on improving and enhancing it.
You need to remember that you’re not going to love every second of doing that process, but just keep in mind that it’s that system that would eventually get you to your destination.
Organize What Matters Most
Holidays are really fun, and I miss traveling so much.
Just know that if you can organize well for a short-term holiday, you can organize well for something really long-term… your life.
Just like your holiday, organizing your life takes preparation and planning. If we do that well, then we are able to work effectively, improve our results, and make the most of our time.
If we’re doing all that organizing and preparing to have a fun holiday, then we can do organization and preparation to make the most of our life.
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Systems Over Goals – Why It’s Better To Focus On Systems
How to Procrastinate the Right Way
How to Set Your Goals…. and actually achieve them!
The Compound Effect – a big eyeopener!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hi, this is Lauren! I’m a law grad from Melbourne, Australia. On laurenbarri.com, I create content on all things personal development, productivity, self-care, and habits! I am super passionate about these topics because of how they helped me in all areas of my life, and I want to share it with others!
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