Getting Your Shit Together
Step 1. Brain Dump
Get everything out of your head, to-dos, things not done, things that have been bugging you, getting out what’s in will help you sift through things to help you focus.
Writing everything out, tasks, goals, ideas you’re stuck on, will stop these just outside your peripheral energy vision from sapping your energy.
Write down what you need or want to do. Decluttering your brain is like defragging a hard drive, it gives you room to process what’s in your head to find what’s valuable and what isn’t.
This may, in fact, be the longest, and hardest, step to take, but it’s necessary.
Step 2. Narrow Things Down
Sift through everything that’s there, it’s a bit like panning for gold. Look at each thing and think really hard, is this something you can control? Is it something feasible at all? Do you even want to do this? Is it important? Be brutal about it, your time has value. Cross off shit you’ve really zero interest, time, energy, or motivation for. Only focus on things you can control or want to do.
Focus on your time and what you want to do with it. Exercise? Learning something? Launching or making a business bigger? Can control. The kids having to go to school? The need for sleep (kinda), you can’t control, these things are inevitable, don’t focus on those just do them.
You list will start to shake out into things you know you can control and you can invest your time.
When you’ve shaken out the “gold,” as it were, think on each re realistic timelines (“realistic,” it takes 2-3 times longer than you will estimate, so X3 everything to be safe… seriously).
If it helps to distill the remaining deitriss if you’re still stuck throw things into an Eisenhower matrix.
Important: Do NOT stress too much if you still have a lot of items left, you’re further along than before you started and can refine things either revisiting a day or two later or starting and finding what is of value either financially or time-wise or is it making you happy. You at least have a starting point.
Step 3. Break Each One Down
Refining helps, if necessarily, pick only five things, or even as few as three on the list, fully aware that some items may in fact be larger picture that need further refinement and that some tasks may need to be broken down further. Launch a website? If that’s one thing, be hyper aware that a website means hosting, content, and very likely marketing.
Start a web serious of videos? Scripts, lighting, equipment, ideas.
Etc.
For each idea or thing you want to do knowing there’ll be subtasks, and subtasks of those subtasks will mean even if you narrow it down to “I’m going to do these three things,” the reality is, each of those three things may have three to ten things, of which those will have more things. Hence, the need to pare down as much as you can.
Still, breaking all these things down means you’ll know what to managing, and knowing is half the battle, in fact, it’s why you’ve done this necessary brain dump, getting all that shit out of your brain into a place you can organize what can be done, and then sub-organize, and so on. It’ll be in front of you, you can strategize on the things in front of you and NOT what’s in your head.
Step 4. Find Your Why
Why do you want to ‘do the thing?’ Why do you want to start the business? Why do you want to run the 5K? Why do you want to build an atomic bomb in your basement? Why do you want to run for president? Why do you want to set a goal of networking with five people every day and for what reasons and what’s the outcome?
Why’s equal outcomes. Your why should either motivate you short term or, much like working up to run a marathon, give you something to set your sights on. It’ll also help your brain, instead of getting clogged with all those “should ofs” motivate you with “could and wills” because you can see an outcome, and your brain will find ways of getting you to those outcomes, even in those times you’re thinking “fuck this shit.”
For each of the 3-5 things you’ve decided upon, write down your why; WHY is this thing important, what will you get out of it? How will it make you happy or what change will it accomplish to you, to others.
Speaking of others, one great why, though this isn’t a dealbreaker, to have something to do is if it’s of service to others. How do you get what you want? By helping other people get what they want. This is called being of service.
And, in those times you get discouraged on your list of 3-5 things, you’ll have a written out “why” you can look back on for motivation and reaffirming along the way. “Oh, right, curing cancer.”
Step 5. Get Committed
You now have a list of 3-5 important projects you’re going to tackle, along with a breakdown of time to accomplish or at least a sense of milestones, “I can achieve these things in X amount of time,” the reasons you want to make them happen, great…
Now get committed to making them happen.
How? Some people have more self-drive and motivation than others, I will admit, my wanes based on the day, my mood, the weather, the season, I kinda suck at commitments to myself. To others I’m pretty good, especially if there’s money or some mutual benefit but for myself I frankly suck at making commitments to myself. Be it self-esteem issues or a lack of self-care, whatever, I often lack motivation.
So, how do we make things happen? One way research shows is you tell others, or you post about it, you make it public somehow so others may see or hold you accountable OR, if you have no followers, you still have this “on this day I achieved” and a record of progress.
The other way is find a friend, a spouse, a relative, or even pick someone who you admire, a mentor, a person who inspires you, someone who will act as an accountability buddy that you and s/he will check in with each other, even if YOU have to do the checking in with them to tell them your progress, it creates an accountability.
Remember this: If you fail you fail, but you tried, and there’s a fuck-ton more value in your trying than doing nothing at all.
Step 6. Create a Roadmap
Without a map most of us will never get to our destination, we’d be driving aimlessly which, can be fun, sure, but if you’re really committed to making an impact and delivering on ideas, you need to lay out the “how,” the how you’re going to get there. Your “why” needs a how (and probably a who, what, when, but let’s not get ahead of ourself.”
The dreaded “d” word, or deadlines. Bigger milestones will need them, smaller ones may prove challenging. To be hones this is where you’re setting up rules and guides. A rule is hard and fast, a guide is flexible, and you don’t want to make things so hard on yourself that you give up or beat yourself up about not hitting goals. Stay flexible and go easy on yourself but keep pushing forward, always, even if you have to move dates forward.
If you have to, assign a “why” to each step. “Why am I entering the 5K?” “Why am I setting up advertising to my new website?” “Why am I reaching out to these people?” List out your intentions, your intentions in one way or another will manifest themselves or show you wrong tracks to get back on or find the right ones.