It's amazing what you can achieve with the right processes in place. You can get a lot done in a month, but if you don't pace yourself it's pretty easy to burn yourself out.
Avoid the All or Nothing Attitude
If you're anything like me, you might find yourself easily distracted by the latest shiny thing in your life. A hobby or project can quickly take over your life and use the majority of your brain space. Trying to get your new 'it' done while keeping everything else moving can be very difficult if you don't have the systems in place to keep you motivated and on track.
Creating Balance
In order for our lives to progress steadily without going backwards in some areas, we need to create balance. While we should strive to create balance in our daily lives, it makes a lot of sense to balance those days against each other across the course of a month. There's just not enough time to fit everything in every
Start with the essentials
Use your Monthly Layout to visualise your month ahead. Mark in your commitments:
- Work days
- Birthdays
- Events
- Due dates of projects/assignments
- Due dates and milestones of your Big Lemonade Brew
Condense Sources
Gather data from all the calendars you work from. Separate Personal, Family, Work, School, Sporting and Hobby Group calendars can create havoc if we look at them all as individual entities. Transfer everything you need to factor into your day into a single calendar to make sure you don't miss a beat and can clearly see where conflicts and tight spots are likely to occur.
Work Backwards
Some commitments don't require any special preparation, but others can be quite involved. To make sure that you're ready to roll when the occasion calls for it, map out what needs to be done in the leadup and be realistic about the amount of time required to get each step done.
- Birthday coming up? Organise a present and/or card and factor in enough time for shipping or postage.
- Presentation for work? Stage the research, writing and final presentation of your data so you're not left doing it all the night before.
- Attending a wedding? In addition to the card and gift, you'll also need to have your post-lockdown haircut booked well in advance and to check the fit of your favourite outfit with time to spare in case it needs to be adjusted or replaced.
- School dress-up day? Whether you're making your own or motivating the kids to get on the job, you don't want to be pulling it together the night before. The more warning you have the better.
Pacing Yourself
When you know the critical dates and the steps required before they occur, keeping yourself on track becomes a simple process.
Most of the things you need to do in preparation can be pinpointed to firm dates, or to a week in which they need to be completed to keep everything else on track.
Build a routine that works for you
For some, pencilling in your task deadlines on the monthly layout, or in the monthly to-do section works best. From there, you can transfer the things you need to tackle the weekly and daily to-dos.
Others may prefer to put these straight into their weekly and daily to-dos. This is my preferred option as it saves repetition.
Make Time For You
In order for your life to be balanced, you need to factor in what you see in your planner and how busy you like your life to be. It's ok to say no to attending social gatherings when you know they'll fall in a week of double-shifts and you'll be exhausted. Actually, it's ok to say no to anything. It's just something I find personally difficult without justification.
Recording your commitments has the added benefit of highlighting how many things you're doing for others and can help you give yourself permission to prioritise yourself, and do something you enjoy doing.
What's in a Month?
It can feel like a second or an age, but it is only 28 to 31 days. It's not long. Some months we'll achieve a lot, others very little. The reality is, those months we seem to plough through and get a lot done is usually the result of a lot of slow steady work being done in the background. When you're berating yourself about all you still see left to do, keep in mind where you came from and remind yourself of all you've achieved to date.
Whatever you choose to cram into your month can help your short term progress, but keep in mind that for long term success you need your mental and physical health and happiness. If you do have some months where you run at your goals at speed, make sure you balance them with downtime so you have the energy and ambition to keep at your goals over the long term.
It's not too late to book into our next Goal Planning Workshop on May 16. You don't need to have a Lemonade Planner to join us. We'll provide the individual pages on the day for anyone who requires them.
Making the Most of Your Month