Welcome to March Makeover! We officially kicked things off on Monday so we hope you love it so far!
We wanted to commit to March Makeover because we’ve recently spoken to so many people over the past few weeks who are generally feeling uninspired and unmotivated. We all started the year with a pep in our step and with the best of intentions, but recently it seems, we’ve all fallen a little bit flat. We wanted to regain our mojo and get back on track to make 2018 the best year it can be!
This is why we enlisted the help of the Queen of Organisation, Lorraine Murphy, to help us get seriously organised. You can read all about her book, Get Remarkably Organised, and why you need it ASAP in Monday’s blog post.
After reading Lorraine’s book for March Makeover, we wanted to chat to Lorraine to further pick her brain about getting seriously organised!
Many people write their to do list as a bulleted list of everything they need to do in a particular day, which doesn’t take into consideration the fact that some tasks have priority over others, and that some will take a lot more time to complete.
In the book, I share my to do list structure, which arranges the day in a cascading order of importance. It enables us to get our biggest/most important tasks done first so that the momentum gained in the morning keeps us motivated all day long. Swiish readers can get the free worksheet from my website here.
Tackling our three MITs (Most Important Tasks) is a surefire way of ensuring you get the most vital tasks done first every day – from there, the rest of the day is all gravy!
Tackling my MITs first every day helps me nix procrastination – but I have definitely learned that it took time to bake that habit into my brain. I see it like a muscle – the more we practice it, the stronger it gets.
When I’ve got a really big, daunting task to get done, I like to break it down into chunks. For example, when I’m starting a new book, first I’ll map out the chapters. Then I’ll fill in bullet points for each chapter, then I’ll take one chapter at a time and write it.
I’m also a big fan of self-incentivising. Like a labrador, I’m very food-motivated (ha!) so promising myself that when X task is done that I can have some chocolate or – if it’s a big thing – go out for dinner, spurs me on to get it done.
Plan in time to plan.
I’m a big believer in “planning halves doing”. If we take the time to map out tasks and how we’ll approach them, the actual doing of the tasks takes half the time. Something that helps me stay on top of everything is to take time every weekend to plan the week ahead.
There is a tonne of data to support the fact that when we plan out a task, it takes us significantly less time to complete it. The most valuable time I spend all week is my thirty minutes to plan out the week ahead on a Sunday evening.
In this time, I review the meetings and various commitments coming up, book in my exercise sessions, figure out our childcare for the week, make sure my husband and I have some time together, and make any plans I need to with friends.
Taking this time to get a helicopter view on the week ahead means that I head into Monday morning with a clear focus on what’s coming up, and a confidence that each of the key areas of my life are getting some attention over the next seven days.
I find it very helpful to colour code different types of appointments in my diary – I’m visual, so it gives me an accurate picture of how much time I’m dedicating to different areas of my life in the seven days upcoming.
So for example, all health/exercise is in turquoise, time with my husband is in pink (for romance – ha!), anything to do with our daughter is in red, and regular life maintenance like hair appointments are in gold. I can tell at a glance if my week ahead isn’t balanced – be that as there’s not enough “health” time, “romance” time or (this has yet to happen) “business time”.
If you want to get more of Lorraine’s wisdom into your life (and as if you wouldn’t!), you can pick up a copy of her book, Get Remarkably Organised, here. We promise you that you will love it! Don’t forget that when you buy a copy of Lorraine’s book, we will also send you a BONUS copy of the weekly planner we swear by to get sh*t done each week!