From my own experience...
It´s been a while since I haven't wrote a new post! and it's been definitely not easy especially last year 2020 with lots of restrictions and little time.
I am writing this blog post for you. If you are feeling a bit overwhelmed in this time of pandemic, you have to wake up more than early in the morning to achieve your goals and don't know where to start?
Because I am planning right now, I think this is the best time to share with you my journey and tell you that I am "finally" starting to understand these issues regarding productivity and time management, now more than ever.
This post is the best example of it. I've finally found time for it :-).
My goal for writing this is to help you to feel better and motivated
My desire to get organized began approximately at the beginning of 2017 (4 years ago) as I decided that I don't want to have that feeling anymore, that my days are running away, without doing something meaningful in my life, plus I wanted to be happier.
I realized that writing down my goals and dreams would help me to keep in mind the most important things I wanted to focus on, like a compass.
The truth of all this, is that getting organized and being productive seems an easy process, but it is not. It´s a long way of self-discovering, setting boundaries, prioritizing in the way of finding out the things that are really important to you. From the moment on you've found your "Why", and here I mean what really keeps you going, you'll know deep inside you the next step you need to take.
A journey through journaling...
The first book a read about journaling was "Let it out" by Katie Dalebout as I was doing some research and looking for new ideas for being more productive .
Did this book help me? Yes! It was perfect to get startet. There were so many tools for self-care and productivity, plus more ideas to write about and clear my mind. These new ideas definitely helped on my planning/writing process.
To name a few tools that kept me motivated:
Tool Nr 05: The excitement plan
When you wake up in the morning, give yourself 10 minutes, before you begin with your daily tasks. The first thing you do, should motivate you. It can't seem like work :-).
Being intentional and thinking about something that thrills me in the morning, was such a game changer.
Tool Nr, 10: The Monthly Manifesto
It inspired me to think ahead. I wanted to feel productive, so I started to write down the things that made me feel like that, gathering some photos, mantras, recipes, ideas for the coming month.
Tool Nr. 07: The productivity Pivot
I could pivot my day into a productive one. It helped me to turn my low energy into positive vibes. Mostly for those days, in which I felt total disappointed of myself, when I didn't do that "important thing to do" on my list.
And many other tools...
Which planner is the best option?
I tried a few planners along my way, that had a lot of positive impact in my life, they helped to focus on my tasks, not only job related, also on the things I wanted to do in my free time. They were also perfect to keep track of the things I am grateful for.
I began to choose intentionally the things, that will finally lead me to my purpose. The things that made me happy.
These planners were:
Blank pages notebook (a kind of a Bullet Journal)
The first two planners gave me so much insights and input to get closer to my goals, but the third one was kind of challenging, because I needed a little bit more of structure on my schedule.
There are people for instance, who love to work with something similar to a "Bullet Journal". I tried this option too, but I realized that blank pages are not for me. I startet really motivated, but at the end of the day I felt overwhelmed, because I couldn´t sketch the structure of my daily tasks on time. It was more less like a "little chaos in my mind". But we are all different. Everyone has it´s own way to schedule an inspiring day. Maybe a notebook with blank pages is the best option for you.
Ok, let´s go to the interesting part of planning
If you are probably like me...
You have often new, many ideas.
You are trying to find the best way to put all of these ideas in one place.
You feel guilty, because the next day you forgot them, there was suddenly something else, that inspired you! Either more important to do, or there was an external issue that you couldn´t control.
You are thriving a creative business or you are first starting to think about your dream business.
Well, here is my recipe...
The first thing I do is to write down on a A4 sheet every new idea, inspiration or things I want to learn, so that it is impossible to forget all the things I have in mind. My list was as long as the size of my sheet. Every time I have a new idea, I write it down immediately.
No matter how many things I need to prioritize first, after choosing two or three of them, I can always go back to my list and check them out. I got this idea from the inspiring Jessica Abel, who wrote the book Growing Gills:How to Find Creative Focus When You're drowning in Your Daily Life.
More focus: My Flourish Planner 2021
After searching for many ways to bring forward my idea of a creative business, I discovered "Focus to flourish" on 2020, from *Bonnie Christine on Skillshare. I am a huge fan of Skillshare and Bonnie is a true role model for me.
With her method I´ve learned really to focus on the three most important things that bring me forward. I tried this method before, but now was different. With my Flourish Planner, developed by her, it changed the perspective I was looking at things. Since the pandemic I have so little time, that I really try to focus on the few things that are more important for me to do.
My Conclusion:
After three weeks using this planner I felt more productive and more focused.
My Flourish Planner is perfect for my creative business. And I believe you can also use it for your personal projects.
Even if I can´t manage to do my three tasks a day, and that is my reality right now, at least one of them will be done for sure. For instance, one of my goals at the middle of January was finishing my portfolio "Best of my 100 days Project".
I used to write a lot of things, that kept my focus in many other directions most of the time. Now, I still write many things, but concentrated in one sentence and in one place.
I started automatically prioritizing my tasks. My new planner has a system, which allows me to keep my focus for the following week. I love this!
To be honest, I still have many ideas, that want to distract me from my goals. I need that space to write them down. But these ideas are general, they are the bridge, which helps me to discover my three most important things. For these ideas I use my A4 sheet.
My Tip!
If, you'd like to hear inspiring music to stay focused, I've added a few songs to my Spotify Playlist, that helped me to stay concentrate on my work. I want to share this inspiring playlist with you. For that, I invite you to subscribe on my Newsletter here.
And one more thing! I've created a beautiful "floral background" for your smartphone and your desktop during my #30dayswatercolorchallenge.
You can have these backgrounds too, by subscribing to my Newsletter. ;-)
Enjoy it! and I hope you feel inspired!
Katty
*Unbezahlte Werbung (Deutsch)
The links I share, are personal recommendations that I've personally tried and love.
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