Let’s talk about what’s happening in the next handful of weeks that comes at us like a series of tidal waves, fast and furious. Notice your gut reaction as you read this list of impending events.
- Thanksgiving
- Black Friday
- Holiday shopping madness
- Baking
- Parties
- Wrapping
- Year-end projects
- Sending/not sending holiday cards
- Over-eating (again)
- Taking down the decorations
- New Year’s Eve
- New Year’s resolutions
- Gym memberships (again)
Do you feel overwhelmed just reading this?
It is true that planning things out makes it much easier to fulfill on than flying by the seat of your pants.
If you’re a planner aficionado, then you either already have your planner picked out or you have a love-hate relationship with planners. Perhaps you’ve been in the hunt for the perfect one. Or, you bought the perfect planner but felt like you needed some quality time (that never showed up) to really get into the depths of the planning, so it collected dust until the following year and had to be tossed out unused.
As a productivity expert, I want to share with you an important secret about planners:
The right one really doesn’t matter. Having a plan matters. But how you keep track of that plan is as unique as your fingerprint.
The best planner is the one you’ll use, so don’t expect yourself to change your behavior. Pick one that will accommodate your habits and style.
Planners don’t solve the problem we want them to.
They are a token of an intention to change behavior. Does it work? Not a bit. A gym membership doesn’t make you go to the gym, and the planner doesn’t make you do more of the tasks that really matter most.
Before you choose a planner, let’s talk about what you’re actually planning and organizing (in other words, managing).
WHAT ARE YOU MANAGING?
There are essentially two things you’re managing:
External factors: The meetings you must attend, the phone calls you schedule, your personal and professional appointments. You’ve got to show up at the doctor no matter what. That’s external.
The flipside is the internal. These are the factors that come from within you… and this is where the rubber meets the road relative to actually managing anything.
To zero in on exactly what these internal factors are, ask yourself the following questions:
- What are my biggest dreams? If I got it done, what would I consider my most satisfying accomplishment at the end of my life?
- If I didn’t have to work or attend to any of my current responsibilities, what would I like to work on in that free time (after I’ve read as many books as I want, sipped as many margaritas by the pool as I like or golfed as much as I want)?
- What is something big I’ve always wanted to do but always gets put on the back burner for more important responsibilities in life? (This one may take time to reveal…based on how long it’s been suppressed.)
- Which activities, products, or works would I most like to be known for? (Do I want to be a published author, an ultra-marathoner, a famous podcaster, a public speaker, a renowned inventor … or something else?)
Now, ask yourself these questions:
- How much time do I spend scrolling through social media?
- How much do I use my phone for games or puzzles?
- How many times do I typically hit the snooze button in the morning?
- How often do I catch myself binge watching shows?
- How many times in a week do work goals override self-care?
- When was the last time my choices directly contradicted my priorities?
You see the point I’m making – you haven’t written the Great American Novel or photographed the Amazon rainforest yet because something inside you keeps derailing that train.
That thing is the limbic system in your brain. This part of your brain is an untrained monkey, flinging poop at your prefrontal cortex. Your limbic system is stubborn, and it fiercely seeks out comfort and pleasure. It persuades you to sleep in, grab a burger at the drive-thru, or watch a show instead of going for a walk.
The limbic system is always fighting with the prefrontal cortex of your brain. Your prefrontal cortex is logical, sensible, smart. It knows you need to get quality sleep, eat clean, and be frugal. It knows that to get your book done, you need to carve out time to write at least 2,500 words per day. It wants your success.
No planner can solve the problem of the war that your limbic system wages on your life’s goals.
How do you help your prefrontal cortex win the ongoing battle with your limbic system so that you can exit this life having left the legacy of a contribution to the world that only you can make?
This is the heart of the work I do with clients. I work with people who have big dreams and want to be a massive, unforgettable contribution to the world.
Together, we go through a system for rewiring the brain that changes how you think, what you do, and how you cultivate and interact with your own thoughts. And, this system gives you permission and a pathway to put your own needs first for a change.
BACK TO THE PLANNER QUESTION
You have big goals. How long have you had those goals?
Having an opportunity to chase those goals and dreams is a privilege. A lot of your neighbors have big dreams that die with them, and they didn’t even take one single step to manifest those dreams.
The kind of planner you have is irrelevant compared to what you put in that planner. So, instead of spending oodles of time trying to figure out which planner is best for you, let’s spend the perfect amount of time rewiring your brain to move your most desired, sacred goals forward.
Then, I promise, any planner will do.
If you are ready to transform how you use your time from now on… to turn yourself into a master at accomplishing your most heart-felt goals, reach out to me, and I’ll show you how to radically transform your time, your space, and how you interact with both.
Together, we can make 2024 as magnificent as you are.
Aren’t you curious to see what you can accomplish when you give yourself the freedom to do so?
Celebrating your magnificence,
Kathleen