Mission

Now this post here, you're either going to love, hate, or pick to pieces. Its one of those that can either make lots of sense or seem almost insane.

Today we're going to talk about a method of 'Doing' that I've come up with to help me.

Before I start, it'll probably be similar to what most people say. What I've done over the last year or so is read everything I could about time management, priorities, goal-setting and clutter. I've muddled along with a lot of techniques, some of which worked - some of which didn't really. During the course of that I've learned a lot about myself, some of which I didn't really want to hear, most of which I'm glad I did. I won't kid you; its not easy. I'm still not completely organised and efficient (what student is?) but I'm lots closer than I was.

So.

Here's my method:

First, I'll sit down and write everything majorly important to me on a piece of paper. The big things - like love, family, financial security, and whatever you want (I'll call these groups from now on). Then, I put that piece of paper aside and write out my 'goals' on the next.

Now, before I go any further I want to talk a bit about goals. Most people have heard at least something about them, and already have an opinion of them. Bear with me on this though, even if it seems painfully obvious it took me months to truly understand what they were all about.

What a goal is, is something you really want to have, achieve, or be. Want to be a writer? That's a goal. Want to earn money today? That's another. Want to get fit? Even this favourite complaint is a goal ladies and gentlemen. Goals aren't always big things. In fact, from what I've seen most of them are pretty small. So small in fact, that they get disregarded when making a list of your goals.

An alternate that lets you avoid this (and that I've found helps with me) is to just write down every little thing you want. Don't bother thinking about how smart they are, or how big, or how important. Just write them all down - if you must you can analyze them later.

Once you've written them down, put the bit of paper aside - don't look at it again for a moment. What you need now is either a folder, or a folder on your computer. I have an actual folder for this, though I do use my computer later on. I just find it easier to remember if its in my ring binder.

Anyway, take your folder and some paper and write down all the groups, one to each bit of paper. Write it near the top and in big letters. Then, underneath, carefully write down what that group means to you. How would you define it? What would it take to make you sit and think that, yes - this is going well? Write down all of those things as neatly as possible and put them into your binder.

Now, take your list of goals again and look at them. Use a pen or pencil to make a little mark next to the more important ones. These are now your 'Missions'. Then see decide whether to group some of them if they're the same or whether to just leave them as they are. Then what you do is repeat what you did with the groups, except don't put them in your folder yet.

Look at your groups again, and sort each of your missions into one of them. Then just file them away for now, under the proper group.

Now look at the rest of your goals - do you have groups of them that seem similar? Do some of them relate to your missions? Write the similar ones out on the same bit of paper (with descriptions if necessary) and put them wherever you think they should go in your folder. Choose a group for them and see if they fit with any of your missions - if not, don't worry; its not a huge hardship.

With the ones you have left over, give them their own bit of paper and file them as well.

By now you may be wondering what the point to all this is. Its a way of setting out your priorities and thinking through them in a clear way. If you have every single thing you want written down in detail, you're probably a lot more likely to get it. You're certainly not going to be stuck whenever anyone asks what you want to do with your life any more.

The key to this system, is that you have to look over your folder every couple of days at the most. This helps to keep it in your mind, and since you wrote it in detail - it'll maybe give you that fire you need to get it done. Plus it has the added bonus of making it far easier to jot down to-do lists if you're so inclined (and then keep to them!).

Certainly, since I started this I've found I'm making much more sense to myself, and to those around me. It seems to be working far better than any of the techniques I've tried before, but I think that's more a matter of I created this one. As a last bit of advice, don't take any system completely. If you like a part of something, use that part; over time you'll have made up your own unique way of doing things. One that makes sense to you at your own level, and one that you'll see through to the end.