This blog post is a result of organization and planning. Because if I didn’t plan out my week, this writing and message to you would cease to exist.
As I’m getting older and adulting a lot more, some of my interests have changed. Now, I find myself thoroughly enjoying long YouTube videos of people cleaning their homes, renovating their bedrooms, or sharing how they organize their week (and I may or may not be watching some of these right now.)
Many people rarely plan, regularly plan, or plan down to the minute. Like everything in life, there should be a balance in the way we plan. I have seen some of my friends who are “minute planners” and break down when something does not go according to their plan.
How far in advance should we be planning?
It gets intimidating when we see people so well organized. We tend to think, “wow, they really have their life put together. What about me?” We tend to judge ourselves based on others.
Some people plan out their entire lives. Where they’re going to college, who and when they’ll marry, where they’ll live and so on. Others don’t even know what they’ll be cooking for dinner that night.
The best way I can help answer this question is to plan enough to make you comfortable in whichever way works best for you. There is no one set way I can tell you how to plan and organize your life. There are no guidelines or rulebook.
In my life, I try to keep a balance in the way I plan. I create for myself a yearly and weekly schedule (with room for change). Currently, I am a full-time master’s student, part-time employee, part-time freelancer, and full-time social media coordinator for Little With Great Love. It’s all of these jobs, and more, that I have to keep in mind when planning. All the different aspects of your life are important to consider when planning.
The most effective plans are ones with a balance between reality and goals. The reality is yes, we have work to do, laundry, cooking, and more basic to-dos. These need to be set in stone. Our goals are our aspirations, hobbies, and dreams. Like making time for that movie you or the family have been dying to see, finally buying that camera and practicing taking photos, or starting your own business. Scheduling goals amongst reality can give us a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.
The most essential and often forgotten aspect of planning is making time for you. So often, we stretch ourselves so thin, and we burn out. We have to fit in that “me time.” We have to nourish our souls. Weekly, we are posting a “Soul Care Prescription” on our social media that will help nourish ourselves and our souls.
How can we get organized?
For an immediate and simple solution, write everything down. We can start by making a daily to-do list. You can download one or both of the simple, cute, and FREE options that I made, now available in our shop to help get you started {daily planner here, weekly planner here}. When everything starts to get overwhelming, I always stop myself and write it all down. The majority of the time, after seeing it all written out, it’s not really that much, and I’ve been freaking out for no reason.
My favorite method of organizing is weekly. For me, this is the most effective and enjoyable. I currently am using a planner and there is something so satisfying in checking off the things I’ve done. And it can be so inspiring to look back at your weeks and see how much you’ve accomplished. I also created a cute weekly planner as a download in our shop to help.
Depending on our lives, we can choose to plan much more ahead with a monthly or yearly schedule. Planning this far ahead usually happens when we have a big event, like a wedding or vacation. In these big moments, it’s best to prepare before to be able to truly enjoy the moment when it comes.
Let’s find the best solution for you!
Planning vs Not Planning
In my life if I don’t plan, nothing will get done. Knowing myself, I would succumb to Netflix and snacking all day. Not organizing my thoughts results in overthinking and overlooking. I tend to overthink how much I have to do and end up not wanting to do it. I also tend to overlook things I need to do when I don’t plan it out. I’ll either forget about it entirely or not give myself enough time to do what I need to.
One example I can give is Christmas time. One of my first years of having a steady income got me all excited to buy presents. I didn’t budget or plan, just bought, and ended up not having enough money. Another year, I kept putting off buying gifts for my family and ended up giving them IOUs. It wasn’t until this past year that I got the hang of it.
My plan this past year for Christmas was to organize and budget. Here are the steps that worked for me:
- Start organizing in November. All the good deals happen after Thanksgiving.
- Make a simple list of who you want to purchase gifts for.
- Give yourself a total budget you want to stick to.
- Start thinking and researching. For me, I like finding the perfect gift for each person, what is something they need or would enjoy.
- Write down what you want to buy and how much it costs.
- Try to buy them all at once! I personally love shopping online, so I spend my Black Friday and Cyber Monday looking through all the online deals and try buy everything in one go.
- Give yourself a deadline. If you’re an in-person shopper, it’s helpful to plan out what days you can go shopping, and by when you want to have everything you need.
- Wrap presents as they arrive. This prevents you from having to package everything the night before they’re given.
- Keep a note of other items you might’ve wanted to get. If you see that you wanted to get more presents than you budget allowed, write those things down! This could be helpful for any upcoming birthdays or for Christmas next year.
See how organizing and planning Christmas shopping can make it less tedious, and allows you to enjoy Christmas time for what it’s really about.
Why is it important to organize and plan?
We feel accomplished when we get something done. Completing our to-dos or putting everything in its place makes us feel freer. We feel like we can spend less time worrying and more time enjoying.
It gives us peace of mind. Once we get all our thoughts out in an organized plan, we can stop worrying about it as a whole and focus on one thing at a time. Knowing that everything is in order can help clear our minds and help us make as best of an effort we can into what we do.
“Have a bias towards action – let’s see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.”
Gandhi
Being organized and planned allows us to remove physical and mental clutter to better focus our mind, and become who we are created to be.
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