THE PROCESS BEFORE TAKING ACTION 

Many times after I’ve helped a client organize a beautiful, functional space they’ll ask, “ok, now what”?   Being organized, knowing where things go, being able to find things, and having a “to do” list of priorities is one thing, but taking action on these priorities is another challenge altogether.  Before taking action comes the very key step of “thinking or processing”.  Here’s how it works:

Step #1:  Make your “to do list” then prioritze what needs to be done.

Step #2:  Within each priority think about how long it will take you to actually get the priority accomplished and if you need to drive somewhere include drive time.  Visualize the process you’ll use for getting your priority done.  List any supplies, inventory, or additional resources you’ll need to execute.

Note:  Step #2 is important and most people want to jump ahead to the “taking action” phase when they haven’t really thought about the process of taking action.  For example, if you bake a cake, you need ingredients, tools, and possibly other resources to bake the cake. By planning ahead and checking to see if all of your tools and ingredients and other resources are in place saves you time and stress.  And your outcome will probably be better than you expected.

Step #3:   This is the step when you schedule a time to actually execute the process and get your priority done.  By putting the priority on your calendar and carving out the time to execute your priority, says that you are serious about accomplishing what needs to be done. Using the cake-baking example, you’ll know how much time to allocate because all of your planning and prepping has been done. On the other hand, a bigger priority or project such as painting the house, may take several calendarized sessions, to be scheduled into your calendar.

The key is to take the priorities from your “to do” list and actually schedule them in your calendar for execution.  Otherwise, the listed items often float over to the next day and get layered into more current things to do and we find ourselves running around in urgent or crisis mode.  Scheduling in “to do” list priorities keeps us focused and present.  And remember to schedule time for fun and play, too!