Professionally, I’ve been a project manager for nearly 20 years… but over the past few, I’ve realized I do not apply the same practices to my personal life. It’s like if I’m not working, I should be doing the opposite of what I do at work, so ZERO preplanning, ZERO organizing, ZERO strategizing. LOL.
So as I have started to organize and streamline my personal life, using many of the tools , systems and methodologies as in my professional project management world, things have begun to run much more smoothly and my mind is slowly becoming less cluttered. And I’m ALL about LESS mental clutter!!!
It’s crazy how my mind can swirl itself into a tizzy thinking through all the things I have to do, when I have to do them, who I need to contribute, and ALLLLLLL the minute details that follow suit. Often when I first crack my eyes open in the morning, I’m racing through all of this in my head, as if I can think actions into happening with just my miraculous brain power!
But all this does is create anxiety and worry and this sinking feeling of overwhelm. You hear it all the time, “just write it down”, “get it out of your head an onto paper”. But in our current world of online, digital, automation, etc., it seems so antiquated and disorganized to have a piece of paper, or post-its, or whatever, that can easily get lost, spilled on, crumbled, etc. So the brain continues on as my online processor.
It’s just not sustainable. As capable and intelligent as we all may be, the human brain is not designed to keep more that just a couple things organized at one time. I can’t tell you how many times I go to the store to get just THREE things, and when I get there I can only remember one, two if I’m lucky. And then there’s the random things I realized on the drive that I should try to find…. and then once there, I can’t remember any of them to save my life.
However, being a little old school, and trying to resist having a million things in my phone to lookup, I come back to relying on my poor brain, without paper, without a list on my phone. It’s pointless. So finally, seeing how organized, streamlined and efficient I’ve become professionally, I was like, WTF, why don’t I do this in my personal life???
So here we are today. My job is easier and I’m pretty damn good at it because of the systems and processes I’ve put in place. And now I’m seeing how much it’s improving my personal life. Why did I wait so long to use my skills to help with my personal struggle?! Where can I do more of this in my life and make room for more of the things I CRAVE?!
Where do you struggle? I’m curious. Of course I know my own challenges, but I often think I’m the only stubborn one who approached things the way I did. But maybe others try to balance it all in their heads too? And likely fail, like me. I’d love to hear what frustrates you? And what have you done — or wish you would do — to make things easier on yourself? Or maybe you’ve tried and nothing worked? Share away, the good, the bad, the ugly. Maybe I can learn a thing or too from you, and even do the same for you.