Rest. Organize. Prepare.
I’m trying something new for the next 6 weeks. I’ve been doing this “prioritization shelf” for the last few months, with some variance in success from time to time, but I’ve found that setting up what items I need to focus on during the next 6 weeks only works so well when I have major projects ahead of me. But now that we’re coming to the end of the year, I’m finding myself in this gloriously “free” zone.
For the first time in almost 2 years, I don’t have major projects looming. The book is done, the conference is finished, I completed my altMBA course, my company is humming along at a fairly comfortable pace, and on a personal note, we’re finally settling into our new apartment. So… what are the things that need my “top shelf” attention vs. those that just need to get done? I’ve been stalling out on my re-prioritization task because I didn’t have a major project to prioritize… and putting all of the little fiddly things (like organizing my business receipts) on the big overarching priorities list just didn’t make sense.
I realized all of this as I sat down today, finally gearing up to prioritize, and decided to pivot slightly. Instead of having major projects driving my priorities, why not have goals that drive the categorization and prioritization of all of those small fiddly things? (Bonkers idea, I know.)
So here we go. My goals for the next 6 weeks?
Rest.
Organize.
Prepare.
Rest… because let’s face it, it’s the end of an incredibly long, busy, hectic, overwhelming year. I need to take better care of myself — physically, emotionally, and mentally — and that starts with rest.
Organize… because my brain doesn’t work nearly as well when I don’t have an organized space. The apartment, as I mentioned, is coming together, but there are still piles of papers that need to be sorted in my office space, and my online “space”… well… let’s just say that could use a lot of love. One of my first tasks will be prioritizing which of those online spaces get organized and which ones are just left to fester and/or burn, but there will be progress.
Prepare… because I’m anticipating 2019 to be a banner year and I want to make sure I’m ready for whatever it has to offer. But in order for me to be ready, I need to know what I want, how I want to do it, and what I need in order to make those things come to fruition. Also, I need to be rested and organized (see above).
All of the tasks that I put into Asana will need to be related to one of those three goals and prioritized accordingly into piles of Non-negotiable, Top-shelf, B-level work, or JFDI. If things don’t fit into that framework, it’s not going to happen! (This is, of course, in addition to client work, but that will be regulated in a way that can allow for the other items, and lucky for me, the holidays are giving me just that opportunity).
I have new habits I want to try out and old ones I want to re-implement, as well as things that just need to be scrapped. And what better time for a good retrospective than the end of the year?
So, that’s how I’m ending 2018 and starting 2019… working toward a more rested, more organized, and more prepared me. Curious how it’ll work for me? Watch this space 😉
Originally published at www.marythengvall.com on December 14, 2018.
