Do you have a special project you’d like to organize – yet can’t seem to “find” the time? Does it feel like there just isn’t enough time with work, family commitments, volunteer groups, social commitments, preparing and eating meals, keeping up on the laundry, and so forth?
We all have the same amount of time. How is it that some people “make” time to organize their special projects and others don’t? Some people’s projects seem to stay perpetually as dreams … they never seem able to organize them into becoming a reality.
The answers are:
- Prioritize the time. You can organize what you prioritize.
- Get and stay focused, and eliminate (or reduce) time spent on activities that don’t contribute to the goal.
- Take action.
Here are the steps to take to organize a project:
- Decide how much time you’re willing to invest* on a daily basis. Let’s say you average one hour a day, 6 days a week, at the end of a year you’ll have put in about 300 hours.
- Mentally decide to make this time a priority (very important to take this step).
- Prepare yourself with the materials you’ll need.
- As you go through your days, position the hour at the ideal time; this is when you have the best mental, emotional, and physical energy to carry it out. And this is where knowing yourself is very important. Morning person? Perhaps you want to get that hour of exercise in, first thing in the morning. Night person? Perhaps you want to get that hour of paperwork done after dinner, or after the kids are in bed.
- After you put in the hour, record it somewhere – perhaps your calendar.
- Reward yourself in some healthy way.
- Prepare for tomorrow, look at the calendar and schedule a time.
*It’s very important that it’s viewed as an investment of time. Investments are something we contribute to over time – and they build up value over time.
More about how to organize a project next week.