Imagine yourself looking down the road of life (stay with me). It’s bumpy and long and damnit, you need a vehicle to get down there.
Sure you can choose one of those fancy sports cars, but you’ll constantly have to stop for gas. And that’s annoying. So instead let’s go Oregon Trail old school style and build ourselves a wagon. Something big and sturdy. Something that can cover us when it rains and shade us when it’s sunny.
And it’ll probably come with an Ox. And that’s cool.
Last month we focused on Steps Four, Five, and Six of the Hey Toad Project: Getting Life Handled.
Now let’s break it down even further.
Step Seven: Weekly Plan
You know better than anyone how you work best, whether you like to digitize, keep a massive calendar on the wall, physical planner, etc.
You’ll have more success when you find a system that works for you. Either way, the principles for giving yourself weekly goals are the same:
- Look at your 30 Day Plan
- Break them down into weekly tasks/goals
With your 30 Day Plan in hand choose the best option for you:
Option One: Create a Reward System for Yourself
Some people work better when they know they’ll have a reward at the end of it all. I was once one of those people. That bottle of red I would buy only if I achieved my weekly goals tasted so much better than if I didn’t. Create a template for yourself where you can insert your weekly goals and assign a point system. Here’s one I used several years ago. For more details on this, click here.
Option Two: List them Out
In whatever fashion you prefer simply list out the goals/to do’s you want to accomplish over the week. For example, here’s our example 30 Day Plan broken down into four weekly checklists of goals.
Option Three: Schedule
Some people live and die by their calendars. If that’s you then scheduling your goals and tasks will be the way to go here. For example, if you have a goal to write every day then picking and blocking out a time on your calendar would be the way to go. Or if you want to prep all your meals on Sunday so you can have them ready to go throughout the week, mark a time on your calendar for that. Schedule your workouts. Batch a large chunk of time for a project you are working on (like launching a website or creating a brand). Give every goal and to do a time and date.
Step Eight: Godo’s
Honestly, this word came about because I got tired of saying, “I need to hit my goals and to do’s every day.” So I created a word:
Goal + To Do = Godo
(pronounced “go-doe…don’t ask me why, it just rolls off the tongue better and I imagine a sort of colorful cousin to the dodo bird. I digress.)
A Godo is a task you write on your daily To Do List.
Otherwise, write down your Godo’s every night before bed on a sheet of paper, a white board, your phone, a favorite program, the back of a whiskey bottle, etc.
By writing down your Godo’s each day, you are creating a habit of staying on top of your life. And I gotta tell ya, that hour of Game of Thrones will feel so much more satisfying knowing how much you got accomplished. For more, click here.
Step Nine: Systems, Processes, Forgiveness
So here’s the real question…
How in the world are you going to keep at this?
A lot of people start a project (like getting your life organized) only to quit it when it gets rough, tedious, boring, complicated, or backed up.
The key to making sure you stay organized are these three things: Systems, Processes, Forgiveness
Systems:
There are plenty of areas in which you already have a system. Let’s take a very simple example. My pantry is organized in a clear system to make up the pantry as a whole. One shelf is for snacking items, another is for canned goods, another is for tea and coffee, etc. I’ve set up all the parts, now I just need a process to make sure I keep it that way.
Processes:
Let’s continue with our pantry example. In order to keep my pantry stocked and organized, I created a process to do so. Here’s what it looks like…
–make a grocery list every Saturday including items in the pantry that are low/out or I need specifically for a recipe I am making this week
–go grocery shopping on Sunday
–stock all items in their designated spot
–every other week, remove expired, forgotten about, or disliked items
A system is a set of components you have set up for yourself. A process are the steps you take through your system to keep it up to date. For more details and examples on this topic, click here.
And lastly…
Hey Toad Project wouldn’t work if you didn’t have Forgiveness.
Listen you guys, life is going to spin you around at times. You will be forced to create new routines, forced to take a step back, forced to go even faster, or forced to simply lie down. All of these steps aren’t created for you to become a tyrant in your life. Where’s the fun in living a rigid, systematic life? The Hey Toad Project is for you to set up some structure for yourself. It’s for you to build yourself a sturdy wagon to help take you down the road of life. But there will be days when you want to hop off the wagon and go roll around in the poppy field, or lay in the shade of that massive tree, or feed the zebra on the side of the road! (Because happiness isn’t happiness unless you have a herd of zebras on the side of the road) Life wouldn’t be rich without being able to hop off the wagon.
But the beauty about getting life handled?
Is that the strong and sturdy wagon will be waiting for you to jump right back on. And together–corny as it sounds–you’ll be able to travel down the long road of life together. That way you can look behind you at your success and accomplishments and say to yourself:
“Man, I sure handled it. Boom!”