Life is kind of a jumbled mess for me right now. There are a lot of things going on all at once, and I'm not spending a whole lot of time at home. I am often tired, and I have been napping on breaks at work.
Luckily, all of the overtime that I've been working lately will be over soon. I'm trying to take advantage of it while I can, because I don't want to miss the opportunity.
At the same time, when I get home, I have to prioritize--I only have so much energy or time in the evenings. As such I have a lot of things that are on the back burner for right now. I can only work on my novel on the weekends, my class work for grad school all has to be done in bursts on breaks and lunches (when I'm not napping). I haven't had time to work out in weeks.
I'm sure I'm not the first person to wish for more hours--if I could live forever, I would be first in line. But for now--(crossing my fingers for advances in science, here)--I only have so many. So I believe that it is so important to establish what you want to do. What you want to get done, and things that you hope to accomplish. I can have a lot going on in my head any any one time and I tend to want to do so much that I get overwhelmed, so I thought it might be helpful to talk a little bit about how I organize things in such a way so that I don't feel overwhelmed--and so that sh*t gets done.
It's no secret that I am a touch OCD. I have a notebook full of lists, budgets, and charts.
So, this is what I do. When I think about doing a lot of things all at once, it feels like too much, and like I won't be able to do any of it. So, first, I separate things out.
- Immediate Goals--is for to-dos that need down immediately (of course), or things that will be done as soon as you get home and then will be done. These are non-negotiable, they get done, or they build up.
- Short term Goals--this is for goals that are a little more invested. You probably need to actually set aside some time to just do these, but they're things with out an immediate deadline, but that you know you need to get done soon.
- Long term Goals--and finally, these are the biggies. These are the goals that will need plans of all their own, long term (duh) desires or accomplishments.
The immediate and short term goal are then pretty easy to deal with--immediate goals get accomplished as soon as possible. Short term goals aren't immediate, but they are short-range quicker goals that I set a day to accomplish. I try to space them out so that I still have some time to do other things.
And then I identify something small that I can do to move towards my long term goals. Using the chart above as an example, I would take one of the large overarching goals--we'll use figuring out what I want to do with my life. That is a really large goal! How can I do that? Well, for starters, I can try lots of new things. I can also go back to school. For focusing on relationships, I can ask my friends about their day. I can make sure that I check in with my good friends when it's been a while. I can try to consider their feelings. I can do things that I know they like. I can try to put myself out there to make new friends.
And with the smaller steps, the bigger goals seem a lot more possible!
Of course, this technique won't work for everyone, everyone is different. I don't need the charts, but they make me feel a lot calmer and makes sure I don't miss anything. And frankly the peace of mind makes me feel a lot better--overall. (One of many tricks I have to calm some anxieties.)
But if this does help anyone, please feel free to use it! :)
