A Simple System to Manage your Life and Time
An important aspect of life to consider for any man on his purpose is to create personal rules on how you are going to behave in the world and what you are going to tolerate from other people.
Another critical aspect of a man’s life is to create his own systems that will encompass multiples aspects of his life. Whether it is about money, time and life management, work, health, dating, socializing or mindset; to have systems in place is to live a simpler and easier life.
The only person I heard talk about systems is Scott Adams in his books How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. He says:
A goal is a specific objective that you either achieve or don’t sometime in the future. A system is something you do on a regular basis that achieves your odds of happiness in the long run. If you do something every day, it’s a system. If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal.
A goal is a target you are aiming at, while a system is all the requirements that will make you hit that target. A goal is aspirational while a system is practical. You can only a goal once while a system is in perpetual progress. A system focus on what you can do every day to achieve your goal.
Basically, a system is a lifestyle.
Time and Life Management System
I already talk about the mindset for time and task management.
TL;DR:
Do a task, project, or anything else, out of desire rather than obligation. For example, I don’t have any obligation to clean my house if I did not want to (and don’t have to either), but I do clean my house because I want to live in a clean and organize environement. I value myself and my desire first and do the task required to make it a reality.
You don’t want to be obligated to do something without a reason (or any underlying desire). If you don’t have reason to act a certain way, why would you even bother?
Also, avoid complicated and convoluted system. The Bullet Journal is a good system to manage your life, but in my opinion, it requires too much time to learn, too much time to manage, and one too many steps to be time-effective (I don’t want to spend 2 hours on a journal).
The more complex it is, the more steps it requires, the more times it takes, the harder it is to maintain and the more likely you are going to abandon it. No system is going to be perfect, but a good system has one important component.
Adherence
Can you maintain your system and keep doing it over and over? Like food and diet, choose what you can easily maintain and what makes your life easier while giving you the result you desire.
3 Main Component
* Weekly/Daily Planner for Managing your Time
Weekly Planner is about organizing your day. Mixed with your phone for reminders, it is a powerful tool to keep track of what you are doing and what you should be doing.
* Journal for Managing your Life and Progress
Journaling is about following through your goals and observe how your daily life is going. It is mainly for analysis and progress purposes
* Phone for Reminders and Idea Dump
The phone is used for quick reminders about your daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly tasks. It also helps to manage your ideas. Either for creative purposes or for keeping a list of future tasks. It is mostly about the idea dump and notifications.
Daily Process
Morning
Every morning, I sit down, usually with good coffee, and write down in the Weekly Planner around 5 tasks I would like to do (as much as possible related to my goals). I don’t necessarily organize my day by having a fixed time for each of theses task. I just write them down so that I know I have to do them, instead of wondering what I should be doing when I come back from work.
I don’t like micromanagement, but I will write down how much time I would like to work on a task. At this point, I trust myself enough to follow through and not need to organize my calendar with extreme details.
I use a few technics from the Bullet Journal in my Weekly Planner.
o The circle is for an event (and things that be easily added to a calendar)
* The dot is for tasks
> Move a task to another day
x Something is completed
When I cancel a task or an event, I strikethrough
During the Day
If I think of any ideas or tasks that I would have to work on, I write it doing in my task list on one of the applications of my phone. I personally use EverNote and ToDo by Microsoft, but there are other applications like Wunderlist or Google Keep. You can even use pocket journals if you want to. It does not matter.
You just need a place to write it down.
Also, if I read something interesting online or hear someone talking about a subject that interests me (but I risk to forget), I send an email to myself with the link or the name of the subject.
Night
At night is about self-analysis. I use my journal and write down 3 bullets point for what I did good (or things I should keep doing) and 3 bullets point for what I did bad (or things that would need improvement). That way I can I have a quick overview of my day and not spend 30 minutes writing down what happened. Although, if I feel the need to add any details about it, I will just write it down after the bullet point.
Weekly Process (Journal)
Every Sunday night is where I analyze what I did during the week. I check each goal and write a summary of the progress on that specific goal (if no progress, I still write it down. That way I know if I’m actively working on a project or not. I add as much as detail as I want and as much information as I need to.
Monthly/Quarterly Process (Journal)
The Monthly/Quarterly review is pretty much the same as the weekly review, but with a more in-depth analysis. I check my progress and determine what I did well during that month and what I could improve for the next month.
Yearly Process (Journal)
At the beginning of each year, I write down:
- All my goals on the inside the cover page.
- My review of the preceding year (bullet points of what I did) (around a page)
- The strongest point for that year (around a page)
- The weakest point for that year (around a page)
- Action Plan the next year to come. Each goal will have sub-items and bullet points on how I can achieve that particular goal. Make it as precise as you can. (as many pages as you require).
- The rest will be the day to day analysis (what I wrote previously)
Conclusion
Is this the best system? Probably not. But as long as it works for you, it shouldn’t be a problem.
The system will improve and change over time, and that is fine. All system requires improvement and systematic changes, especially it does not bring the result you want out of life. Use what you can and upgrade later.
