Having defined rules on what is most important and what needs to be executed on every day can help you achieve the freedom you need to enjoy your life while still accomplishing your goals. Yes, it is possible. When you rid yourself of any hesitation on the action steps that will move you forward, you save valuable time that can be added back for relaxation, self-care, or moments to enjoy with your friends or family. The way I do this is by defining my life buckets/life domains and using the following system to approach ALL of the things I have to do in an organized manner. This helps me retain some semblance of sanity and balance in this busy world.
The strategy entails listing out and defining all of your life buckets or domains that will help you to define a meaningful life and includes all of your “roles” and tasks as well. All of the following may not apply to you or may not be things you find particularly important in your life, but I can list out mine as an example and a framework for you to expound upon. I choose 12 life buckets because I can then choose one per month to go deep on in a calendar year or one per week to execute on to complete them all within a typical quarter. (1) Whole House Organization (2) Side Projects/Hobbies (3) Workout Programs/Goals (4) “Sharpen the Saw” (Personal Intellect) (5) Improving Work Skills/Work Tasks ( Professional) (6) Future Home/Outdoor Projects (7) Vacation Preparations/Travel Goals (8) Meal Planning/Supplements (9) Cleaning Schedule/House Tasks (10) Self Care and Virtues (11) Errands/Shopping (12) Family Enrichment/Well-Being ( Includes Dr. Visits).
I next make a list of focus items or prompts in each category. The focus items may be a quick action list, a set of goals with or without a timeline, or a concept to integrate in my life or brainstorm about. Sometimes the list is a brain dump of all potential activities of which I can choose from depending on my mood and energy level that day. For example, for my “Self-Care” bucket, I list out things like Yoga, Journaling, Meditation, Reading a Spiritual Book, Breathwork, etc. I can then choose that day which one of those I feel like doing based on my time constraints or my energy level which gives me a bit of flexibility. As long as I am making progress on something in that category, I signal to myself that these things are important enough to me that I make the time in my life ( even if it is only minutes) to do them or to think about them.
Now that I have clarity on what is important and have written out potential actions or projects in each life bucket/domain, I then decide on a schedule for execution that works for me. Generally, I will pick one life domain at a time to go deep on and really focus any extra time or attention in that area. Sometimes this may be a monthly focus or a weekly focus depending on the season/timing in my life as discussed above. It helps me to narrow my focus and pick one life domain/bucket that I want to make significant progress on at one time. Well, what about all the other things we have to get done in life? Are we just putting those aside? That is not possible in our busy world, which is why I also pick one life domain to make mini strides in every day so that I am not completely ignoring the 100 other important things that demand my time and attention!
In practice, this will look like the following: In the month of May, I am focused on my life domain (1) Organizing the Whole House. I commit to a practice that honors the theme of this month. Perhaps, I will spend 1 hour every weekend day organizing a space in my house. It can even look like brainstorming an organization schedule for the next 2 years to get it all under control. Whatever I do, my extra time and energy are poured into making significant progress in this life domain this month. Every day, I pick one tiny habit in the other life domains to act on within a rotating schedule. I may watch a 15-minute video on ultrasound to advance my work skills on Monday, meditate for 10 minutes on Tuesday, do a 10-minute workout routine or pick 3 exercises from a workout list on Wednesday, Read 10 minutes of a book to further my intellect / “sharpen the saw” on Thursday and scratch one thing off my forever-growing errand list on Friday. Saturday, I will go for a walk with my girls for Family Enrichment and Sunday I will batch cook/meal plan for the week. This is just an example. The daily habits I choose for each life bucket are tiny, short, actionable, and definitely doable – we are talking 10 minutes or less. Every life domain will get the appropriate attention it needs ( both deep and shallow) and I will free myself from reactive list-making and falling into the trap of being efficient but not effective. Efficient means getting things done, effective means getting the right things done and letting the rest wait.
The point of this exercise is that the things I value and deem most important to me, are written down in my life buckets/life domains and have been predetermined for this year ( editable of course). I can look at my list in the morning and know what I am working on for the day and what I am focusing on for the month. I get things done that matter most without spinning my wheels. I have the clarity I need to execute on something every day without the guilt that I am missing out on giving something important in my life the appropriate time and dedication it deserves. For a busy mom, this is priceless. In time, this structured way of looking at what is important to me and executing on what REALLY needs to be done each day leads to a great sense of fulfillment with an added energy boost knowing I am working on the things I value most. I can enjoy the freedom of extra time to do what I want to do, when I want to do it because every day I know I have already added a small drop to one of the buckets of my life and that makes my soul full.