How to organise your life
On other pages, we looked at how to organise your home. If we talk about how to organise your life we will have to look at life with a calendar. It allows us to do seasonal/yearly organising, to dive into planning mode and look at the ebbs and flows of your year. If you control your time you control your life and this means you can answer the question of how to organise your life.
This is not an argument against being spontaneous, enjoying unexpected time off, being rigid and so organised that you can’t cope when your plan isn’t followed. It is an argument about being intentional, following small actions, and getting to reach big goals. Then doing this year after year. How to organise your life an example
How does an organised life with a calendar look like? This has been my year for a while note that I work in academia we have a very uneven distribution of workload throughout the year.
The Quite Phase
December – February
Lots of writing and thinking time. This is the time of year I get to do fun projects. Chill go for walks on the beach no time constraints and still get lots of thinking done.
Active Phase
March – June
University is in full swing so I have study commitments. Teaching commitments and my normal job is just more demanding. The benefit is that most people are actively engaged with work and not on leave this time of year.
Hibernation Phase
July
A short winter break. I try to get away from the normal environment this time of year. My husband and the kids like going to the snow (yes Australia has a small but active snow sport culture). This gives us a change of scenery, pace and an ability to shake off the flurry of activity from the beginning of the year.
Wrap up / Take Stock Phase
August – November
This is another period of the year when things are more demanding but it has a different flavour. People want to complete the work they started earlier, a lot of people are getting tired maybe because they don’t plan their breaks and year like you do . Most of us grave a sense of completion or achievement. We try to answer the question of what are my achievements for this year.
How would you organise your live and dived your year?
For you, the year is maybe more equally divided. I know lots of jobs work in quarters, human nature likes even seasons. You might enjoy books like the 12 week year in which the authors argue you can do 3 month sprints on a hand full of projects and then change gear to other projects. It doesn’t work 100% for me but the idea is great. You cannot do 10 project simultaneously, you could however break them down over the year and only work on 2 or 3 for a set period of time.
After this you give it some deliberate rest. This however doesn’t mean you lie on the couch and do nothing for days or weeks on end. In the book “Time off” – the authors’ John Fitch, Max Frenzel argue like the philosopher Aristotle himself for Nobel Leisure. The best explanation is; “the free choice made by self-sufficient individuals to pursue what is most worthwhile” (Taub B, Harvard blog the Noble Leisure project)
Rest and deliberate leisure
Over to you – now you know how to organise your life.
We looked at a range of ideas to use calendars and organise your life months in advance. Let’s pause and think about what this can do for you. If you have never done this. What have you got to lose?
Why not have a go planning your year ahead. The first time you do work with calendars it isn’t easy and will take a little bit of time. Once you have a system that works for your life/work/family you want to refine and make it better every year. The aim here is not to have things perfect. You can change, pivot and adjust your plan as much as you would like. I hope however that you look back at each year and feel happy about how you spend your time on the goals you wanted to achieve, the leisure you deserve, and with family/friends who love you.