ADULTING 101: My quest to combat my disorganized nature so my work life doesn’t implode.
nope, not me.
First of all, I just want to start out by saying that this post is NOT for you if you have all of your time management/email organization/calendaring/budgeting skills dialed in. K? So rejoin us next week when we talk about something health-related.
This post is for people like the Old Me, who up until very recently had an overwhelming inbox with thousands of emails in four different accounts. Who had a calendar that was so illogical, I detested using it and instead kept everything in my head (sure). Who treated my job and meetings like one big coffee date instead of treating it with the respect it deserved. Who “had an idea” of how much money I was spending, but wasn’t totally clear on what my accounts actually looked like and didn’t necessarily use discipline and goal setting as my North Star.
If you relate to any of that, this post is for you.
I own and operate Backbody Project, as you know since you’re here. But before working in fitness, did you know I worked in finance and biotech in the Silicon Valley? True story! That meant I had to comply by the rules of pretending to be organized even though I didn’t really know what the hell I was doing because it was my literal job and my employment depended on it. So I faked it. For like 10 years. Fast forward a decade to starting my own business and deciding, you know what? Discipline isn’t really for me. I’ll just do it all intuitively because the Universe totally has my back and all of that.
But the truth about rules and discipline is that they actually FREE you. From stress, guilt, and overwhelm AND an inevitably delayed slog toward accomplishing your goals.
Once you implement a few systems in your life, you lighten up.
Things WORK.
You stop fighting reality and instead get a lot more perspective on where you’re going and WHY you’re going there.
The hard part is setting up your systems so you’ll actually comply—it takes time, attention, and a some patience as you get the hang of these new guard rails, but once you integrate it, it’s MUCH smoother sailing on every level.
With that, here are the things that have helped me TREMENDOUSLY in the past two years.
YNAB. Aka, You Need a Budget. I’m not a huge fan of budgets for the EXACT reason I’m not a fan of diets. I think restrictions make people rebel and “misbehave.” YNAB is unlike any budget I’ve personally ever come across. It’s a system in which you apportion your actual funds, not funds you’ll have in the future. This system has a significant learning curve (I had to watch so many YouTube videos to figure out what I was doing), but once you get it, it’s truly LIFE CHANGING.
Batch your work and make your schedule ironclad. I used to take meetings whenever people asked and I’d run errands in the middle of the day because I figured since I’m my own boss, I could just do what I felt like doing. The thing is: I was a terrible boss to myself. And I ended up having so many wasted days with interrupted progress.
So you know what I did? I actually hired Shira Gill who wrote Minimalista (my favorite home organizing book ever!) to mentor me in creating a simplified work life.
HERE’S WHAT I LEARNED
Divide your days by tasks. For me, that means Monday is for admin and catch up, Tuesday is for writing content, etc. I no longer take meetings Monday-Wednesday unless they’re critical to getting something else completed. As a result, I am sooo productive the first three days of my week.
Edit your tasks down to what matters. Discard or table the rest.
If you have a something due, break it down into small steps and map them out.
OTHER HELPFUL THINGS
Apple mail. Yes, I know you can forward your gmail to other gmails, but Apple Mail is so much easier. Just link the important accounts to your Apple Mail and iCalendar and don’t worry about checking multiple accounts. It’s a sanity saver. And iCalendar is SOOO much easier to use than Google calendar in my experience.
Mis en place your work space, email inbox, & calendar. That means, spend a few minutes cleaning up your physical space, getting your inbox under control, and cleaning up your desktop (oh Jesus if you only knew how many hours it took me to organize my desktop) before you start working. I loved this book on Mis en Place which really helped drive this concept home for me.
Check your calendar for the next day the night before. Sometime after dinner, I look at my calendar for the next day and the rest of the week. On Mondays I look at the whole month, spanning out a few months. This way, I am not completely SHOCKED when some visitor arrives or I have to cancel x subscription before I get billed again or my husband has some outdoor trip that I was in denial about happening. Lean into the truth and it will set you free by getting shit prepped before any and all calendared events.
Create a MOKR. THIS IS THE GAME CHANGER. A MOKR is something used by Google for years and it stands for Mission, Objective, Key Results. I can’t express how valuable this has been in helping me discern my specific goals for this quarter (I only have 4). Anything that falls outside of these 4 goals is not a priority and I’m either discarding it or tabling it until January. You can make a MOKR for your business, your role at your company, your family, or your relationship. If you have goals that you want to achieve, this is a GREAT way to get clarity on what those are and plan the steps you need to take to make those a reality. Can’t recommend it highly enough.
Create a capsule wardrobe. I’m going to talk about this more at length in another post, but having too many clothing options made getting dressed a huge pain point for me. I want to look pulled together on a daily basis in a style that’s true for me and NOT be forced to wear workout clothes all day because of my indecision. Having fewer options that ALL go together is the ticket. When you have fewer quality items to choose from, you just feel better, you take better care of your things, and your closet stays clean and organized. I even have a capsule wardrobe for my 2 year old. Yes, I really do. Just because it’s SO. MUCH. EASIER.
Oh, and last one. Did you know you can schedule all of your notifications on your iPhone and turn off your iMessage alerts on your MacBook? Turn them ALL off with the exception of a few important people. Turn your iPhone to grayscale so you won’t be compelled to stare at it. Put your phone on Do Not Disturb while you’re working. My notifications arrive at 8am and 6pm and to be honest, I don’t look at them even then, but it’s completely stopped me from checking my phone constantly so that’s a win.
All right, team, I know that was a long one, but I hoped it helped somewhat! Of course, everyone has to find the systems that work for them specifically, but perhaps you can use some of this as a jumping-off point for your own organizational quest. If you have questions about any/ all of this, send them my way.
-Meegan