An Organized Approach

I’m a fairly organized person. I enjoy planning and arranging things. I rather strongly believe that a good plan makes life easier and allows me to do more than I would have otherwise. For example, I was able to graduate from college in three years by formulating a plan in my first semester to achieve all the graduation requirements in as short a time as possible. I never thought my fondness for having a plan was a problem, or even all that noticeable, until recently. I’m perfectly able to function without a plan or to handle the inevitable wrench in my plan, I just prefer to make one if I have the time. But a friend called me “the list girl”. My mother said, “you and your schedule”. I started to analyze my habits and found that maybe I am a bit obsessive with the scheduling and planning. For example:

I start each week by preparing a schedule of what I want to accomplish. Each day I review the premade schedule and tweak it, adding anything that didn’t get accomplished in previous days or that has come up recently.

I break pretty much every project I work on into smaller pieces and plan how and when I’m going to do each piece so that the completed project is done in time. For example, if my goal for the week is to clean my house, I’ll assign a room to each weekday. Then I’ll breakout how I’ll clean that room (declutter, then dust, then vacuum, etc.). 

I use my Outlook calendar to schedule not just big events, but regular household chores as well. Even my exercise routine is detailed in my calendar.

I also always have bigger plans in mind, backup plans, and sometimes, backup backup plans. . . For example, my current large-scale plans center on my immediate goal of finding employment and making myself as marketable as possible. I’m planning to take the GPHR exam in December, after taking a prep course. I’m thinking about doing a Spanish language immersion course in Costa Rica. I’m studying to take the GRE and GMAT exams so that I can apply to grad or business school if I’m still unemployed at the end of the year. I’m working out a model for starting my own business.

While I can see that I maybe take the planning a step further than others might, I cannot fathom how people who don’t plan or schedule get things done. Even something as simple as a straight to-do list is a form of planning, allowing one to remember what they should do, prioritize the tasks, and get things done more efficiently. [As a side note, I’m a big fan of handwritten to-do lists. Nothing is more satisfying as taking a pen through the items on your list and seeing it shrink to only a few items.] Life is just easier and more manageable when you have a way to approach it.