When you look around you, you’ll see that most guys stumble through life in a disorganized haze, as a man on a mission you need to know how to organize your life. There is a reason the military trains soldiers on how to make a bed or tie shoelaces. They tell them when to eat and when to sleep because the recruits they get have no discipline. At the core of what makes you a man is DISCIPLINE.
Without discipline and order you’re lost and you’ll never be able to accomplish what you want in life. By having things organized you will be able to think clearly and maximize every day of your short time on this earth.
Following this system will make you incredibly productive, it’s also portable, you can take these strategies anywhere in the world and get organized and focused within a day. I’ve tried dozens of system before but this is the best combination for organization and productivity:
How To Organize Your Life
S.M.A.R.T. Goals
- A S.M.A.R.T. goal is a Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound Goal
- Enter your goals in your smartphones’ list app, I use Google Keep
- You shouldn’t have more than 1 goal a year for each major category in your life: health, wealth, relationships and lifestyle
- This goal should be your mission for the year
- Less is more when it comes to goals, any goal worth accomplishing will take up a large amount of your time, so be vigilant about your goal selection
Projects
- A project is an actionable solution to a pain point, the difference between a project and a goal is that a project isn’t time bound
- A project is less of a priority than a goal, and may not have a linear solution, projects can be ten years in the making
- I use Wunderlist for my projects
- An example of a project would be fixing a nagging injury, it’s good to have a list of your pain points and what you’re doing to find solutions
- It’s important though that you don’t let these weigh you down or take up too much time, priority number 1 is your mission
Wishlist
- I use a wishlist for all the things I aim to buy in the future, I keep it on my Wunderlist
- A wishlist is a good way to keep you motivated
- They can be small items like books or clothes all the way up to big ticket items like condos
- It’s also good to have a list of all the things you want so when you want to treat yourself you know exactly what to get
Shopping Lists
- I use simple shopping lists in Wunderlist, one for weekly and one for quarterly
- Just cross off items once you have them in your cart in the store
- Then once you’re shopping again the next week, uncheck all the crossed off items
- For quarterly shopping I get all my supplies for the quarter either online or in stores on the first Sunday of every quarter
- That way I never run out of paper towel or soap
Mission
- Your mission should be the most important thing in your life
- A mission is basically a goal with a multi-year timeline, I keep mine in Google Keep (have hidden it in pic) as well
- You should keep this private, it makes it more powerful and protects it from negative people
Scheduling
- A schedule is just a delivery system for routines, I find its best to break your schedule down by week, month and quarter
- The more consistent your life is, the easier it is to manage
Daily
- Time the core components of your daily routine, alarm, grooming, dressing, meals, gym, work plus any additional things you do on a daily basis
- Enter your core components plus any other daily activities into your phone’s calendar with an alert for each
- I use Google Calendar with a 0 minutes notification and keep it on the agenda setting because its easiest to read
Weekends
- Chances are your weekends will be different than your weekdays, especially if you have a 9-5
- Using the same steps above schedule a weekly routine for the core components, my difference in schedules is on weekends I will add shopping, cleaning and the other chores I need to do
- I use a weekly 0 minutes notification for these on my Google Calendar
Monthly
- Schedule anything you need to do monthly into your Google Calendar with the appropriate notification
- I do all my monthly chores on the first Sunday of the month
Quarterly
- Schedule a day and time to buy all the bulk supplies you need for that quarter in your Google Calendar
- The first Sunday of the quarter is a good time to do this
- You can also have Amazon set a recurring order for you in their subscribe and save feature for certain products
Obligations
- Schedule all obligations with the right reminder in your smartphone calendar immediately, that’s the only way to stay on top of things consistently
- For example: dentist appointments, meeting friends
- Give yourself enough time in the notification to get there, ie. dentist appointment might have a 45 minute notification
Notes
- Notes are ideas, research, directions, routines, expenses or any type of non-actionable information
- I use Notebooks in Evernote to categorize notes based on areas of interest and relevance, eg. nutrition, bodybuilding, dating etc.
- I use Evernote Web Clipper to add articles/summaries I found online,
- It’s much easier than bookmarking and allows you to edit/add to the articles
- Evernote web clipper only works for your PC at this point
Emails
- Port all your email accounts to your phone, I use the new Inbox By Gmail (you have to request an invite)
- Configure emails to one inbox so you don’t need to check multiple email clients
- Respond immediately or schedule a time to respond if the email is important enough
- There’s no point trying to keep an empty inbox it’s too time consuming and ineffective
- I don’t “batch task” emails or texts because I find that too restrictive
If you’re serious about getting organized, now is the time, so take action and make it happen.
