The last few days of mine were spent browsing the web in search of a perfect organizing tool. I don’t care at this stage whether it’s online or offline, I just feel the need for a computerized way to improve my daily organizing routine.
As you have probably read in My To-Do Lists Revolution article before, I’ve gone through few stages of various optimizations in search of the most efficient way of organizing all the things I have to do.
These are the things I’d like to keep track of:
- what needs to be done and when
- what had already been finished, and when
- what is tomorrow (today) going to be like
This isn’t the full list, of course, but it gives you the idea. All I’m trying to do is to get through the day in the most efficient way – meet my own expectations, make sure I fulfill requests of my peers, don’t forget to enjoy my lifestyle, and – most importantly – enjoy the comfort of knowing exactly what is getting done and why, trying my best not to forget anything. And while I’m growing better and better at this, I realise that it’s also important not only to keep track of things, but to keep them in some order and maintain a healthy balance.
I think in everyone’s personal development there are quite a few pivotal moments, when your approach to dealing with everyday tasks changes dramatically in such a way that it would feel unnatural, if possible at all, to come back to the old way of things. So here are just a few of such moments I can think of right now.
The pivotal points in personal growth:
- You accept that your way of doing things is not perfect. In fact, it’s far from being perfect. And not only you feel it’s time to change, but you also decide to change things. You agree with yourself to make commitments.
- You find out that there are better ways of organizing your life. You’re excited and you’re full of energy, and everything seems to be so easier to manage even if you don’t really change anything in your approach. You enjoy the first results of your personal growth.
- You pick a set of rules to follow, and you do your best in making the whole new approach work. And it does! You soon enough realise that dealing with daily routine isn’t hard at all. Things at work get done easier, things at home bring joy in a natural way, and you finally accept that your development does pay off.
- You realise that your life isn’t only about getting things done, and there has to be more to it. This is when you agree that everything has to be balanced. You have to work, but you also have to enjoy other aspects of life. You have to advance with your career, but you should also never forget about your precious half making some professional progress too. And there are all sorts of things which don’t quite fall into one of the bigger categories of your daily routine, but your life will become dull and grey and sometimes even empty without them. You suddenly realise that you can’t go on without balancing things.
- You find the perfect balance, and yet again you realise how much you’ve grown – things are done with ease, and you enjoy every day of your life more that ever.
This list is probably much longer, but I think I’m somewhere between 3 and 4 on this scale, and because of this I can’t see much further than 5. I’m sure though that many things will become obvious and apparent once I make some progress.