Get Your Life Organised in 2020

Here are my key tips to make your new year the most organised and successful yet!

1. Organise Your Priorities

 a) Write a list 20-40 life goals you have right now

 Note: these will change through each stage of your life, so don’t worry if they looked different than they did a few years ago. Focus on where you are going, not where you have been.

 b) Highlight those you want to achieve in 2020, ideally breaking them down into Career , Relationships and Personal categories.

If a big list goal is too broad to achieve in 12 months break it down into bite-sized chunks.

For example;

• Big Goal: Buy a beach house
• 2020 Goal: Create a Beach House savings plan, where I will put away 30% of my income saving around $____ by December 2020

or 

• Big Goal: Establish a strong network of friends in my new city
• 2020 Goal: Dedicate 2 hours per week to creating new connections through sporting clubs, social events or/and making an effort to follow up on meeting a new person.

c) Organise Your Energetic Timetable

Now that you have your 2020 goals set, let’s make sure you achieve them.

Take a look at your week and ask yourself when you have the most energy. Are you a morning or an afternoon person? Do you work well after dinner or at sunrise? Identify when you are most productive (or have the most enthusiasm for physical goals) and use it to your advantage.

It’s one thing to organise your priorities, it’s another to organise your energetic timetable to meet them.

I know I am most productive between 8:30am and 12:30pm. Therefore while it is tempting in the morning to clean up my inbox over a cup of coffee, or if I am at home tidy the kitchen, I am much better off using this time to work on my biggest goals.

The trouble is, when we have the most energy our senses are heightened, we feel alive and connected to our purpose. In this superwoman like state, it is tempting to get “a few things out of the way” or pick up a new activity. But veering off track will make those times of low energy even harder as you force yourself to complete the big goals.

Extra Tip

Working out our energetic timetable transcends goal setting and can be used in everyday life as well. IE delete those mundane emails, and loads of washing when your energy is at its lowest. Declutter, study and brainstorm ideas in high energy times.

Low energy times = Less stimulating task

High energy times = Big goal time

2. Declutter and simplify

What tasks can you stop this new year to make space for your big goals and your most successful year yet?

To get the important stuff done we need to take out the excess. And I don’t just mean the physical excess, while that is important too, decluttering tasks will free up time and mental capacity.

Some tasks you might quickly recognise as unnecessary and you can remove them, like ironing your pyjamas, others might be harder to recognise.

Using “spark joy” to declutter tasks might not work

Instead, I invite you to follow the advice of mindfulness guru Russ Harris , author of the  Happiness Trap  . For a fulfilling, happy life Harris suggests we get clear on our personal values and turn to those when we get off track or overcome with negative emotions.

In the business world, Harvard Professor Bill George refers to this as our  True North  . I believe we can use this philosophy for decluttering tasks as well. Having recently done this myself I can attest to its success.

We can use Marie Kondo ’s notion of joy, decluttering all tasks that don’t give us joy….but that might mean we declutter cleaning, ironing, mowing the back yard..essentially anything that is not a pleasant activity.

Declutter tasks based on personal values

If one of your personal values is creativity but you are spending more time on manual labour, what manual tasks can you declutter or delegate to focus more time to those big creative goals?

If ‘family’ resonates as one of your strong values , but you are attending more events with acquaintances than family, can you start staying no? Declutter the acquaintance interactions and spend more time with those you truly care about.

This New Year clarifying your personal values will help you to define what joy truly means to you, and assist in decluttering those activities adding no value, freeing space for your big goals.

Want more ideas on happiness, have you heard of Hygge , read our blog on the art of the worlds happiest people ??