Good planning and systems can bring things into focus and create a sense of calm (like in this photo).

“I love a good system.”

— Jacquie Surgenor Gaglione

Love might be overstating it, but upon further reflection, I really don’t think so.

I’m always tweaking and refining my systems. Sometimes, I nail it and it works great and other times, it just needs a few small adjustments.

Other times, however, I just need to blow it up, or abandon it and start over, and that’s OK. While we want to make sure that we’ve given it an honest shot and tried to fix what wasn’t working, it’s OK to say, this really isn’t working for me and so I need to come up with something else. Recognize, also, that what worked last year might not fit your needs now.

All that to say, I love when I start a new system and it works, which happened recently

OK, let’s back up a little to last fall when I read a book called Getting Things Done by David Allen (see the book review here).It is a productivity book on high performing steroids. While it was full of good ideas, it was even a bit much for me. That said, there was a great idea that I did get from it.

The Monday Morning Planning Routine.

I’ve always had a Monday morning planning routine, but haven’t always actually done it. It wasn’t really formal; I just kind of did a few things, but I mostly tried squeezing them in before whatever I had going on that day.

Allen suggests building in time to reflect and plan first thing Monday morning. So simple, but yet, mind blown. I started it last fall and it’s become a habit. And honestly, it has made a huge difference to my week.

I actually block an hour in my calendar (8:30 – 9:30 am) every Monday morning. And I protect it. I used to schedule the odd meeting for 9:00 am and now I push them until 10:00 am. It’s become easier to protect that time as I love how I feel when I can accomplish the routine and create clarity about important tasks I need to tackle that week.

When I first started out, I couldn’t actually get everything done in an hour; the first few weeks, it would take me an hour and a half. As I’ve stuck with it, however, it takes less and less time and I can finish everything with a little time to spare.

So, what do I do in that hour?

Project Review

I keep a series of papers (you could easily do this digitally; I just choose to have papers in a file folder that are easy to grab). Each paper has a project name at the top and every step I think I need to take to accomplish it (for example for my Project of Redecorate my Bedroom, steps include: buy sheets, find painters, paint walls, change curtains, rehang pictures, buy pillows, buy throw blanket, replace baseboards, buy new light, replace light … ) Each Monday morning, I look through these project sheets and check off any tasks I accomplished and decide what (if any) next steps to take that week and I record them in my Bullet Journal under weekly tasks. Being able to track my progress and check things off makes me recognize how much I am actually accomplishing.

Sort Physical Inbox

I still collect paper and so they go in my inbox (which actually has 5 slots). I used to have them sorted by: do today, do tomorrow, do this week, do sometime, stuff I’m collecting. I would basically ignore most of them and then feel overwhelmed. After finishing Allen’s book, I changed them to:

Process this stuff – this is where papers are placed that I need to look at or deal with. I go through this and empty it (by processing the papers, not by dumping it) as part of my Monday Morning Planning Routine.

Scheduled – I have Outlook reminders to pay each bill I get about a week before the general due date. If something is scheduled, the paper goes in here until the reminder pops up. I only go through this when I need to process something specific based on a scheduled task.

Waiting on Someone – this houses papers that are awaiting something. For example, if I put in a health claim, it will live in here until I get notification that the claim has been processed. If I’ve done up a proposal and am waiting to hear input, it can sit here. I periodically (and quickly) flip through this stuff, but not on a weekly basis.

Stuff I’m collecting – I haven’t gotten to revamping the last two inboxes; one day …

Outlook Tasks & Follow Up Folder

I have a tendency to create tasks and then ignore them. I’ll often put an email into my Follow Up folder and create a task to review and then just not actually look at it. Each Monday morning, I’ve committed to looking at all my tasks and asking myself if I can just do them now or if I can’t and I haven’t done them, are they really that important? If they are, then I schedule them and if they aren’t, I delete them. I get lots of noise in my email inbox (although I’ve unsubscribed to a ton of things), but I get lots of one offs (reports I might want to read, or possible webinars I might want to attend).

I aim for a zero email inbox (key word is aim; it’s a major work in progress). When I go through my email, if I can’t deal with something quickly and easily, I’ll often put a follow up flag on it so it becomes an Outlook task and then I move it into a Follow Up folder. Each Monday, I go through all those emails and action or delete any that I can. Examples of these types of emails might be reports someone has sent me, shipping notifications for items I’ve ordered, or non critical emails I need to eventually action.

Bullet Journal Review

I look through my tasks and items from the previous week and (if I haven’t already), check off the ones I accomplished and decide if I’m moving unfinished ones to the current week or if I’m deciding they aren’t important enough to move. I also look at birthdays and events for the coming week and pick my key priority items to accomplish.

This is my adapted process. Parts of it may work for you; and parts probably won’t. I get asked often about my systems, which is why I thought I’d share it, but the real power I think is in that it has become a habit. I have set up various systems to help me feel productive and in control and prepared (I’ve added a list of other blog posts related to goals, productivity and systems at the bottom of this post). This is just another one, but it’s in my calendar and I protect that time as I know when I don’t do this, then I feel overwhelmed, out of control and unfocused. Since those don’t fit well with my personality, I have made the commitment to instead create systems and habits which make me feel focused, in control and accomplished.

It doesn’t really matter what habit or routine you set up; what matters, is that you commit to actually following through and doing it.