Welcome to part 2 of "Life on Purpose" - planning your 2011 with purpose so that you accomplish what you really want to do and not be taken over by the "little" things that seem to eat away at our daily lives.
If you missed the first post or either of the first two documents just click here to see the original post.
Next, is creating your task map. You may want to open or download the document first by clicking here so that what I say makes sense. On this page are two circles, the large circle should include everything that you do for your family or yourself. The documents gives a few ideas to get you started but just list away. The inside circle should include your "work" tasks - whatever you do for work. (If you are a stay at home mom this may overlap or it should also be anything you volunteer for such as room mom, Nursery Coordinator, etc - anything that isn't home related) Once you have finished with listing everything - take time to underline the 2 items in each area that cause you the most stress and circle the two things that you enjoy the most. One project you can work on is how to make those two items NOT stressful - whether it be learning more about the item (such as finances, budgeting, organizing, ect) or delegating it to someone else - and another project is how to find more time for the two items that you enjoy the most. I will admit that this one worksheet is one I struggle with the most - I already have my daily chores broken up into what I do on specific days so I had already done this step, just in a differant way.
Have you ever sat down and thought about your year in advance - making note of the important things each month. The next worksheet I really enjoyed and I'll share both a blank one and mine (as much as is done now) With this worksheet, list everything major that you need to do each month for example, Darryl's birthday is in February so in January one of my items is "Plan Darryl's birthday" so that I actually remember to plan for it. Than I also add in February "Darryl's Birthday". By doing this list, you can see at a glance the top items that you need to get done each month but it does something else. One of our goals this next year is to paint the outside of our house so I can look at my month by month plan and see which month(s) I can plug this item into by seeing which months are the least busy. Obviously, since it is painting, I need to look between April-Sept. and than take a month that is the least full so I know I won't have to work around other items to get it done. You can see mine here. This is also the place to write down the things you do once a year or once every three months like clean out the garage, clean out the attic, change the screens, change filters. This is a road map of your year. You may notice that as I share documents, they start to get a little more specific - we started with just a brainstorm of ideas and now we are writing down monthly items . .. .so you can guess that we are going to get to goals, monthly, weekly and daily to do's.
So, now, take time to fill out your task map and your month-by-month plan. This is also a good time to pull out your 2011 calendar and fill out birth dates and any items that are already set - get those dates written in NOW so you don't double book yourself (and it can help you fill out that month-by-month document!)
Your Task Map
Month-By-Month Plan
