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[Ep 198]\n\n\n\nSome people love to sit down and just start writing with no worries whether or not the work is moving them toward their goals.\n\nOthers love to spend time making lists, making plans, setting everything up, scheduling down to the minute\u2014devoting so much time to those tasks that they struggle to get around to the actual work of writing.\n\nLet\u2019s figure out how to do both.\n\nLet\u2019s find a balance.\n\nLet\u2019s set ourselves up with a plan that helps us truly move toward goals and level up, and then commit to the work, so we can meet deadlines, accomplish tasks, and make progress.\n\nThere are three things we need to do: we need to organize ourselves, schedule the work, and enact the plan.\n\nOrganize, schedule, enact. Each takes a slightly different mindset and represents a slightly different role. It\u2019s as if you\u2019re three people at the same time.\nOrganize\nAs you organize yourself, you\u2019re like a project manager and you\u2019ll need a project management setup.\nProject Management Tasks\nYou\u2019ll want to make checklists to create repeatable processes and routines that fit into your days.\n\nSay no to things holding you back, so you can simplify and prune to focus and level up.\n\nMake sure the plan you\u2019re organizing supports your primary goals\u2014that one-year and the three-month goal, but you\u2019ll also want to break down big projects into smaller tasks and schedule those, as well. This is part of the reverse engineering I\u2019ve talked about in the past.\n\nTake all of that\u2014the one-year goal, the three-month goal, and all the ways you\u2019ve broken it down into\u2014and back up. What tasks need to be done in each of the three months of the three-month goal? Then move to the month ahead of you and break that into two-week chunks.\n\nMove down to the week ahead, then, finally, break down your tasks and goals into days so you know what you\u2019re doing today on any given day\u2014always knowing you are steadily, intentionally moving toward goals.\nProject Management Systems\nTo organize all of this, you need some kind of system. It can be as complex or simple, or digital or analog as you like.\n\nSome people use Trello, Evernote, Google Docs, spreadsheets, bullet journals, or a three-ring binder. It\u2019s up to you. Use what works for you.\n\nAnd stick with it, because you'll invest time into organizing all these projects and all this content, goals, and tasks. You\u2019ll input a lot of information into your system.\xa0To repeat that in a different system because you abandoned the first one after a week will simply delay the work of writing.\n\nSet up a system and stick with it for at least a month. Don\u2019t give up too soon.\nSchedule\nAfter you organize all of your tasks and goals, it\u2019s time to actually schedule. This represents another role: the scheduler who does the admin work.\nChoose Your Calendar\nPick a calendar that suits you just as you picked a project management system that suited you.\n\nIdeally, this calendar will weave together your personal appointments to accurately reflect your availability. Plus, you\u2019re already using that calendar and you\u2019ll have it with you at all times.\n\nMany people like the visual effect of huge wall calendars, hanging a poster-size calendar for every month and filling a whole wall. They use Post-Its for projects, tasks, and goals, because the Post-Its can be color-coded to represent each item and can move around as needed if something in your life needs to be moved around and adjusted.\n\nYou might consider a digital calendar option, however, because most will sync with multiple devices and you\u2019ll always have this pocket assistant wherever you are: at your desk or out and about.\n\nWith it comes the power of notifications to keep you on task. When a digital calendar notification alerts you to do something, it feels like an outside entity, like an assistant, is nudging you to get to the work based on decisions made by a supervisor.\n\nAll three of those roles were you at a previous time,