(*Part 1 of My Goal Mastery Series: A System to Rule Them All)
I don’t know about you, but as a writer who gets lost in the world of creating for hours at a time, not to mention the hours I spend doing meditation and emotional integration practices to strengthen my intuitive abilities, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with to-do lists and productivity management systems all my life. I have quite lofty visions of what I intend to achieve, yet I don’t always have the best goal-setting plans to follow through on them.
The weird thing is that I’ve gone through periods where I’ve been spectacularly and militantly organized. When I was hired as a senior editor at National Post Business magazine (now Financial Post), I was also given the temporary job of managing editor. So, I had to corral a team of tardy, grumpy, highly intelligent (which comes with ego), mostly male editors into getting their articles ready to run on time, and all without the benefit of having any real power.
And yet, I pulled it off. I helped them save thousands of dollars a month in late printing fees. Meanwhile, like most people, I’ve always struggled with holding this level of accountability for myself.
Now, after being self employed for over 12 years, I’ve committed to 2016 being the year of officially getting my spiritual advisor-writer-entrepreneur-butt organized, come hell or high water.
My partner, Joel, who is also a self-employed entrepreneur (and therefore also struggles with motivation), summed up this tricky productivity conundrum eloquently the other night by incorporating the famous quote from Napoleon Hill:
Welcome to entrepreneurship!
The good news is: “You are the master of your destiny.”
The bad news is: “You are the master of your destiny.”
(Even if you’re not self employed, you’re still the master of your destiny, so this post will still be useful for you.)
I’ve been thinking: How the hell did I pull off that epic organizational feat for a monthly business magazine with over half a million readers, and how do I replicate it in my own life so I can meet my own goals?
I’m going to bring you along on my own journey and share my personal research and reflections with you, so you can take it all in, adapt it to your own journey, and truly blaze your own trail for posterity.
Because, honestly? You can’t live your potential without the solid foundational support of daily, monthly and yearly systems. It’s ain’t sexy, but it’s the truth.
First, for context, here are the steps I took to get the magazine back on track.
- I looked at the flaws in their current system. What were they doing? Why wasn’t it working? And I made a list of the main problems:
- People were not great at tracking their own deadlines.
- People were not being held publicly accountable for these deadlines.
- People did not know where things were at overall in the publication process.
- I obsessively researched existing systems, with the intention to create something that would get everyone on track. Having a strong intention is important, because it contributes to our outcome. I spent about 10 hours researching and thinking about how I could achieve this.
- I created a system (which ended up being a mix of the different systems I researched online) that addressed these problems.
- I created a calendar that listed all the deadlines, and included the name of the editor responsible and gave everyone a copy.
- I put up a giant whiteboard on the wall where everyone could see it, which clearly showed where we were at in the production process, and where (who!) the bottleneck was. (This solved both the #2 & #3 problems.)
- I followed up with everyone personally as required, which was easy because I could point to both the printed calendar and the wall calendar as references.
Based on that…here’s the 3 step process I used to begin crafting my own Goal Mastery System
- Look at the flaws in your current system (or lack of a system!). You can’t solve a problem until you know the root causes of that problem.
- Get a blank piece of paper (I used a giant sheet of paper, so you may want to tape 4 regular sheets together.)
- Make a mindmap diagram of what systems you are using now, where they’re working and where they’re failing you. (Include everything you do to remember things, including sticky notes on your computer! Yes I do that!)
- Make a list (on the left side of the page) of your own tendencies that get in the way of you being productive (spending too much time on Facebook, using too many different apps, etc.).
- Make a list (on the right side of the page) of beliefs that may be getting in the way of being productive (eg. I can only be creative when struck by inspiration. Systems limit my ability to be creative. Systems are constraining.)
- Question these beliefs, because they are often the real reason you aren’t following a system. You will never be successful at what you do without having good systems in place. The whole point of systems is to free up your mind of all those little things you’re trying to keep track of so you can be more focused and creative on the things that matter. It’s also worth reading my post When Shit Isn’t Working so you can understand how your False Self throws up resistance and sabotages your productivity if you don’t integrate it.
- Now that you have a map of what’s happening, it’s time to write a list of possible solutions that might address these problems. Don’t overthink this, just write whatever comes to you. You’ll adjust this later as you try them out.
- Research existing systems that would include these solutions. Hold the intention to find the perfect system for you then allow yourself to enjoy the process of looking at what’s out there. Often your perfect system will be a mix of other systems, so you can tailor it to yourself (and it will take a few months or years to really tailor it to yourself).
For now, just be sure to do Step 1 and Step 2. I’m going to be sharing my own research with you on systems in future posts, which will save you some time and trouble.
Over the next few weeks we’ll look at
3 Steps to Create a Goal Mastery System That Works For You
- 4 Exercises to Set the Right Goals to Create a Life You’ll Love
- 7 Systems That Will Help you Set & Meet Goals
- What Your Goal Mastery System Should Include
- Apps That Will Help you Set & Meet Goals
I may even share my final system, depending on what stage I’m at myself in the process of testing it. We shall see! This is a real adventure I’m heading out on! Join me, and we’ll share our trailblazing goodness at ever-higher levels in this world!
Rise up and shine as your True Self,
Shawn xo
P.S. I’d love to hear about your experience with this in the comments section below or on my Facebook page. Let’s create community together! We are here to SHARE who we ARE and SUPPORT each other! ♡
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