Uplift your Energy with Planning!

Uplift your energy with this planning exercise! Do you want to move forward with even more energy? Here is the key: move forward with purpose. When you move forward with purpose, life just seems to flow, and things fall into place. You don't feel guilty or that you should be doing something else. You have chosen your purpose, and you are going for it, one step at a time. But how do you move forward with purpose? Here's one helpful way: 1. On a sheet of paper, divide your day up into categories of activities. For instance, if you are the sole person in your small business, you might divide your day up into these categories: 1) Marketing Activities, 2) Continued Learning and Development of Product 3) Providing the Service (if it is a service) 4) Administrative Activities (including mailing/delivering the products if they are goods) 5) Personal Chores 6) Personal Free-Time 7) Family and Friends Time 2. On that sheet of paper, take all the typical activities of your day, and list them under the categories they fall under. For instance, "doctor's appointment" would fall under "Personal Chores," and so on. 3. Now, divide up a piece of paper up into 7 columns to represent your week. Schedule blocks of time for your different categories of activities. The main goal is to work in all of the major categories you have, on a regular, ongoing basis. This way, you have more well-rounded consistency in your work. Remember, this time-blocking is just a rough draft. Each day, you can schedule your time-blocks differently, if you want to. 3. Now, here's where the sense of purpose comes in. When you are going through your day, before you start anything, say to yourself, "I am now going to do Marketing Activities [or whatever category it is that your activity is under] for two hours [or until the marketing activities are done, until you are tired, or until the phone rings, or something else you've chosen]." 4. As you work through the activity you've chosen, check in with yourself from time to time to make sure what you are doing still falls under the category you've chosen. Feel great about doing things in line with what you've planned! And re-plan for things that are off your track. For instance, if you said, "I am now doing Marketing Activities for two hours," and you logged onto Facebook and asked a friend to see a movie, if you really, truthfully looked at the situation, you probably wouldn't consider that a marketing activity. At that point you would not be living in line with the purpose you set, and you would probably feel a little bit of guilt or tension somewhere in your body. To release that tension, you have several choices. 5. One very helpful choice is to change your plan. If you announce to yourself this choice to change your plan, you will very likely still feel in line with your set purposes for the day. So, in the mentioned scenario above, where you messaged your friend on Facebook, you would say to yourself, "I am now doing Personal Free-Time for the next 20 minutes [or however long you want to give yourself]." When you choose to do something, accept the consequences, and then do it, you will have been honest with yourself. You have remained true to your plan and your word, and your guilt or "should do's" have no real place there. And therefore, you free up more energy. When you are in line with yourself and not wasting energy on guilt or worry, you feel centered and purposeful. The American cultural work-ethic allows little time for play. However, my opinion is that listening to your desire for play and relaxation, and knowing when to pause, is helpful for having balance in your life. And listening to your drive to create wonderful work, is also a valid and wonderful guide.  So make your plan today, and look to it often, revise it, evaluate with your inner compass, and let your plan carry you to your destination! Sincerely, Lauren Marie Owen