7 Steps to Organize Your Digital Life

Organizing your Digital Life can seem like a relatively complex thing to do. We all get so much by way of e-mail, notifications from Social Media and Apps that are continually pestering us for our attention. This can be easily distracting and makes it difficult to get anything done. I have found that if you use a few easy steps as your guidelines, then the task can seem much easier;

 

 

1) Set your destination – Part of setting goals is having an idea of where you want to be. Depending on what the goal is you could have a particular purpose (like cleaning out your closet) because there are very few things that have to be done to achieve the goal. If the goal is more complex ( like “start my own business”) which will require more work, then it can be a bit more generalized. Having an end goal in mind is critical. It is what will propel you when or if you get to a low point in your process.

 

2) List your tasks – Part of getting organized is knowing all the things you have to do to reach your destination. Listing your tasks doesn’t have to happen all at the beginning of your project. I have found on more than one occasion that I will set myself a list of “to do’s” and then when I do some of the tasks I end up putting more on because I think of other things that I need to do to complete my task

 

3) Set your dates – Now you’ve got all the tasks you need  (or the ones you think you need) to accomplish to achieve your goals. I know it looks like a long list and that can be daunting if you look at all those tasks all at once. The best way to break that long list down into chunks is to give them a due date. You don’t need to worry about next weeks task because you have this week’s tasks to do. Further, if the tasks you set yourself on a given week get done, then the pressure is off until next week! Bonus!

 

4) Tick off your accomplishments – This is one of the things that any good “todo list” junkie LOVES to do. It’s a cathartic way to get rid of your tasks. I have a regular list of things that I have to get done and ticking things off my list is a joy that I experience on a daily basis. The beauty about this is that you don’t have to be a todo list person like me to enjoy this. If you have a significant project that has many different jobs and tasks, make your list and set your dates. I can almost guarantee that you will get some level of happiness from getting things done and getting tasks off your list

 

5) Deal with delays – Delays happen, big or small, short or long, no matter what you try to do in a project, delays occur. What defines your task is how you deal with them. Do you look at every pebble on the road like it’s a mountain or do you treat it like the pebble it is and move on? One of the most significant delays I deal with on a regular basis is bad feedback. To be clear, when I say “bad” feedback I don’t mean negative, I mean feedback that forces me to redo some of or all of my work to deliver what my bosses are looking for. When I was much younger I used to have a tough time with lousy feedback; I would feel like it was a judge on my character. Now I treat good and bad feedback in the same way, getting feedback is a result!

 

6) Dig in – You know in the movies where a group of characters decides on a plan, and then they cut to “six months later” when all their hard work suddenly comes to fruition? Sadly this is not how it works in reality. In reality, once you develop your plan (a.k.a steps 1-5), you have to knuckle down and do the work. This is time-consuming and, depending on how long your project can last, can be exhausting. This is one of those times when you need to keep your destination that you set up in step one in mind.

 

7) Happy Dance – This may sound silly, but it’s a serious point. Celebrating your accomplishment is just as important as the accomplishment itself. You have to recognize that by getting something done, you’ve improved your life. If you’re like me and are not wild about talking to others about your various accomplishments, then it is essential for you to take a moment for yourself to recognize your accomplishments.

 

I have tried using these seven steps in some different tasks and projects through my life, and I’ve found that they work. I will be applying them to case studies in the future. This does not need to refer to merely Organizing your Digital Life, but it can also use to the rest of your life as well, as the case study I will be providing next week will show.

 

Would you consider using these seven steps in Organizing Your Digital Life?