Control Your Life - Chapter 1-Your Bible

1- YOUR LIFE BOOK

This week we are setting plans in place to get a sense of order and efficiency.

Do you have a calendar, a phone book, a to-do list, and various lists all over the place? Do you have 3 or 4 legal pads going at one time? Do you have little pieces of paper on which you've written phone numbers and notes? Is your purse/wallet/car/dresser full of notes? Do you have post-it notes everywhere? Can you find what you want immediately?? You will if you follow this advice:

First, get rid of all that extraneous paper. Buy a notebook - spiral bound, leather bound, expensive, cheap, large, small, etc. composition book, whatever works.

Take your new notebook (hereinafter referred to as The Life Book) and make it the end-all, be-all of your penned thoughts and transfer all those notes into your Book. Put those post-it's in there and tape all the little pieces of paper you've accumulated. Don't re-write anything. You will have a visual of the chaos that started this calming-down process.

This is where you write down thoughts, ideas, and things you don't want to forget that occur to you along the way. Take this book with you EVERYWHERE. Glue or tape an envelope to the inside back cover to put tickets and receipts in.

When the phone rings, pick up your dedicated pen and have your book open in front of you.

It will soon become a natural habit to automatically write down that person's name and the subject of the phone call. Make notes as you listen. Do this for both personal and professional phone calls. It's amazing how you will be reminded of all things heretofore forgotten, and you'll get extra brownie points for remembering everything.

Have it with you when you are listening to your voice mail messages as well. (No more little tiny pieces of paper that get lost or smeared.) Write them all down so that you have a record of them; they will not be forgotten this way. You will be reminded of that conversation and whatever you may or may not have committed to doing so you will be niggled to follow through on your commitment. Post-it's that others hand you can get put right in - no need to re-copy.

This book is your appendage. It can be used as a daily journal to track back and figure out when something happened in your life that at the time didn't mean anything, but may trigger something else. It is, in a word, invaluable, and very, very easy. Try to mark each new day with the date on the page (a confession: I've tried doing this and forget; so I don't have a very good diary aspect to mine, but I seem to have forgiven myself this small indiscretion - but I can see very clearly how valuable it would be).

Get two business cards from people you meet - tape one in your book. (This is not practical if you meet hundreds of people at a time, but if you meet a few at a networking session it works well; you can make notes about what you remember about them to trigger your memory later.) It will never be lost that way. The other one you either put in your old fashioned Rolodex (if that's still your style) or enter into Outlook or another database system, and use the card in a follow-up system to remind you to call, send an article, or follow through with whatever your discussion was.

Remember, this is your assistant. If it's the right size for you (I use the old-fashioned smaller composition books that we used in elementary school and cover them with pretty paper - I find the size is perfect for most totes and on tables and on airplanes), you will use it more and take it with you everywhere you go. Make notes on everything in your life, not just business. Keep it for a few years - you'll be surprised how often you refer back.

When you have completed something, just line through it or use squiggly lines. You will want to still be able to read through it for reference later. This way all the things that still have to be done or noted are obvious. Write down everything, and I mean everything - even out-of-your-mind, I-have-to-be-crazy-even-to-consider-this thoughts. No one will read this if you have it with you all the time, so don't worry about privacy issues. Keep it in your tote or briefcase when you are not using it. Use shorthand if you know it for really confidential stuff or use some kind of code if you're concerned about confidentiality, but write it in there.

Remember this is not a journal per se. If you have the habit of writing every day in a journal, continue to do so with that dedicated journal book. This is different. This is your life.

Heard a good marketing idea? Write it down quickly.

Heard a good joke that you ABSOLUTELY have to remember? Write it down.

Struck by inspiration? Write it down.

Saw a good sale on something you've been looking for? Write it down.

Heard about a good book? Write it down.

Watching your weight? Record your progress, activities, and intake in your book. Write it down.

As you accomplish things, check them off, mark through them so those other things that are still niggling at you pop out. This is your Master List. Everything goes in it. Everything. Reminders, lists, ideas, names, shopping lists (hey, post-it's work really well here because you can pull them out at take them with you when you pull into the parking lot of the grocery store), website addresses, etc. Everything.

This is for your eyes only, so go crazy. Doodle, list, think, ponder, dream, evaluate, and make impressions. WRITE IT DOWN!

This is a great way to start to get control.