Creating Systems that Work for You

We have had a pretty good couple of weeks at the Pugh house. I feel as though things are finally starting to come together. Maybe not in the way that most would think. Jordan is still unable to work and we still have mountains of medical debt but have a handle on it at least. Anyway, I was talking to Jordan a few weeks ago and I mentioned how I feel as though I finally feel “caught up.”

For so long I have always had this long to-do list that never seemed to get done. There were always things left on the list and I never felt like I could cross every item off. Jordan said that I should just stop making lists but he just didn’t understand…

I told him the difference now is my mindset towards the whole thing. I made the shift in my mind that logically I knew there will always be things on the to-do list but I feel like I have control over them in the form of systems that work for me.

Like podcasts for example. I freaking love podcasts.

I do my workouts by watching a video podcast on Yoga. I learn about various topics that interest me like history, economics, productivity, self-improvement, nutrition, money, sermons and others through podcasts. I even had my own Games of Thrones commentary podcast that I was obsessed with while the show was running. Podcasts are amazing!

This is just one tool I use to keep me learning and improving in the areas that I wish to grow more. Another tool that I love and that really works for me is my planner. The maker of the planner was the one to introduce me to the idea of creating systems that work for me. By using her planner I know better how to look ahead and organize my month, week, etc.

One of the things she teaches in her setup videos for the planner is automating the things that you can. For instance I order my groceries online and have the dog food delivered to my door. That really works for me and saves me a lot of time. I also have most of my bills done online or via automatic payment. (I have a separate calendar with all of the days that bills are coming out so when I go to do my bi-weekly budget I know what is coming up.)

These are examples of how I have created systems I know work for me and that require just a little time to set up in the beginning. But once I do that I can step back and let them run on their own while I do the things I want with my time.

I am much more intentional with my days off now. I make sure and take care of the things that are actually on my to-do list, like emails, making calls/appointments, doing research, cleaning, laundry etc. to get done in the morning when Jordan is sleeping so in the afternoon and evening we can spend time together.

I am a lot better at following through on the things on my to-do list as well. For instance, I would write on my to-do list, call IU about pending expenses. A year ago that would have stayed on the to-do list for weeks for various reasons. I didn’t know all the details, I don’t like calling about debt, I don’t like talking to people on the phone when I am unsure about why I am calling because that will make me sound stupid, etc. In my mind the call would take a long time and I would be on hold forever or they would ask for things that I didn’t have, just making excuses like that all the time.  I didn’t want to do it so I would let it sit on my to-do list for weeks starting at me.

Until one day I heard this from somewhere I don’t remember, ‘things never take as long as you imagine they are going to.’ So I changed my thinking to, ‘these things need to get done no matter what, so I just need to do them now and get them off my to-do list because it probably won’t take as long as I originally thought.’And invariably every time I thought that I would make myself dial the number or do whatever uncomfortable thing first and it always ended up getting done 10 times quicker that what I thought it would. 

So when I was talking to Jordan about feeling like I had finally “caught up” I guess what I meant to say was that I have figured out systems that work for me. I feel I have grasped the task of delegating and creating systems and completing necessary tasks efficiently so that I can focus on the things that I really do what to do with my life. I feel like before I couldn’t even think about those things because I was always worried and anxious about getting things done or spending more time than necessary on them.

And now that I am not always worried about getting my to-do lists done or anxious about never completing anything I can ask myself, ‘now that those things are not there what am I going to do with my time?’ I have already started to answer that question and the answers are really exciting to me.