Lets start at the very beginning

“A very good place to start”

Lists are one of your best friends. If they’re not, they should be and we’re going to get onto that right away.

Keeping your council, making your life easier and freeing up brain space. Lists are awesome. When done well they can help streamline and run your life. If something needs doing or remembering, seriously… Get it down on paper – or electronically. Whatever suits your personality and preferences best. What we´re talking about today though is a little bit more in depth than your standard To Do, Shopping or School Needs list. If you’re not already using these regularly … stick around, I’m a big fan and you will hear, learn and be encouraged to use them in many situations. Lists when collated into a system can become a whole lot more. Designed. Analysed. Structured. Streamlined. It’s so exciting, but if you can’t see how just now… trust .. just for a bit.

As I’ve said previously the whole point of doing any of these things, and the main purpose behind the blog, is to free up your time and energy and resources so you/we can spend more time doing what we WANT to do or to have the time to EXPLORE, research and FIND what we’d like to do… where passion, joy, fun or relaxation and contentment may lie for us. To streamline, remove or make quicker and simpler the dreary, boring or monotonous. To get organised. To get a life. If you’re just after an extra hour a week so you can read a book or you want to completely redesign your life. I’m in for both. Good on you – lets get started.

I have been thinking how best to get the ball rolling for you. Where did I start? What was the most beneficial to me? How do I make this as simple and stress-free as possible for you because no-one needs an extra job or less time or complicated systems? How did I put together the systems at work, at home that achieved these things? What am I continuing to learn and improve myself? I’m excited to bring it all together here and when I thought about one of the major things that made a difference and kept everything on track and simpler over the years it was the manual I used to run my life and home. A manual .. when broken down to its basics .. of lists. Lists of contacts. Lists of jobs. Schedules. Finances. Personal. Home. Events. All of it. There was very little I ever needed to remember. It was all in the manual. I had a lot of fun building it and tweaking it and in turn, life was so much simpler and easier and like a company manual, I could have walked out of that house, someone new walk in and take up running my life and home without missing a beat.

Things get planned, improved, taken care of… and for bonus points … all with EASE. I want you to take a deep breath and now as you slowly exhale say… EEEEEEASE. Like Omm but replaced with the word ease. This is what I want more of in your life. This word. This feeling and time. So I thought we’d start with the home and go from there. If there is something you’d like some ideas on.. by all means use the comments. I can look at addressing it on the blog or perhaps some other readers will have some handy tips. For now, I just want you to grab a binder. 2 ring. 4 rings it doesn’t matter, don’t get wrapped up in perfection – it’s the enemy here. Making it perfect will waste your time and energy which is EXACTLY what we are trying to avoid. There is plenty of time for a redesign and pretty etc when we’ve saved some of that precious time we’re talking about. So, one you have lying around the house that can be enlisted for the project is fantastic or just pick up something cheap for now. Get some dividers for sections or just some post-it notes you can put at different intervals to denote the different sections and some paper. We are just going to start from scratch for those in total overwhelm with life or who are not just not sure how to begin.

Going back to the beginning of this post I use both paper and electronic organisation and management systems. Electronics only minimally though… I am a paper girl… all the way. I may design it electronically but then it is printed more often than not. That being said, the system I will show you is paper. This also has the added benefit of others (partners, children etc) having access to this information and being able to use it. They don’t have to have access to your electronic files.  Use whatever system suits you though and that you will actually use. Don’t overthink it.

See here the absolutely ad-hock binder I started to help keep all the balls in the air while I’ve been on the road .. a few months into my travels and I couldn’t cope with all the stuff I was trying to keep track of without a system in place and I couldn’t find a planner I found useful for what I needed. They were beautiful, gorgeous even .. but mostly impractical for what I was wanting to achieve. This folder is quite literally the least pretty thing you’ll ever see… but you know what … it’s working like a dream and that is the point I want you to remember. Just start. Do pretty later if getting it “right” or “perfect” is going to hold you up or take more time than absolutely necessary.

Go get the stuff. Next post.. we start. Big love. E

Featured picture from the absolute classic… “The Sound of Music” – Twentieth Century Fox 1965