Tag: gtd

Pageant Queen Principles for Productivity

You don’t have to be Miss America to use pageant queen principles to prioritize your life. These principles will help you organize your time, manage your business and get things done!

Pageant participants realize that only one girl will walk away with the crown. While it is a competition, the true competition is with themselves; being the best they can be. All the preparation they put into the competition helps them focus on their strengths and passions preparing them to seize all of the opportunities that cross their path whether they are awarded a sash and crown or not. They understand they are always wearing an invisible crown and operate accordingly.

So how do pageant queens manage to juggle school, jobs, oftentimes a small business, community service which can number in the hundreds of hours, family and relationship obligations, all while maintaining a health and wellness routine giving them the confidence to cross a stage in a swimsuit?

Balancing all of their responsibilities requires preparation. They prepare in 4 areas that are pretty consistent across various organizations and I have identified them as Being, Body, Brain, and Success. As a result, I set my planning routine around these major categories and coach others to do the same.

I like to start with Success.

Pageant Queens understand that a “crown” merely provides a platform for delivering their message. In order to have a successful pageant season, they must identify their passion and purpose which will drive and motivate them to reach their goal. Then they envision reaching their goal by employing the strategy of visualization. They dream of seeing themselves standing on stage, hearing their name called out, walking in their evening gown with new sash, crown, and flowers while waving to the audience and thanking the judges. They even practice their “I can’t believe I just won” face…why?

Studies show visualization improves motivation, coordination, concentration and has been understood since Aristotle described the process over 2,000 years ago, “First, have a definite, clear, practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends: wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.”

Once she has the vision, a Pageant Queen will assess her strengths, weaknesses, and resources. She will create a plan of action to reach the crown and set up a system for tracking her results based on her identified passion and purpose.

Since titles are passed on to a new Queen each year, her deadline is clearly defined and she can set up a timeline for reaching mini-milestones that will all take her to her ultimate goal. Sharing her vision with others…that journey may or may not result in a crown and she knows that. Her actions align with her purpose.

Mini-milestones are defined in three major areas of Being, Body, and Brain. Her planning routine is broken down to reflect this all while moving her towards her intended goal … the coveted crown.

Being covers her spiritual house, so to speak. Her relationships with others and is also known as her network. It includes her platform, also known as her community service, and how she intends to make the world a better place. She will need to track sponsor relationships and fundraising in addition to her volunteer hours.

Body covers her physical house. Her health and wellness, nutrition and fitness routine and trackers for maintaining an appearance ready physique and giving her the confidence to stand tall, smile and shine the light of her crown on what matters most to her: her goal of helping others.

Brian covers her mental house. This is her scholastic focus and personal development and may include entrepreneurial goals.

As you can see, each of the identified areas allows for a framework of creating a self-management system that is flexible enough for Pageant Queens to tailor but structured enough to provide a guide for reaching her potential. This empowers her to prioritize her life, organize her time and manage her business and it can do the same for you.

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One Book July 2017 – Review of Week 2

This week found me a tad bit busier than last week and not feeling 100% but I was able to stay on task, due to prior planning, and get the things done (in a timely manner) that needed to be accomplished.  I didn’t get many personal things checked off my to do list but that’s okay with me.  This week highlighted the importance of having a flexible planning system.

Observations and changes made this week:

The first and most recognizable change for me this week is the TN cover itself.  I have been struggling with the LOVELY TPS Floral TN since my initial set up.  While I love, love, love it, the 1.5″ spine is just a little too small for my needs right now.

I am using my One Book July to experiment with tracking all of the things that need to be done this month, both personal and professional.  As the festival and pageant are at the end of July and the first week of August, I have little to do and lots of time to do it…STRIKE THAT, reverse it!

The next change I have made is the addition of a dump book.  I have one dedicated to all the details that I need to stay on top of this month in preparation for the festival and pageant, however, I didn’t have something to capture all the other items.  So, I dedicated some of my self-care time to creating an insert and have already started collecting items to be organized after my Incompletion Trigger List review.

My weekly spread is where the “work” gets done in my One Book July.  I noticed that I didn’t consistently use my dailies but went back and filled in what I accomplished, instead of using it for pre-planning.  I used stickers to create “word pictures” to help with my memory and this resulted in aiding my recall.  Therefore, I have decided to pre-set up my dailies this week.  Let’s see how that works for me.  I have had a new memory and discovered a 20 year gap…this blank spaces do not mean I don’t remember anything for those 20 years, but rather all instances relating to a specific memory group (i.e. an annual picnic that I have no memories of or the location it has been held in, although I apparently have attended it numerous times).  This leads me to look for ways to re-associate people, places, and things in hopes of being able to access the memories eventually. So, I am attempting to use more stickers in my planning routine to create word pictures in my mind.  Well, see how this works.  This week will be the first time I include the sticker associations in the “guts” of my planning and I am hopeful I can report a success next week!

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This Michael’s Recollection’s Hourly Vertical Planner sits on my desk and does double duty as my memory planner.

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This is the weekly box spread in my One Book July and functions as a weekly overview of my events and appointments using pictures.

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This is a printable from Ray Blake at My Life All In One Place and functions as the “guts” of my planning. I have not previously utilized stickers in this section as it houses tasks…this is where I take my “To Do’s” to “To Done” and document any changes to my planned schedule of events with actual events.

Finally, I have decided to set up my dailies for the week to see how I can better utilize them in the TN.  However, I typically use my hourly planner for itemizing the details of my white spaces.

How are you using your One Book July?  What have you learned so far?  I would love to know how has this “experiment” helped you stay on track to reach your goals.

See you next week!