Hey Reader

Before we get into this week's tip, I just wanted to remind you that the biggest organising event of the year is coming up in September 😈

The free event has workshops on all areas of organisation, including:

• Planning
• Decluttering
• Digital organisation
• Home organisation

And more! 🥳 I'm excited to have a session in the lineup, and I hope you can join in for all the great tips and advice 😄

The event runs from September 8 - 13, and you can see the full speaker list (and grab your free ticket) by hitting the button below 👇

If you can't make the event, or you want lifetime replays, worksheets, and session notes, there’s an optional All Access Pass available at a discounted rate too (time limited though!)

For now, back to our regularly scheduled programming 📺

I'm getting married

Tomorrow. I'm getting married tomorrow 😂

To say I'm nervous would be an understatement.

To say I'm excited would be an apocalyptic understatement 😝

I'm really looking forward to spending the day with my loved ones and soon-to-be husband, eating good food and dancing to what might be the best playlist ever (I might be biased though...I did make it...)

In knowing that this week was going to be a lot though, I wanted to make sure I accounted for that in advance when tackling my regular weekly tasks.

I knew I still wanted to get things done this week, but that I wouldn't have my typical time, effort or energy to give.

The idea - Account for real life in your planning

It's all too easy to put our planning on autopilot and act like every week will look the same.

Whether it's setups we're using in our planners, or just how we're organising regular tasks, doing the same as usual is great for saving time...

...but only when general life is the same as usual too.

Some periods have special needs, and not acknowledging this ahead of time can lead to a lot of stress for future-us.

Without accounting for irregular events or tasks, what is typically a manageable amount of work can be overwhelming.

It's all good and well for me to say "account for the realities of any period in your planning"...'cause duh.

But how do we do this?

Prior planning prevents poor performance

Here we want to start by looking at the busy period before it actually arrives.

For me, this week I have friends from out of town around, last minute details to attend to, rehearsals, the wedding itself, and other festivities. For you, it could be a busier than normal work schedule, extra projects, or an upcoming trip.

When we see these big things coming up, in addition to noting dates and places in our planners, we also want to adjust any other affected areas.

I like to consider this with a "before, during, after" structure:

• Before: what can I do ahead of time to make the busy period lighter?
• During: what typical tasks can I let go of or make easier?
• After: what can I push to later for when I have more time, energy, or attention?

These planning questions were instrumental for helping make this week less stressful for me.

When going through and answering them, I ended up with:

• Before: any work outputs that can be scheduled; I can do those ahead of time
• During: meal prep and cooking; I can give myself a pass and get food delivered to save time and hassle
• After: any non-essential goal work; I can postpone taking action on these until after the wedding

The specific answers here very much depend on the context of the busy period, but we're essentially aiming to do future-us a favour by lightening the load of the busy time.

Instead of assuming we'll be able to tackle the same amount as usual, by building breathing space into busy seasons, we'll end up less stressed and often with better outcomes.

Let's take action

Thinking about an upcoming busy period for you, ask yourself:

• What can I do beforehand to make that time lighter?
• What’s the absolute minimum I want to keep on top of at that time?
• What can be safely postponed until after?

Whether it's travel, a family gathering, or a work project, accounting for it in advance can help you make sure things keep moving ahead 😊

By answering these questions, we can give future-us the bandwidth they need to get through the busyness as best as possible.

Until next time!

- Jess

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