Improve Your Life With This One Habit

Don’t keep things in your head.

You wanna know what’s your problem?

Sure, I’ll tell you:

You keep way too many things in your head.

Do you think you have some type of superpowers or something? Some super memory that we don’t have?

Okay, sure, some of you guys have a great memory.

But not most of us.

Even for those of us that do, I think you would see vastly different results in your life if you did this one little thing:

WRITE THINGS DOWN

That’s all. That’s it.

Life is so fast and slow, before you know it you’re trying to remember each and everything you had to do or attend.

You lose track of life and go through the motions.

It takes you for a spin.

You forget everything you did this morning but remember everything you did last morning only to realize in the evening when you’re laying in bed trying to fall asleep but thinking about the things you have to do tomorrow morning that last morning was actually this morning and this morning was actually last morning.

Ya see what I mean?

Life is full of overwhelm, and you don’t help yourself.

Writing things down is simply that. It’s about writing things down that you simply are not going to remember.

Your Calendar

For goodness sake, please please please please please write/put down all your meetings in your calendar.

Don’t have one? Great.

Now’s the time to start.

Having a calendar has the benefits of showing you things you have to do throughout the day, whatever meetings or obligations you have, etc. But most importantly, your calendar is a spitting image of what you use your time for and possibly waste your energy on.

Your calendar can help you to guard your time and see what you are committing to.

Once you get into the habit of putting things in your calendar the moment you’ve committed to something or learn of some mandatory meeting, you will have more control over your life.

I like to set reminders for most things to 2 days before, 1 day before, and 4 hours before. If it’s a more important thing that I would like to keep in mind earlier than that, then I would add to remind myself a week before.

So once again, you have to write things down in your calendar. Don’t put it off either.

The moment you learn of something that you have to do on whatever day, get into the habit of stopping whatever you are doing and putting it in the calendar right away.

I’ve double booked myself so many times by not doing this, making plans to do something at a certain time on a certain day only to realize that I don’t have that time for myself anymore because of an engagement or meeting I had to attend.

Get on top of this stuff people!

But it doesn’t stop there. You have to develop a habit of checking your calendar every day.

Not just the present day, either.

Look ahead and see what you have coming in the next week or so.

This will most likely help frame some things that you have to get done either in preparation for the event or before the event so you can be fully present at said event without thinking of all the other crap ya gotta do.

My favorite added benefit of writing things down in my calendar is that now that I’m a legit “calendar user”, whenever someone asks me whether or not I can give up some of my time to attend something and the first thing that pops into my mind is “no” but I don’t want to say no at the moment because they just sprung it up on me and I wasn’t prepared to talk to a person or participate in life…guess what? Now I can just say, “Oh man, I’m really busy. I’d have to get back to you after I check my calendar” (that I actually use because I write things down in it and I have proof for anyone who doubts me). BAM!

Isn’t that lovely?

I want it to be clear however that what I largely mean by writing things down in your calendar is that you are putting things in there for yourself first.

Write things down to prioritize your time. Everything else comes after.

I am aware that there are gonna be some obligations or meetings or things in life in general that you simply don’t want to do but have to do.

However, from putting things in our calendar you may find that you have more control than you thought (you may even wonder “Wait, why the hell am I doing this again?” in regards to some big life choice like…school or something)

All of Those Nagging Tasks

Throughout the day and especially in your email inbox you are bombarded with not only things that you need to write down into your calendar or schedule, but you are also bombarded with all of these little tasks you have to do.

Reply to that. Respond to this. Make sure to sign these forms and send them back. Make sure to watch this. Delete that. The list goes on and on (sorry, I got a little carried away thinking about all the things I still have to do).

Some of these tasks you create for yourself and some are what other people need you to do.

It may all be really important. You may like more things than others sure, but you have to do the things you have to do.

But…you forget.

You try to store it in your head.

Remember this:

Everything you add to your head storage of “things to do” just pushes one or two things out.

Or it at least seems this way.

The problem?

Those things that get pushed out were the first most important things. Those were the older things that are going to show up at your door tomorrow or in that meeting and ask “Do you have what I need?”

They were the things you should’ve gotten to and forgot about. You forgot about it because you kept putting less pressing items in your head and kicking out all the other things you thought you could hold through sheer memory.

Yeah, don’t do that, my friend.

It’s not…healthy.

I believe most people who feel like they are just “going through the motions of life” and letting it take them wherever are simply people who don’t guard their time and keep track of what needs to be done.

Write. It. Down.

Get into the habit of writing something down that pops in your head of something important you really have to do or should get to at some point soon.

And look, technology works great too for these things.

I like to use Google Calendar and Nozbe for tasks. I still have a planner as well.

It never hurts to have these things in multiple places.

I never feel like I’m “going through the motions”. I am so frickin’ hyper-aware of everything I’m doing or have to do because I keep track of it all.

See? Not that hard. Just write it down.

You never remember, no matter how much you think you will.

You fail every time.

YOUR MEMORY SUCKS. So go write things down.