Envisioning, Planning, or Implementing
So which one do you tends toward? I’m not sure if I’ve ever met someone who is great at all three but if they exist, I’m sure they are one amazing person!
Me, I’m better at envisioning and then planning. Implementing, lets say, is the harder thing for me (nicely put). In fact apparently any time I take a quiz or test on strengths or gifts, if there is a visioneering gift that’s what I always score the highest on. In other words, daydreaming is my superpower.
It’s the process of organizing my ideas and putting them into actionable steps that takes a little more work, but I still enjoy seeing those ideas planned out. And I do love a planner!
Actually doing those actionable steps becomes even more difficult in my world because I’d rather be back in the first step. And working from home, for myself, with kids in the same room just adds to the difficulties. (As I’m sure everyone knows after this year). But I’m learning.
Some things that have helped me though:
1) Allowing myself time to daydream – actually putting it into my schedule so I don’t feel guilty about doing it. It is my thing so I should be using my strengths. And as an artist it’s a required part of the creative process.
2) Organize my planning in a way that works for me: I plan for a whole year now (highly recommended!), break that down into 90 day chunks, then again to monthly to dos, and then to my week which I break down into 3 priorities that have to be done 3 days a week. Usually those priorities are big, so they take up two days. So Monday I have 3 priorities, Wednesday I have 3 different priorities and Fridays are another 3. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday are my catch up days.
3) Blocking specific time where I implement those priorities. No distractions – phone in another room, computer on focus mode, and usually some music playing. This made a difference to chunk prioritized time where no one else’s emergency and my own self sabotaging distractions could stop me from implementing my plans. Those 3 priorities get done.
