So, those who truly know me won’t be that surprised: I have a spreadsheet for my life. It sounds very “former life-ish” and also, well, fairly nerdy. But it works. Or what I should say, it works to further uncomplicate my life.
My spreadsheet for life serves two purposes in my consulting world: first, it helps me to track my hours and make sure I’m on track for a successful month. Second – and most importantly – it helps me to organize my day, my week and my month. Therein, truly, lies its success.
Now, candidly, I’m not rigid even if having a spreadsheet to organize one’s life certainly implies that I am. But I found that I was spending an immense amount of brain power trying to keep all of the projects I have going on at work straight and I’m terrified of missing a deadline. Add into that the way we try to live and how Mother Nature keeps her own schedule and I was ripe for a deadline-missing disaster. So, I attempted all manner of things. My former boss recommended one of those three-month calendars where you can plan things out. It worked for a little while. Then, in my attempt to color code the different projects and my home/work life, I inadvertently used permanent markers. That calendar still says I need to go car shopping next weekend and I’ve owned my vehicle for about two-and-a-half years. Needless to say, that didn’t work and I can’t really count on myself to have the discipline to use the right markers all of the time if I were to get another three-month calendar. Additionally, the calendar – posted in my home office – wasn’t mobile. It was hard to plan on the fly while at a client’s or at my office in Albany. Just two many downsides with that one.
Then, I bought different variations of calendars – the flip ones that you pin up but can take down, the desk calendar, a mobile “planner” like we had back in the 90’s. Each had some positives but also some big drawbacks, namely that I have big loopy writing and tend to change my mind a lot. (Don’t tell my husband I said that – not the loopy writing, the “change my mind” thing. It will validate him.)
So, I ended up building a spreadsheet. It’s not so fancy but I’ve sophisticated it enough that the work days are all shaded one color and the weekend days – including Friday – are shaded another. I also have each of my ongoing projects indicated and the number of projected hours for that project during the month. Finally, day by day, I mete out which projects I’m working on and for how long. Because I’m a little bit of a control freak, the spreadsheet now totals hours by project, hours by day, hours by week and hours by month.
But voila, I now don’t think about hours or projects. Instead, I put my “brain dump” on the spreadsheet and move things around based on need. I like to keep myself in only two to three headspaces per day professionally, but I can easily pick out those days where I’ll be in four or five headspaces and can plan my home life around it. (Hint: those are the days we order takeout or my husband cooks.) I’ve expanded the spreadsheet to now include certain homesteading activities like harvesting potatoes, picking berries, watering the gardens, taking care of firewood, etc.
Now, I get what you may be thinking as you read through this: but didn’t she change her life to live more organically and with less stress? Yep, I did. And I can agree that there’s something about scheduling one’s life on a spreadsheet that certainly doesn’t feel spontaneous or organic. But truly, while I plan out my days there, I’m still pretty flexible. As long as it doesn’t impact a client or a colleague, I’ll change things up depending on what new needs or desires creep up that day.
And as far as less stress? This spreadsheet is the bomb! I find – particularly as I age – that I’m likely to forget things or overlook things unless I write them down. With the spreadsheet helping me to organize mostly my professional life but some of my personal life as well, I don’t forget the big things. Additionally, I have more headspace for more things now. Plus, I find that I don’t overbook my days or wake up in the middle of the night anxious that I forgot about something now. The spreadsheet is managing what little chaos is left in my life quite neatly, if I must say so myself.
Additionally, and this is likely the coolest thing about my little spreadsheet, I’ve learned to not schedule my time fully. Each day during the workweek, I keep it around five to six hours so I’ve got some room to move up if something else lands on my plate. And the weekends? I keep the calendar clear for home stuff. If I need to squeak in an evening appointment or some weekend work, I can certainly do it. But because I’m pretty religious about clearing the decks for the weekend, I’ve actually given myself the ability to scale up in a way I’ve never had before.
And that leads to days like today. Today is Saturday, which is falling after a rather unproductive Friday. I literally only did two loads of laundry, got groceries and made dinner last night. I was not winning any “Suzy Homemaker” prizes. Today? Well, it was also unscheduled until yesterday. That’s when my sisters and I decided to go pick blackberries. And you know what happened? We had an amazing day. It was hot, we sweated through our clothes, my sister and I both fell, my other sister drew blood and we tramped all over the woods looking for berries and avoiding bears. In the end, we found 20 cups of blackberries. But in between? We laughed when both of my sisters were attempting to use their cell phones at the same time and without any service. We reminisced about my mom and picking blackberries. We got excited when we found a good bush with big, juicy berries. And we got ready for back-to-school and fall. That’s what blackberry picking meant when we were kids and that’s what it meant to us today. It was an awesome day. Not a day I could have planned but a day – had I not planned my week efficiently – that I likely wouldn’t have experienced.
So, I’m not ashamed to admit it: I have a spreadsheet for my life. And that spreadsheet? It’s a lifesaver.
The Yuppie Homesteader 