We've hit the fourth week of Big Picture Month in Tidy '24, and it's time to start reeling things in a little after spending the first few weeks on pain points, root causes, and long-term goals. As helpful as those topics are for direction, they don't drive much action on their own.
Big Picture Week 4: Short-Term Goals
So, you've considered the challenges that your technology and data (dis)organization pose and then followed that up by imagining how you want things to be precisely in light of what you don't like about your current situation.
What now?
Since we spent most of the year so far on more focused topics, you have some excellent material to draw on for attacking specific kinds of problems. If you'd like to review, check out the Tidy '24 Calendar page. Too many emails? No idea what to do with a mess of photos? Lacking a good handle on your schedule? Dying under a load of smartphone apps?
Look over what you wrote down from last week--even if it's just one long-term goal--and imagine how achieving that goal will reduce stress in your life, increase utility, or both. Then, consider what the first step towards that goal will look like. Think of a recognizable milestone that doesn't require a ton of time; look for something that feels like an achievable stretch to accomplish in the next two weeks.
For example, if your biggest pain point is an overwhelming email inbox, and your long-term goal is consistently maintaining inbox zero, a good short-term goal might be to unsubscribe from everything you don't need coming in right now. You can't do it in five minutes, but you probably could if you spent an hour or two. Carving out an hour or two of focused time can be hard, even if you give yourself two weeks to do it--trust me, I know. But it's still possible; if you plan ahead, it's much more likely to happen.
If your goals coincide with any of the monthly topics we've already covered this year, you might consider going back through the first week or two of Tidy '24 material for that topic. Or, feel free to come up with something entirely different if you'd rather.
The point this week is to take your long-term goal and narrow it down to something that doesn't feel like an insurmountable project. Because "insurmountable" just means you haven't broken the steps down quite far enough to stop feeling scary or overwhelming.
If you're having any trouble with this exercise, drop me a note and I'll be happy to help. Or just let me know what you come up with. As always, I love hearing how people besides me approach solutions to data organization problems.
Next week, we'll wrap up Big Picture month with one last exercise to narrow our focus down even further. Until then, enjoy your week, and happy data-taming!