Lining up my ducks

In an effort to prepare myself for the coming year, I took about 20 minutes this afternoon to browse through my Outlook calendar to reflect on what I've done in 2009, mostly perusing the entries since January for a small glimpse of how I've spent my time. The first thing I noticed is I didn't use Outlook during the first quarter of the year for anything other than birthdays and anniversary's, which puzzles me because for the last three quarters, the calendar was full of events, perhaps indicative of a more active life calendar that needed closer management and reminders to keep in tact.

I'm attempting to learn how to live more by principle, wanting my decision making to be consistent with the things I truly value and build towards the legacy I want to leave behind. So after making a list of things I've done based on my Outlook calendar, I found my values worksheet I'd prepared earlier this year from my 7 Habits of Highly Effective People planner and was looking for a place to plug all my "life information" into so I can really be intentional about mapping out the important things, or, as they say, being sure first things are first.

A google search for a life planning template led me to the website of Michael Hyatt, and began to peruse, in search of easy to use spreadsheet or other document to try to plug all this "life" stuff into. As I read over the articles, I began to hear echoes and even quotes of the things taught in 7 Habits, and found the information quite helpful. One thing that interested me is his an annual time block that gives a visual picture of time that you can block off for annual important things so they don't get pushed to the wayside by the immediate and urgent.

http://michaelhyatt.com/2009/01/creating-an-annual-time-block.html

So those of you who are looking to live your next year or several years focused and intentionally and with specific purpose, perhaps the resources and articles found on his site may be of assistance to you.

Here's to a new beginning at an old life,

Crys