SeptemboMo Day 27 in SeptemboMo

How do you keep yourself organized as life gets busier?

Modes:
- Robot Mode
- War Mode
- Comfort Mode

Robot Mode at home:

• Work clothes always on the left side of wardrobe.
• Work shoes always by the short stool at the door.
• Keys, Watch, wallet, EDC tool, thumb drive, always go in the ceramic bowl by the door. Always.
• Mask stays in a different dish adjacent. Change filter every day. Wash masks every 3 days. Keep second mask seal packed.

Anything else that needs to be carried for the day, stays in the designed “carry” spot on the table.

Repeat this for days, months year, before your brain robotically does everything, makes all the checks, without care or worry of missing anything out.

Planning today reduces half the stress of tomorrow.

Robot Mode at work:
The point is to let your body fly on autopilot as much as possible. No thinking. Go full robot.
Walk into work, say hi to the three teams in three rooms you have to deal with, do a headcount, see who’s in today, ask about who’s absent and why.

• Get to desk. Put on headphones.
• If a task requires less than 5 minutes, do it immediately, don’t hold it off. Even if the task pops up between larger tasks.
• Automate the regular tasks as much as possible, shorten the time it takes to finish them. Keep improving the process.
• Answer all emails / messages immediately, do not wait.
• Get busy with the biggest task of the day as soon as possible.

The first three hours at work are the most important. Get as much done as possible.

War Mode
War mode mostly comes from dealing with an immediate issue, interdepartmental work, or any priority task assigned by superiors. I have mastered the art of data representation, coz I learned photoshop and video editing, so I take the visual route, try to make a pretty presentation, rather than a mundane data dump.

Comfort Mode
Any fool can make himself uncomfortable.

I invest heavily in comforts. Even at work. My own headphone, keyboard, mouse, coffee, etc etc. I do this because if I have to spend 10 hours a day in a place for years, I’m gonna make sure my time there is comforting for me.
After the first 2 – 3 hours 99% work is done for the day. Then its comfort time, which means I can listen to audio books, read articles, plan work stuff, get meetings done if necessary.
With meetings I take the approach of keeping the agenda short, announcing it at the beginning and making sure the meeting is over as soon as all points are discussed and then send the meeting notes myself every time and ask for acknowledgement. Words cannot explain how much crap happens when nothing is written down and everyone goes by their own fluctuating memory of what was promised in the meeting.

Comfort mode also means I get to read books sometime at work. Which makes me look smart and keeps people from talking to me.

Comfort mode at home:
Take time every day to sit quiet for like 10 – 15 minutes and do absolutely nothing. Perhaps listen to music or ambient sounds. I sometimes turn up A Soft Murmur listen to waves and rain to clear my head and live happily in a reverie for 20 minutes.

Keep everything where it should be, keep repeating the pattern until it becomes a habit.

Do something different at least two nights a week. Go for a walk, meet a friend, engage in a different hobby, anything.

Keep up with at least 3 creative projects going on / learn something new.