PURPOSEFUL HUSTLE BLOG

One of the number one questions I get from people is "How do you find the time to do all of the things that you are doing?" I wish that I had a magic time machine that made additional time. But I don’t have one! (If you do, please share!)

After reflecting on this question, I realized that I do have a pretty intentional system that I have been using over the past decade to help me achieve my Purposeful Hustle goals!  To date, it has been a mixture of things in my head, a few tools, and a couple of notes here and there. BUT as a gift to myself, and to all of the Purposeful Hustlers out there, I decided to actually see if I could turn it into a system that I could share with others.  And guess what, it’s here!

When I first wrote about the Purposeful Hustle Planning System back in early 2019, I was the only one who knew its ins and outs. Now, two years later, I've taught the system to thousands of people - and their success is a testament to the effectiveness of this organizational system! 

The Planning System has come a long way since those early days of Post-its and scribbled notes on napkins. Now it includes an electronic tool that will make the following process much easier to conceptualize and use again and again!

Here are the steps that are included in the system:

1. Get Focused: Write Your Purpose Statement

2. Get Motivated: Identify Your Annual Goals

3. Get Real: Establish A Fixed Schedule

4. Get Detailed: Efficiently Block Your Annual Goals

5. Get Accountable: Create Your Model Schedule

6. Get Organized: Make Your Plan Operational with a Calendar & Project Planning Tool

There are a number of reasons why TIME is one of the great prohibitors of living within one’s purpose.  There just never seems to be enough of it to get at the big things that we are dreaming of doing. So, year after year, we let our dreams get dimmer and dimmer.  Well, it is time to bring out the bright lights and fully illuminate them again! There are essentially six steps in the Purposeful Planning process.  Below is a general sense of what happens in each step.

1. Get Focused: Write Your Purpose Statement

This is a crucial step.  There has to be an overarching theme for your work.  Purpose is something that answers your big WHY. If you are able to have clarity on WHY you are pursuing something, it makes it so much easier to figure out what is truly worthy of your time. My Purpose is to shift power to marginalized communities. Knowing that is my aim in life allows me to test everything I am doing. It becomes the door to which all other things flow! If an idea does not support that purpose, then I take it off of my list.  So, the first thing that we will do in the session is determine what your Purpose is.

2. Get Motivated: Identify Your Annual Goals

Once you have established what your purpose is, then it becomes much easier to establish what your annual goals are going to be.  This is one of my favorite things to do each year. I try to stick to between 3-5 goals. (But, confession time... sometimes my goals have multiple clauses!  Ha!) But I stick to a smaller number because then it is easier for me to remember what I am aiming for. Being able to recall your goals by memory means that you are more likely to stay on track and that you have identified ones that are truly motivating.

3. Get Real: Establish A Fixed Schedule

So, historically I resisted this idea a lot. I like to be spontaneous. I am the type of person that will drive a different way to the same place every time for no other reason but to keep it spicy.  To me, the idea that I would adhere to a fixed schedule was appalling. Until my smart husband actually helped me see that (1) I was already doing it in order to survive and (2) that by owning my fixed schedule I could actually be more effective, efficient, and intentional.  So, after some internal protesting, I started to pay more attention to my fixed schedule. And now I am a big supporter of the concept! So what is a fixed schedule? It is essentially a schedule that documents the things that you have incorporated into your daily routine.  Items in my fixed schedule include things like exercising, family time, admin time, sleep, cuddling, and prayer. Once I put on paper what is already committed time it helped me be more realistic about my variable time. It gave me the ability to have better control over my schedule.  I now call this variable time my Purposeful Hustle time! (And our tool automatically calculates it for you!)

4. Get Detailed: Efficiently Block Your Annual Goals

After figuring out what the fixed schedule is, it is time to go back to those annual goals and look at the next quarter.  What is it that you need to do within each of those goals over the next three months in order to move forward? I only look at a quarter at a time.  That seems to work best because it allows me to be able to have a plan but still remain nimble. Again, there is a limitation on the number of things you can add. I suggest no more than 5 tasks per annual goal per quarter. Also, this is where your earlier calculations about Purposeful Hustle time becomes very useful. You actually don’t have to guess how much time you have available. When listing your tasks you will also give each one a category (i.e. learning, networking, writing) and also document how many hours you think you will need over the three months.

5. Get Accountable: Create Your Model Schedule

Our tool automatically calculates how much time each category will require over the quarter and during a model week, and then it takes you back to your fixed schedule so you can add in those blocks. The final result? You have a model weekly schedule that you can use to communicate to your team and family, and to hold yourself accountable to!

6. Get Organized: Make Your Plan Operational with a Calendar & Project Planning Tool 

Having a model schedule is empowering.  It shows you how you are actually using your time!  But it is just a pretty document if you don’t do the last step, which is to translate the tasks and schedule into your daily tools. So, during our session, I will show to use google calendar and a planner as tools to keep you on track! These are two things that I could not do without! And after I show you how I use them, you will not be able to either!   It sounds complicated, but after you go through it once, it is actually pretty easy to see how things that have eluded you for years can become realistic objectives!  

I hope that this overview helps you see how to take big Purposeful Hustle ideas and breathe life into them!

If you want to check out the full course, sign up here! 

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in January 2019 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.