February 1, 2008, Newsletter Issue #188: Putting it together

Tip of the Week

Now that you have started to look at the issues involved in getting organized, it is time to write up your own personal action plan!

Take one journal entry and write down your plan for organizing your journaling efforts. Make sure you include every issue appropriate for your type of journal. If you have answers today, put them into the plan. If there are things you are not sure about, write out your questions and identify what you need to learn more about.

If you need more than one journaling session to complete your plan, go for it! The most important thing is to create a plan that is going to work for you, that addresses your privacy and storage concerns, and that is appropriate for the kind of journal you keep.

While you are working on your plan, you may find that normal paragraph writing isn´t helpful. If you haven´t tried organic writing, this would be a great time to give it a try.

When you are all done researching and planning, try a prototype using your new plan, a test run of your new organization. Try it out, see what works, see what doesn´t work, see if there are other issues you need to address.

When you are confident that you have a plan, sit down one more time and write up your plan, including all of the details. You might want to write this on a separate piece of paper, something you have have as a reference page, maybe something that you slip inside the front cover of a written journal, or a separate file if you keep an electronic journal.

Over time, as your tools and needs change, you will need to address you changing needs with your organization plan. Consider your plan as a guideline, and constantly look for ways to improve on it.

I have a written plan for my online journal and I´ve developed a template file for new entries. I have a list for the procedures to follow when I start a new month and a new year. I can´t tell you how much having this plan has helped me because it removes all of the administration questions from my mind and lets me just write, write, write!

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