Simple Steps to Organising your Personal Growth

Glen / 5 Comments / July 30th, 2008 / Subscribe via RSS

One way or another, you are reading this site because at some point in time you came across an interesting perspective or helpful content piece that made you think about life in different ways. Very recently, I’ve made a number of changes to my life such as restarting to read books, realising my true passion, almost quitting alcohol and more.

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to implement and remember the things I’ve learned (and share them with others) but I do have other methods for keeping track of my personal growth that I want to share with you all.

Personal Growth Organisation

Some of the tools and techniques I use may serve no practical purpose or interest to you, if that is the case then simply skip that item or technique and look at what else I’ve covered here. The main reasons I wanted to put some type of system in place is because:

• I want to remember what I learn so I can share it with others
• I want to note down my best ideas so I can look back on them in the future
• I want to lead a more productive life
• I believe organisation is key to successful growth (and successful blogging)

Whilst some of you may just rely on your memory to help you with recalling information, I like to keep notes and find them to be far more effective, especially when something was motivating to me or I want to read a quote from someone.

Simple Organisation Tactics

1. The Notepad

I don’t take my notepad everywhere with me, but it is in the top drawer of the side table in my bedroom. The reason? Simple, I do the majority of my reading in bed at night and if an idea really strikes me or I find it interesting then I will write it down (this comes in handy for later steps).

Notepads are very inexpensive and I actually like writing for a change, especially when I spend so much of my day sitting in-front of a computer screen (I work in internet marketing). I’ve heard many recommendations from friends to take a notepad everywhere with me, but I have my own solution for that and rarely have the pocket space.

2. Mobile Phone Notes

Once you start to learn more about social dynamics and how people act, you start to have what I refer too as epiphanies or revelations and want to take notes. The problem is that when you are mobile and “out and about” it can be difficult to take notes you can look back at another time. This is where technology comes in for me as I just write a new note in my phones organiser and save it for checking later on.

If your phone doesn’t have notes then simply start typing a text message and save it as a template. This solution also removes the need for having a pen available at all times and if your phone is modern you can even email the note to yourself.

3. Google Docs

Although using a notepad and phone are handy, I still like a ‘backup’ of my information or an anywhere accessible copy so that I can have this data with me wherever I am. For this, I use Google Docs and it is proving to be invaluable.

I have multiple documents in there such as how I’m going to drive traffic to this site, blog post ideas and of course backed-up notes from my notepad and my phone that I have typed in. As this is an online service it means that I can be anywhere in the world with an internet connection and still be able to access the information.

A look at a Google Document of Quotes

4. Share it with others Online

You remember 80% of what you teach someone else, and probably the only reason I remember that statistic is because I write it down so often haha. Although the main aim of this blog is to help empower others to plugin to their identity, it also helps me organise all my thoughts in one place whether that be by using categories or really thinking about a certain topic so that I can put it in the format of a blog post.

There are multiple ways you can share what you have learned online such as:

• Twittering your findings (my profile here)
• Blogging like we are doing here with PluginID
• Creating an information product based on your knowledge
• Write articles for sites like Squidoo or Hubpages

5. To do lists

I’ve never really been a big fan of to do lists until recently. My change came when I had to get used to an office environment or order my tasks for things like setting up a new blog and my promotion tactics. For online to do lists I personally use tadalist but I think you might find nowdothis just as useful.

Of course, to do lists don’t always have to be online. If you work at a computer it still makes sense to keep your to do list in a text file or even in a notepad. Try to keep your to do list wherever you are going to spend more time crossing the items off your list, so for example if you have house chores to do then stick it on your fridge.

6. Read what others are writing

Although life experiences and books are excellent places to learn more about the world we live in and other factors such as physical, mental and spiritual being, blogs should not be discounted. There are some excellent bloggers in the personal development niche which I follow in my feed reader (Google Reader).

If you really enjoy a post you can save it and print it out or you can use the ’star’ function in GR which organises your favourite posts. Some posts I’ve enjoyed recently include:

1. How to Tap Your Nap - ThinkSimpleNow
2. Forrest Gump: How to Build Your Self-Confidence - Success Soul
3. Bloggers Must have 3 Ducks in a Row - Alex Shalman

Now that you are organised, you can start to implement what you learn during life in a more effective and practical manner.

If you enjoyed this post, I would appreciate if you share it on Twitter, Facebook or Delicious! :)