Grab your coffee because this one’s a working session, not just a read.

By the middle of August, I usually hit this moment where I think okay, I actually need to sit down and figure out what the next few weeks look like. Not a “I should probably plan” feeling… an actual: sit-at-the-table or desk, look-it-in-the-eye planning session before the craziness of the last quarter of the year hits with all the obligations, commitments, and holidays. (and this year we will have the blessing of a new grandbaby!) So that’s what we’re doing today. Together. No perfect planner required, no color-coded system, just an honest look at what’s ahead.

Why I do this in the middle of August, not the beginning?

At the start of the month, I don’t have enough information yet… I don’t know how the routine reset is actually going. What’s shifted? What’s already falling through the cracks? By the middle of the month, I do. So this is when I actually sit down and adjust for real life, not for the life I imagined on August 1st. Here’s exactly what I’m doing this year. Feel free to do it alongside me, right now, with whatever you’ve got: notebook, phone notes, the back of an envelope, scratch paper. It doesn’t matter.

Step 1: Brain dump everything. Every task, worry, appointment, and “I should probably” that’s been rattling around in your head. Don’t organize it yet. Just get it out of your head and onto paper, because a full head can’t plan clearly.

Step 2: Sort into four boxes. Home, Family, Self, Work. Everything from your brain dump goes into one of these four. This is pretty similar (same concept) to the 3 section sort from my freebie. If you’ve used that before… it’ll work just as well here for a fresh season as it did whenever you first tried it. If you haven’t, you can get it here> One Small Thing Reset!

Step 3: Circle three things, not thirty. Out of everything in those four boxes, circle three that actually matter for the next two weeks. Just three. Everything else can wait.

Step 4: Say out loud what you’re not doing. This step will matter more than you think. Name specifically, what you’re choosing not to tackle right now. Not because it’s unimportant, just because it’s not important to do right this minute. Saying it out loud (or writing it down) will quiet the guilt of not doing everything at once.

Step 5: Pencil in, don’t ink in. Whatever plan comes out of this, hold it loosely. Life in August is still busy and shifting. The plan is a guide, not a contract.

I want to be honest about something: the title says “getting life back together,” but that’s a little bit of a wink. Nobody’s life is fully “together.” Mine certainly isn’t. What this planning session actually gives us isn’t a together life, it’s a clearer one. A little more traction. A little less noise. That’s really all any of us can ask a Tuesday afternoon to give us.

If you did this with me, even just the brain dump, that’s the whole win right there! You don’t need the finished plan today. You just need the noise out of your head and three things circled. The rest comes little by little.

With love,

Mindy