The Method To Our Madness

Ah, a new year. A clean start. A shedding of skin, revealing the perfect pink unspoiled person you’ve always wanted to be from the plush cozy lazy lair of the old you. It’s an exciting time to get real, think about what you want, and go for it. Bon voyage baggage! Sayonara mistakes! The year is your oyster. Two thousand sixteen baby.The determination we feel every New Year’s Day propels us like fiery supernova into the atmosphere of our dreams. It’s a great time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished and move on, leaving behind the setbacks at midnight with the crumpled party hats and empty champagne flutes. It’s also a prime opportunity to lasso this new energy on a microcosmic level and consider organization tools to optimally function as a human with lots of stuff going on, always.Restructuring the way you live, as a self-architect, is not easy. You need to find the right system for you. How does your particular brain thrive? So you can then break it down into disciplined order? The opportunities are endless.Our Editor in Chief and Founder of Poppy & Seed, Nikisa Honarkar, practices a brilliant technique in creating a peaceful and practical flow to her insanely busy work week. It’s a tool to prioritize your time, learn when to delegate tasks, or just say no, simply because you can’t do it all.Multi-tasking is so not a thing. How do we efficiently spend our time, fully complete tasks, and give each 100%?The Method-Create a To Do list with everything buzzing in that big ol’ brain of yours-Assign each task two numbers-The first number is a rating of the importance of your involvement in the task. Do YOU need to be the one to complete this task? Or can you delegate this task to your hubby, assistant, sister, employee, friend, dog—whoever!            -7 and up means yes, you’re the only one to complete this task.            -6 and lower means you can delegate it to someone else.-The second number is a rating of urgency, 1 being not very much, 5 being extremely urgent.Example of Nikisa’s To Do List

•      Editorial guidelines (7, 4)

•      NYC meetings (10, 3)

•      Personal Discovery meetings (10, 3)

•      Payroll (9, 5)

•      Find graphic designer/web developer (10, 4)

•      Writer training (7, 4)

•      Launch podcast eventually (7, 2)

•      Set up Team Discovery goals (5, 3)

•      Interview Biz Dev folks (7, 4)

•      Coconut wax candles (8, 4)

•      Accountant (7, 5)

•      Maybe summer retreat or in-person exclusive retreat (8, 3)

•      High-integrity criteria (7, 4)

•      Write 1-pgr on cookbook (7, 5)

•      Perfume (5, 5)

•      Quarterly challenge w/ Birchbox-type gift (7, 3)

•      Website updates + fix Google analytics (2, 5)

-Next, create categories by urgency number and list them in order of delegation number.Example of Nikisa’s To Do List Broken Down Into Urgency Categories5’s

•      Payroll (9) *

•      Accountant (7) *

•      Write 1-pgr on cookbook (7) *

•      Perfume (5) *

•      Website updates + fix Google analytics (2) *

4’s

•      Find graphic designer/web developer (10)

•      Coconut wax candles (8)

•      Interview Biz Dev folks (7)

•      Writer Training (7)

•      Editorial guidelines (7)

•      High-integrity criteria (7)

3’s

•      NYC meetings (10)

•      Personal Discovery meetings (10)

•      Maybe summer retreat or in-person exclusive retreat (8)

•      Quarterly challenge w/ Birchbox-type gift (7)

•      Set up Team Discovery goals (5)

2’s

•      Eventually launch podcast (7)

-You can now visualize the most integral tasks to complete in your day (starred on Nikisa's list), organized not only by urgency, but also whether or not you need to do the task yourself, or assign it to someone else, so you can realistically get to the important stuff.This method is one of many to bring cohesion to our busy lives. Start 2016 off right by tackling projects with clarity, control, and a bit of oomph.