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Time to get organised: Try the parking lot organisation technique

Time to get organised: Try the parking lot organisation technique

There’s always a zillion thoughts and ideas I have bubbling around in my head at any given time. I used to lose so many of these ideas because I didn’t write them down and it occurred to me that ideas are definitely worth capturing. This is where my parking lot organisation technique leaps into action.

If you frequently feel overwhelmed with all the ideas you have every day, and don’t know where to begin or even which one to begin with, then this organisation technique could help you. I can totally relate to being overwhelmed, it’s why I adopted this organisational technique in the first place.

I used to make my living out of business development in the corporate world and I needed to track all of the ideas I had on any given day. This is the strategy that I still use today as I run my own business, Little Lane Workshops. It’s a technique you can use for pretty much any area of your life: family, hobbies, health and fitness whatever… and of course for business.

It’s called the Parking Lot for good reason – it’s somewhere that you corral and park all those million and one brilliant ideas you may have on any given day, until such a time that you are ready to give them the energy they need to bring them to life. You might say until you’re ready to smash your idea out of the parking lot…

Try the parking lot organisation technique

Curating good ideas

Think about how many awesome and potentially even lucrative ideas you have when you wake up in the morning, or the ones that may come to you as you go about your day or as you drift off to sleep at night.

Now think about how many of those ideas are lost because much like a squirrel who gets distracted by nuts, your thoughts and ideas get distracted by kids and life and random thoughts and *POOOOFFF* just like that… those ideas are gone, maybe they’ve floated off to someone else who has more time for them and you will never have the chance to realise their potential.

You need this organisation technique in your life!


Don’t miss: Part 2 of Time to Get Organised: A mum’s sanity folder


 

The Parking Lot organisation technique

1. Find the perfect notebook

You get yourself a drop dead gorgeous notebook or diary. One that makes you go all mushy when you look at it. You want this book to be special because this book is going to be the home of your dreams and it’s going to go everywhere with you… it will even rest beside your bed whilst you sleep. Mine is the little gold book in the photo…

2. Carry it with you everywhere

Every time you have an idea, whether it be whilst you are in the shower, waking from a dream or cooking dinner, you need to write that idea into your Parking Lot as soon as possible. Include as much detail as you can at the time but don’t be afraid to go back and add to an idea at any stage.

3. Action key ideas

Now here’s where the magic happens… set yourself a goal of actioning maybe just one or possibly two ideas a week if you have the time. For each of those ideas – you are going to need to write out a bullet point step-by-step strategy as to what you will do to bring those those ideas to life and by when.

NOTE: If an idea doesn’t go anywhere, that’s okay… it may be a lemon and every Parking Lot has a few lemons in them right? Right!

4. Plan your next idea

Once you have actioned an idea – celebrate your win by treating yourself to something. A coffee by yourself with your notebook at your fave cafe searching for your next brilliant idea to action would be perfect.

Keep adding fresh ideas to your book whenever you dream them up. With a little love, focus and energy, that gorgeous book of yours could just be the key to all the success and the most amazing life you could ever have imagined.

So what do you think –  is this something that might work for you?
 
Try the parking lot organisation technique