Life In Australia

In 2009, I would like to achieve more than I did in 2008, both in my work and in my personal life. In order to do this, I need to be more organised and manage my available time better.

So, yesterday, I had a good look around the shopping centre to try and find a diary that would meet my needs.

In the past, my favourite diary has been the Quo Vadis President. I like the fact that you can view a whole week at a time, with a lot of detail. Within each day, there are time slots so that you can write in activities, appointments and so on. On the right hand side of the page, there is a very useful section where you can write in tasks that need to be accomplished during the week under the headings of phone calls, appointments, emails, and writing jobs.

When I had a “proper” full-time job, I found the Quo Vadis President diary to be an incredibly useful tool for managing my time effectively.

Unfortunately, Quo Vadis diaries are not sold in Australia. You can order them from the Quo Vadis website but, as we are on a tight budget, I could not justify the extra cost of shipping to Australia, which is probably almost as much as the diary itself.

I finally decided on a diary I found in the Borders bookstore. It has a day to a page, divided into half-hour time slots from 7am to 8.30pm on weekdays and half a blank page each for Saturday and Sunday.

I think that I will write my goals for the week ahead in the Saturday and Sunday spaces, so that I can look back at them as I plan each weekday. I have a separate notebook for my monthly goals, which I will also refer to when planning my weekly goals.

Does anyone else have similar goals in 2009? Do you have any time management tips?