How a Personal Framework Supports All Your Other Organizational Systems

How is a personal framework different from general organization and productivity?

All organizing systems start with making decisions. However, the decisions you have to make vary, depending on what you want to manage.

Home Organization Systems: Making Decisions About Your Things

Minimalism has been a popular movement for several years, and we can include decluttering, household and office organizing, and downsizing in this category. Organization systems are primarily about organizing your physical space and physical objects: clothing, electronics, books, dishes, papers, tools, shampoo — the kitchen, the garage, the closets — literally, the material things and spaces all around you. 

The decisions you make about organizing things come from questions like Marie Kondo's famous query: "Does this spark joy?" Other decisions about managing things emerge from questions like these: "How many of these do I need?" "Should I put this in the drawer or the closet?" "Do I both use this, AND like this?" "How much space do I have to store these?" "Have I used this during the last year?" "Since I forgot I even had one of these, do I need to keep it?" "What should I pack for this trip?"

In other words, this is about deciding things like how many forks you need and where you'll put them — any decisions that help us deal with our material things.

Productivity Systems: Making Decisions About Your Time and Tasks

In my organizing business, I focused on productivity systems: helping people manage time and information (schedules, to-do lists, checklists, files, simplifying email, tracking support documents). The decisions you make about organizing your time and information answer questions like these: "What do I need to get done?" "When is it due?" "What times of the day am I best able to focus on this?" "What are my priorities for this week, this quarter, this year?" "What can I delegate, ditch, or automate?" "What information do I need to give this presentation (complete this project, meet this client)?" 

Productivity tools and systems like lists, reminders, time-blocking, calendars, kanban (or status) boards, and trackers help us deal with managing our energy and our time.

In a household, decisions about time might involve creating routines around maintenance tasks, addressing questions like: "How often should we clean the bathroom, and who is doing that?" (And maybe also questions like, "But isn't it YOUR turn to clean the bathroom?")

Regardless of whose turn it is to clean the bathroom (I did it last time, by the way, so it's not my turn….), the decisions that most organization and productivity systems deal with are about managing things and managing time.

A personal framework is different. The decisions you make with a personal framework help you manage the big picture in your life, the long game, the kind of person you want to become, and the types of experiences and milestones you have on your bucket list. 

Those big picture decisions then shape how you manage your things and your time in the day-to-day.

That's how a personal framework organizes your organizing.

Personal Frameworks: Making Decisions About the Kind of Person You Want to Become, and the Kind of Life You Want to Live

A personal framework helps you manage becoming the kind of person you want to become. It enables you to use your energy and time in this life to live out the values you believe are most important. So the decisions you make when creating your personal framework deal with questions like these:

• What kind of person do you want to become?

• What values are you called to live out?

• What does the world need from you?

• What are the gifts and skills you have as a person, and how can you use them to make life better?

Having a personal framework clarifies the big picture. It acts as a compass, helping you assess whether mundane things like whether your schedule on Tuesday and whether your bank transactions are in integrity with your values. A personal framework is the place to clarify guidelines for living your life. 

What are your boundaries? What are your personal policies? If you believe it's essential to get time off to refresh your mind and spirit, do you check email on vacation or not?  

In creating your personal framework, you write that kind of stuff down. Creating a personal framework is how you get clear on what principles your time and efforts should serve. 

Start with your principles. Start by articulating and writing down your values. If you have never done this before, expect to review and revise this over time. However, it is worth it to get clear about the kind of person you want to become. 

Figure out — and write down — how you want to live and what you want to bring into the world. Then use your intentions for your life to shape how you organize and manage your weeks, your days, and your environment. Does your system help you or impede you in living out your values? Does your calendar show that you are making time for what you say is important? Does your space allow you to get to what you believe matters?

Consulting your personal framework when you decide about your stuff and your commitments keeps you on track with the big picture.