Sharing your formula can be invaluable

I have found out lately that everyone has something they do in life that they think is common, a no-brainer, when it's not.  Sharing these little life formulas can be so helpful to someone else who is struggling with something you breeze through without a thought.

For example, I recently shared a page from my daily planner with a few friends where they could see my rows of sparkly stars each day. I have, for a long time, given my self a star on my calendar to track progress on any new goal, it's highly motivating for me to get a new star and so satisfying to see the pattern but painful when I break it. I don't know what this says for my maturity but I love my stars! A couple friends actually appreciated the insight – they'd never thought of doing that and it has since helped with their goals as well. For me, it's just something I do and I figured everyone did something similar.

Another example I read about a few weeks ago was a successful business man who had a formula for managing his time so he could be most effective in his goals (managing his company and social life) where he maintained a list of his top 50 friends and when he had free time he would start at the top of the list to see who had time to spend with him. It was his way of making sure he spent time with people he valued rather than allowing his time to be absorbed in other ways (in his position there are thousands of people who want his time). For him, it was just logic but for some of us that is an invaluable example of how to design the life you want to live rather than taking whatever you stumble on.

Even when I hear someone's formula and it seems like something completely unapplicable to me, I consider how I could tweak it for my own purposes.  Honestly, making a list of my top 50 people is not exactly going to be a life changer for me but a list of my top ____(fill in the blank)____ to spend time on instead of binge watching something on Hulu could definitely kick things up a notch.

So, I'm curious, what formulas do you have that keep the important bits of your life moving along how you like them?

I've heard quite a few the last couple weeks and they are so simply genius:

• Meal Planning (I'm incorporating this one right now by planning meals up to a month ahead of time)
• Doing all errands on the same day each week
• Also, finding a shopping center where she can get most, if not all errands done in the same place (hair, nails, shipping, groceries etc)
• Weekly/Monthly supply deliveries (from Amazon or other subscription services)
• Scheduling email processing for 2 times per day only
• "Out of office" and processing rules for certain types of emails as well, to automate.

I even had a friend cop to the fact that once per year she throws a party and invites everyone that has invited her over all year as a quick and easy way to repay the kindness.  She gets to limit all the work it takes to throw a party and treat her friends to a fun time, making new connections in the process.

I'd really love to hear more! Please share in the comments below :)