The year ahead. 2011. Let's talk about how to prepare for that.

I work with systems throughout the year and seasonally. I work with the systems on Monday morning when I sit down with a pen and my daily life list. I process once a month, on the last day of the month, in a 50,000 ft way. (Much of that review is based on GTD, which I hacked to suit my needs five years ago.)

I'm constantly refining my systems. In 2010 I added rows and columns for intuitive hits I get when meeting. Ben Franklin had his systems throughout his life - and I'm guessing he refined his, too.

Intuitive hits, like the systems I'm going to describe, are data points along the way. They're 90% meaningless, 10% vital. Here's what I mean.

I decided to start tracking the intuitive hits because I found myself circling back to people. Months, sometimes years, after our first meeting, we'd bump into each other online or at a coffee shop in Vancouver. Because of how much had transpired between meetings, I'd lost the first memory. That first memory is key. I trust my intuition, but sometimes I have trouble remembering it.

I now have systems for tracking it - if I need the information (like, whether or not to enter into a business relationship with someone) I'll have it. 

Systems aren't life. Life, the practice, is knowing when to forget the systems altogether and be present. I create the systems so I can forget them.

These systems, I believe, are vital to the life of an entrepreneur. I've been my own boss since I left Nova in 2005. As an entrepreneur, I'm the boss of me. I'm the boss of my systems. If a system goes down, it's up to me to get it back up. If the system is clunky, it's up to me to refine it. 

This is a public display of the systems in my life around which I'm developing a conscious practice. These systems are always in flux, and they are grounded. I share them so you get an insight into who I am and how I work - I invite you to try the elements that work for you; leave the rest.

What goes in these systems? Macro to micro: 

- Vision map: includes found images about general themes I'm working with

- Categories: In 2009-10 I based them on Chris's. This year, I've created my own. My categories are Social, Financial, Wellness, Inventory, Happiness, Online Presence/Reverberations, Growth, Wisdom

- Life list: I infrequently update it because it's the piece that I work with least

- Ten happiness principles: occupies space at the front of my planner, started last year after reading The Happiness Project, guiding principles for how each day unfolds (same as last year's principles)

- Inventories: including clothing - current/needed, friendships to develop and intellectual pursuits

- 3 MITs: Most Important Tasks I'd like to accomplish each day

- Intuitive Hits: Name of the person, where we met, the subject matter (in brief) and the hit (note: I don't use this system for every encounter; I primarily use it for business interactions) 

The systems don't bring happiness. Without the systems, happiness is elusive. 

What I've found through going through things like fires and journal elimination is that with systems, I can walk away from a burning building/shred journals and be increasingly at ease.

How the systems connect to the practice

If I were a Buddhist nun (something I've contemplated - in an escapist fantasy-ish way a number of times during the decade I've been practicing) I wouldn't need systems as complex as these. I could cultivate my mindfulness practice, meditate each day, drink matcha, be responsible primarily to myself and the sangha. In my fantasy, I imagine being a nun would require systems that are less complex than these.

I'm not a nun, though. I'm a practitioner living in the modern world. These systems allow me to be both connected to a vision greater than myself (a life of service) and the practicalities of modern life (rent's due on the last day of the month).

(Besides, I bet nuns have systems particular to their practice, too.)

Life's not about lists and vision maps and goal setting. Although, as you see, I do all that.

I believe we all have systems in our lives from birth. Whether we're conscious of them or not. Nurses, and then our moms, put us on a feeding schedule. That's our first system. 

Life's also about knowing when to drop the systems and the planning and be present. I believe well-oiled systems allow us to be present without that endless loop of aww dang I totally meant to...hmm? What were you saying!?

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I'm sharing these systems in lieu of telling you about my goals for the year.

The truth is, although I have goals, those matter less than the systems that support them.

And the truth beyond that is the system matters less than the breath that supports it.

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Further reading:

Intention: How do you start your day?

A Life Well Lived: Developing a Personal Manifesto