Often without even noticing, good design has a positive impact on our daily lives. A recent episode of CBS Sunday Morning (which I’ve written about here), spent a whole episode on design. Different segments on the show revealed how good design has made our lives better with umbrellas, Q Tips, Chinese food takeout boxes, and double-decker buses. You can find out more about all of those things here.
Not much happens in this world without good design. We eat well designed meals, in well designed spaces, in well designed neighborhoods. We drive mostly well designed cars, sitting in well designed car seats, holding onto a well designed steering wheel. We read well designed books, filled with well designed fonts, wrapped by well designed covers.
Doesn’t it figure, then, that we ought to be good designers of our lives? Good things in life don’t often just happen by chance. Sure, there’s an occasional lottery winner. But you won’t win if you don’t play; and even if you do play your chances of winning are next to none. So if you want good things to happen, why don’t you design them?
There are tools available to help you do just that:
- Design your year. A couple of tools I have found helpful are Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy’s book, Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want and John Lee Dumas’ book, The Freedom Journal. Both of these books will help you advance toward your goals with a clear purpose in mind. You’ll find yourself drifting far less.
- Design your month. At the beginning of each month review the goals that you set at the beginning of the year. If you haven’t done that yet this year, there’s no time like the present to do so. It doesn’t have to be January 1st in order for you to set goals.
- Design your day. Google Calendar is the easiest and most available tool around to see to it that the hours of your day are filled with purposeful things. Not only that, but you can now even post reminders regarding tasks you’d like to accomplish. They will follow you each day until you complete them.
Good design makes your life easier every day in all different kinds of ways. Why not use it to make a life that you love, too.
What designing are you doing today to move you in the direction of your goals, plans, or dreams?
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