3 Ways to Add More Structure to Your Life

The top three ways to create more structure in any part of your life is:

Routine: make a habit
System: follow a process
Boundaries: contain or protect

You can apply this concept to pretty much any area of your life, even relationships.

Here is what Olivia and I experimented with during one of our sprints this summer to increase our quality time and cultivate a better marriage:

Routine (make a habit): Laptop shut down by 5pm with IRL time afterward.
System (follow a process): On Sundays, we have an hour check-in to share how we feel about our relationship and anything else going on. We start with general sharing then work into issues.
Boundaries (contain or protect): During the week, if something comes up, unless it’s urgent or painful, we make a mental note (or mind map) to bring it up during our Sunday check-in’s. This allows us to compartmentalize issues so that they don’t bleed into other parts of our lives while providing a designated safe space to address them.

These practices have worked wonders for us, but we first had to sit down and map out various options and pick which ones to try during our sprints.

Mapping Prompts:

What areas of my life needs more structure and why?
How can I structure those areas (i.e. routines, systems, boundaries)?
How do I incorporate this structure in my next Sprint?

Structure Map Template:

💡 Instructions:

Put “Structure” as the central topic. List up to 3 Areas in your life you need more structure in.
For each Area, break out Routines, Systems and Boundaries. Expand each of these with a few Options.
Rank each Option based on their effectiveness, feasibility, etc. Star the top Option to incorporate into your next 2-week life sprint.

That's it! Congrats - you've just created a practical roadmap for implementing more order and structure into your life during your next sprint.

Whatever you do...get it out of your head and map it out!

How do you think this new structure will impact your personal and professional life?

🫶 If you found this mind map helpful, why not share it with a friend who could use it too!

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