Get Your S**t Together Day (GYST)

Recently I was perusing YouTube when I came across a great video about having a GYST Day.  In the entertaining video, YouTuber Kalyn Nicholson fully explains that a GYST day is one day to catch all of the things that have fallen through the cracks or that have been “placed on the backburner” and do them.  In her video, she splits her tasks into 4 categories which include cleaning, beauty, work and food/relaxing.  That very day that I watched I did the same and had a wonderfully productive day and as a result, it ended up being relaxing as well.

There is just something about cleanliness and productivity that makes my soul soar!

Since my last post about me slowing down on a whim, there were a few bits and pieces of tasks that got re-classified as not urgent.  Thus, I wanted to take today and tuck them into place.  The only thing that made my GYST day different than Kalyn’s is that my work category was at the actual office.   Last week I had made it to inbox zero, yet shortly thereafter; the mail came and it was like KABAM.

I had several goals for my GYST day, and answering every page of correspondence, making or following up on every call, and completing one entire section of my work was one of them.  At home, I wanted to *meal prep for the week since we were out late on Sunday, *Vacuum my truck out, *pack my gym bag for the week, and start on my *zone cleaning for my kitchen.  Some other tasks that needed my attention were:

• Organizing all of my receipts for my horse/barn supplies…
• Wash the floors upstairs to include the staircase…
• Meal prep breakfasts “to go” for days that I go to work from the gym…
• Order hostess gifts for the upcoming parties…
• Order & send the Christmas gifts to my colleagues…
• Sage my spaces…
• Change out my décor on the front porch…
• Balance my checking accounts…

Not so much task related, but I had some blog posts to catch up on reading, some videos that I wanted to watch, and I wanted to really journal under the power of this super full moon to see where I was able to go creatively. I had some emails and texts that I wanted to send so to schedule some coffee/lunch meet ups before the end of the year.

None of these tasks warranted an entire day to do by themselves, but grouped together like a bunch of misfit tasks on the island of GYST day…they made perfect sense.  All of them being done was going to make the rest of the week, and even year, more organized and flow smoothly.  Not to mention what it does to the soul to keep checking them off the list!

To begin I started with the most labor intensive or the ones I wanted to procrastinate on the most.  By “front loading” my list, the day got easier as it went on.  If I was on the phone, then I would just start the next call after the one before ended.  I did the same for emails and written correspondence essentially batching my work so that I didn’t have to go back and forth.  I agreed with myself beforehand that any tasks left over at the end of today, I would immediately schedule into my day planner to be completed by Wednesday and rotate them to the top of that day’s to do list.

In terms of the home tasks that I want to accomplish, I’ll start with meal prep while making dinner, I’ll clean for 30-45 minutes per day this week which will accomplish all of the deep cleaning for that room, and I’ll pack up my gym bag while winding down to some Netflix.  Having a plan is key – even if you move through that plan a little differently than when you first drafted it, having one will keep you focused and on task.

TIP: Getting started on your GYST Day

Going back to my prior post about staying on top of life: I love to do a “brain dump” where I just purge my brain of all the things that I want to get done.  Looking at the list, there will inevitably be some tasks that can’t be done that GYST day from a logistical stand point.  It’s important however, to take those tasks and add them to a running list.  I like to keep my ongoing list on a legal pad that I keep in my brief case that comes back and forth with me.  This list has everything from the smallest of tasks to major home projects.  Putting it on paper is key to it eventually getting done.

The second part to this tip is to take from that list the top THREE tasks that need to get done in each block of work that you are doing in each category.

And there you have it.  A full, lovely and productive day of tying up all of the loose ends and finally getting the little odds and ends put in their place.  Living an organized and active life is not impossible.  It doesn’t matter what you have got going on – focus and intention will bring you discipline.  Discipline will always help you get everything done.

This is a perfect time of year to plan a few GYST days so to wind up 2017 in the most relaxed way possible with everything nice and neat!  If you want inspiration, go and watch the video I mention in the beginning of this post. It’s nicely done and very inspiring 🙂

You can do it!

Productively yours,