Some months ago (actually, more months than I care to think about), I thought it would be a great idea to trial a bunch of task management applications and services.  The general idea was to find the one true task manager that would suit my needs and keep my life on track.

I did actually trial a fair few of the applications I said I would.  I installed things on my phone; I got online accounts.  But at the end of the day I realised that while each of the applications I tried would manage my tasks, it really came down to how I organised them in the first place, not where I put them.

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The one aspect of my ‘personal’ productivity system that is currently letting me down is also a biggy; tasks.  Tasks at work are handled by a paper-based system and I’m pretty happy with that.  Personal tasks however are currently in a number of places and I really need to get them all together if I ever hope to do another weekly review.

So with that in mind, I thought I’d take a good hard look at what I’m using to make sure it is the most efficient for me.

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About seven months ago, I thought that I’d sit down for a quiet 60 minutes and try the Steve Pavlina method of determining my life’s purpose.  The before I could get up the gumption to give it a go, life kinda got in the way and completely derailed my plans.

So now that things seem to be a little back on track (or I’m just getting used to the new way my life seems to be going), I thought I’d sit down and give this another go.  I went to my local coffee shop as I can’t seem to get 60 minutes at home that will be guaranteed to be without interruption.  I bought a coffee as I seem to experience much better everything with a bit of caffeine in my system and I started typing.

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When you take your own advice, strange things can happen.  Early this year I started the mammoth task of changing my life.  I had identified the need and what I was lacking and was poised to find out my true purpose when something truly monumental happened.

I started to really analyse my life from the outside.  Rather than looking inwards to how I was feeling, I studied my entire life and feelings as if I was watching someone else.  And in doing this rather odd thing, I discovered some really interesting things about myself.  And then I started to change.

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In my continuing journey of self discovery for the new year I have so far asked some tough questions and identified the need in my life that has started this whole she-bang.  And now for the hard part.  What exactly am I trying to achieve?

This is the big, deep, meaning of life question.  The ‘why am I here’ type of soul-searching that I have generally avoided in favour of purposeless living. 

Purposeless living has delivered me this far, granted, but I’m missing something, so perhaps it is a purpose.  And if I am going to continue on with the next steps, I really need to understand the general direction I am going.  I need to find that direction.

I did do okay with Step 2, Identifying the Need.  I’ve identified why I started this, but that need doesn’t give me the big picture idea of where I should be going.  I know why I started walking, but not where I want to end up.  Purposeless again, right?

So in order to work out where I’m going, I did what I tend to do in situations like this: research.  I’m not a religious person and in keeping with that (lack of) philosophy, I have avoided the traditional methods of determining what you are on the planet for.  I did check out a number of other people’s ideas (I’m not sure if Oprah actually counts as a religion yet?), but none of them really struck home with me.  So I’ve decided to go with something that may or may not provide the answers for me, but that I’ve been meaning to try for about two years now: Steve Pavlina’s method.

So I’ll get myself a quiet room, a computer and about 20 minutes (okay, I’m stubborn – probably 60 minutes) and see what I can come up with.