The 16th task is all about making your life handbook.. Me myself made it with the Microsoft OneNote 2007 software, because i think it’s quite similar to hard copy of notes, but in the digital version, compared to Word and Excel. But still, for some documents (like my financial info) which need calculation, i still prefer Microsoft Excel or any other spreadsheet. Well, this post will be full of OneNote picture of mine. But, please do remember that this is for SHARING only, not a PROMOTIONAL POST.. (I don’t get paid for posting this LoL..)..

Life Handbook

So, what is a life handbook basically ? According to Celes,

A life handbook, to put it simply, is your manual that contains anything and everything important in living your life, from your life purpose, adages, life learnings, long-term goals, short-term goals, strategies, plans, right down to your daily tasks. Just like you need a driving manual to learn driving, your life handbook is your manual to progress in life. Just as the Bible is the guidebook that reflects the doctrine and creed of Christianity, your life handbook is your map towards living your best possible life.

For me personally, a life handbook is my 100% personal book, covering all about myself, my life, my vision, my mission, etc. It’s my notes about everything, it’s my planner, it’s my guide reference.

Why do we need it then ? hmm, first of all, we as human have quite limited memory. I think, we won’t be able to remember everything happened in our life, especially in detail and daily basis. So, this book can be a memorial book of your life. Second, about the future, it will be a good place to put everything you plan for your future, so that you can also easily review how is your current condition based on your plan.

Well, to read the whole story about this life hand book, i would like to recommend you to read the whole article written by Celes.

Today’s Task

(Copied from the 30 DLBL 16th day post here).

Creating Your Life Handbook

1. Decide if you want a hard or soft copy book.
   • As I mentioned in life handbook article, I recommend soft copy because it’s easy to edit. Mine is soft copy Excel worksheet. It has many different sheets, whereby each sheet is a section itself.
   • If you want hard copy, it’s good too! Go shopping for a nice book that resonates with you to get started
2. Fill in your handbook
   • Start with your mission statement, and go from there. Refer to sections on what to put.
   • Since it’s your life handbook we’re talking about, it can get overwhelming with the amount of information to put. Don’t worry about it – just do it bit by bit. It’s not meant to be finished in one day; in fact it’s meant to be filled in and updated your whole life. Do whatever you can today, then continue on tomorrow. 2 weeks should be a good enough time to fill up the core base of the book.
3. Decorate it!
   • Your handbook is all about you, so personalize it and make it appealing to you
   • My handbook is an excel workbook with many different colored sections. They guide me in reading. I have a vision board sheet where I plaster all the pictures of goals I want. This is like the soft copy of my real life vision board, with more pictures .

After Creating Your Life Handbook

1. Look at your handbook every morning before you start your day. With your handbook in place, develop the habit to start off your day by reading it. Start off with your purpose, your values, followed by adages in life, your long-term goals then your short-term goals. You will find that even just spending a few minutes looking through it everyday will give you immense focus and clarity throughout the day which will lead to dramatic changes in the long-run.
2. Refer to it through the day to remind yourself of what you want. I have my life handbook open in my computer all the time, so it’s second nature to refer to it and update multiple times in a day. If it’s a hard copy, carry with it wherever you go. My clients carry their handbooks everywhere they do.
3. Update it constantly. Start using it as the central repository for every single piece of information that is valuable to you. Whenever you come across something that is meaningful and noteworthy, incorporate that into your book. Whenever you have a new goal, include it inside. Whenever you get an ‘AHA!’, revelation or epiphany, capture it so it will not get lost. While you might find some getting used to in the beginning, in no time you will become naturally inclined to refer to your handbook every time.Remember, your handbook is a work-in-progress document. Nowhere will it ever be completed in the truest sense of the word, because your life is a journey to be discovered every day. Your handbook is an evolving tool to guide you to live your best life. Whenever you get a new epiphany/learning/insight, pen it down into the book.
4. Back it up regularly. If you have a soft copy handbook, please back it up frequently (cue monthly).

Congratulations – from today onwards, your handbook will be your guiding point, your manual to live your best life

My Life Handbook

Well, for my Life Handbook, i choose to do it digitally, by using Microsoft OneNote.

Basic Concept

The picture above show the basic concepts of OneNote, compared to traditional note book. Both of them have sections and pages within each sections.

Overall Screenshot

The main area where you can write on is the center area, the white blank area which we can call it area. Of course, it will act like document/word processor (such as Word). so, i don’t think you will find any difficulties there. You can add pages as many as you like in the right column, and subpage, where subpage is a sub part of a page. Here is the example.

Subpage Example

For one of my page, titled Journal of September 2010, i wrote some pages, such as goals, new habits i want to do, and daily log as a review journal. I separated the journal based on the date, that’s why i created a subpage on daily basis for the ‘Daily Log’ page.

Next, section part.

Sections

The picture above is a zoomed picture of section parts. For the general handbook, i made 3 sections up to now, which titled Mission & Values, Vision Board, and Life Wheel. For the others, i just made some section groups, divided into 5, Action Plan, Books Publishing, Data, Goals, and Monthly Journal. The purpose of this grouping is to avoid so many sections in the general page.

Picture - My Vision Board

Of course, you can insert a picture here. Just as easy as in Mic. Word.

Copy From Excel

And, copy tables from Excel 🙂

If you want to print it, or convert it into more readable formats, you also can do it, by converting it to PDF format or Word format.

Convert to PDF

*if you want to convert to pdf, make sure you have add ons programs that enable you to print PDF, such as PDF Writer or Adobe Acrobat.

Convert to Word

Well, that’s all some introductions of Microsoft OneNote that i used in creating my life handbook

The biggest weakness is, unfortunately, i think the format of OneNote is really specific to Microsoft. Unlike Word/Excel format which can still can be opened with different application (even by online application such as Google Docs), this one will need Microsoft OneNote installed in your computer.

To close this post, i just say once again. THIS IS NOT PROMOTIONAL POST ABOUT ONE NOTE. LoL. Hopefully this post will be helpful.