For those that have taken the classes, or have seen previews, you know how much detail can be in your Survivor’s Plan of Action, and it may seem overwhelming to get started. After all, how do you capture your whole life in a document?
And, it’s not even the interesting stuff about your life! I guarantee that if you started to capture the best, worst, most memorable parts of your life, it would be a wild tale of love, growth, despair, joy, crime (for some of us 😉 ) and everything that makes your life unique.
Funny thing is, none of that awesome here’s-my-life-story would be in your Survivor’s Plan of Action (although we do talk about how do capture that good stuff…but a blog for another time). Instead, your Survivor’s Plan of Action includes everything you created to keep your life running:
- Funeral wishes
- Legal documents
- Bank info
- Credit cards
- Investments
- Online subscriptions
- Securing the house
- Passwords
- Utilities
- Pets
- Medical
- …and so much more
I agree. It can be overwhelming.
So how do you start?
Here are a few suggestions, some based on my experience, some based on students who took the class and found their own awesome way.
Start with the Most Urgent
In some cases, you need to start a Survivor’s Plan of Action for your parents or ailing loved one. This is how we started ours. In our case, we started with what we felt was most urgent: Passwords. Mental capacity was fading so we need to to get as much data from the parent while we could. Then, once we could navigate all web sites (mostly financial, investments, etc.) then we could focus on legal docs, funeral details, and other matters in the guidebook.
“What can I Sustain?”
I found the only way to keep things current is to start with “What can I do that I can sustain?” For example, I wanted to sustain an online password repository that I could sustain. This meant I had to find some measurements: For me it was “I need to update a password or add a OnLine subscription within 10 seconds”.
Once I defined that, I could filter out solutions that took too long. Yes, it does mean that my method is not as secure as it could (or should) be. But it’s sustainable.
Also, I find that because it’s sustainable, I use it myself, not just for my loved ones.
Start Small
You don’t need to fill out all 16 worksheets in one sitting. In fact, it’s impossible. Further, if you try, it will burn you out and it will soon become stale (see above….need to keep it sustainable).
From the full table of contents of the guidebook, pick just one area to start. Maybe it’s the easiest looking one? Maybe it’s the scariest? Maybe it’s the legal documents that you’ve been putting off? Whatever it is, just set a schedule in place to start, and take teeny tiny baby steps towards getting that item done.
Then, before you move on, define a plan of how to sustain it and keep it current. Some worksheets like legal documents, once done, only need to be peeked at once a year or two. But passwords? Those update weekly it seems.
Schedule the Scary Stuff First
Schedule a lawyer session to ensure your legal docs are up to date. It’s just one phone call, and the level of satisfaction you’ll feel will be great. Plus, that one call gets the ball rolling that is hard to stop…you’ll have your will, trust, and other documents all in order before you know it!
Schedule a Monthly Working Session
All of our lives are busy. Scheduling time for important personal things is essential. The business of life can overwhelm and suck out all free time. Scheduling what you do in your off-hours can bring that time under control. I suggest you put an hour on your calendar the 1st of every month (maybe 8-9pm). When you schedule it, even if it’s 20 days away, add what you plan to work on. Then, in the first session, just get started. Perfection is the enemy of good. Just start.
Then, when the hour is up, stop; write down what you will work on next session in the calendar entry, and congratulate yourself (an Oban 14 year is a good way to congratulate yourself!)
Will it take a while? Yes. Will you get more accomplish than if you tried all at once? Yes. You will be quite surprised how much you get done over 6-10 months of 1-hour sessions per month.
Ask Your Loved Ones
Since your Survivor’s Plan of Action is NOT for you, ask your loved one “out of all these topics, which would be the most difficult/uncomfortable for you to have to decide on your own?
For some, it’s filling out the Body Disposition and Notification Plan. If it makes you uncomfortable just imagine what it will be like for your loved one. For others it’s not a single topic, but what worries them is how to get access to the content. Some kids are very technically savvy, so they can figure out your bank flows/investments, but they need access to them to start. For them, you just need to leave them the “first clue” or first key to unlock the door so they can explore. This approach can be best for a “I have the first pass ready for everything”…it’s not as detailed as you want, but there are no huge gaps like “where is your master password so I can find the rest”.
Create a Pattern – and Stick With It
This came from a class participant: She simply defined new patterns to follow that added mere seconds into her day in order to start documenting her Survivor’s Plan of Action: She decided to document only the services, web sites, credit cards, that she touched from this day forward.
For example:
- She buys something on Amazon: She added the site, password, credit card used, into her Survivor’s Plan of Action.
- She pays utility bill: She adds details into her Survivor’s Plan of Action
- and so on…
This is very little effort to start, begins a sustainable habit, and before she knows it, she has a solid record of how she’s running her life.
Summary
These are just a few suggestions on how to start documenting your Survivor’s Plan of Action.
How about you? How are you starting your Survivor’s Plan of Action?