How do you stay organized?
Im looking to get better organized. I mostly keep up with to-do's in my phones calendar. Recently my phone broke! What are some ways you ladies stay organized?
When I was creating my latest system for keeping track of things, I first sat down (with a coach) and brainstormed a list of requirements for my system. For me, those included: analog, has varying levels of granularity for different projects and time scales, and is something I can keep close at hand or even better in physical view during my working day. What are your requirements?
Such a great list of helpful ideas to get organized. There are soo many tools to use. @Rebecca I need to better organize my notes mainly
I would echo the rec for Evernote for that particular use. Cross-platform, and there's a line of Moleskine notebooks that integrates with it even. :)
Love the idea of thinking first of the requirements needed for a system before creating one - this has been helpful for me too. I like to think in terms of values and zones and try to schedule time accordingly. In the same way one might organize physical space in zones so everything has a place and item can be found easily, I found it helpful to thing of this when organizing my time according to values or priorities. Sort of like batch scheduling in ways that align. I do also love tools too, so this recent Wirecutter piece on it might be useful for physical tools for your desk: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/wirecutter-desk-organization-picks/?campaign_id=33&emc=edit_sl_20201019&instance_id=23260&nl=smarter-living®i_id=74277293&segment_id=41484&te=1&user_id=0ffcf42f5711d2b3bfed2bb4d5b3887e&utm_campaign=burst&utm_content=desk-organization&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=nytimes
I rely on a pretty digital heavy solution, though I realized most of it is via my computer so you may find this helpful even if your phone isn't working —- I have my life on my calendar, separated out by accounts and all synced into one view in Google calendar. Reclaim.ai also helps with making sure synced events appear in your primary calendar as "busy" blocks, I personally don't use this but sharing in case you do!- all of my to-dos are in Height.app (which doesn't have a mobile app anyway!). I have different channels for things like work, Elpha, and my personal life. - my general notes, thoughts, and such are in Evernote. It's pretty systematized so happy to go into it further if you're interested.
@teresaman Just took a peek at Height - do you have thoughts on how this compares to Notion? The interface looks similar! I'm team Clickup but there is something I love about the Notion/Height interface
Getting organised is very good! I personally add everything I need to do on my Microsoft outlook /iPhone diary so I get notified 15 mins before each thing, it reminds me so I can start to think of it then, then 15 mins comes by and it will remind me again.I fill it with things to do throughout the day so I push myself to get it done 'on time'. Good luck!
I use Todoist for my personal to-do's and setting a rough daily and weekly schedule for myself. There's a lot of functionality in the free version, so it's probably free for most of your needs! You can use it on a computer or your phone and the two sync very rapidly. You can create categories for tasks, set due dates, make recurring events, and connect it to your Google calendar.Other things I've tried: virtual post-it notes, Trello, writing down a daily agenda in a notebook. Wishing you a good organization journey! (and a new phone soon!)
I like to keep a written list of daily tasks (the act of writing things out pen-to-paper helps me remember better than typing) in conjunction with using tools, like Asana, where I can breakdown projects and tasks in more detail and give myself deadlines. It's also been helpful for me to set aside time at the start of the day to check emails and my to-do list in order to make priority updates.
For work stuff: - Tasks list in Outlook with reminders- Put the really important reminders on my Outlook calendar - EverNote to take notes organized by projects or by recurring meeting (for example I have an ongoing not for my 1:1 with my boss, one for our weekly team meetings, one for each of my stakeholders who I work closely with)- JIRA tickets to keep track of work that my boss/team needs to be aware of or that lines up with bigger cross-team projects at work - Notebook next to my laptop to jot down my weekly to-do list and take other notesPersonal stuff: - Google Calendar for all personal and school appointments and due dates - Google Tasks for other reminders, especially recurring stuff - Savor Beauty My Next 90 Days paper planners to organize my days and weeks (personal, academic, and work priorities)
For me this has been a JOURNEY. My main thing now is to keep a written log of my important meetings and tasks. That diary is everything I need to work through the day. At the end of each day I reflect on how the day went and then make two lists: 1 to plan out the next days meetings (ie what I’m going to say) and 2 what tasks I’m hoping to achieve.
I use the Notion app for everything, literally everything. https://getnotion.com/It has been a game changer for me since I discovered it 4 months ago. I basically do all personal and professional organization on this app. I have found it to be an ‘all in one’ solution for making lists, tables, kanban boards, taking notes, journaling, setting goals, etc. I’m learning more about the publishing tool to make some pages website accessible. FYI, I have no affiliation with them. I’m just a biologist who finally found a tech product that works super well for me.
A paper planner for quickly writing down the day's todo list as well as Google Calendar for keeping track of timed events aka appointments & calls, etc. On Sunday nights, I like writing my events in my paper planner too for quick reference and come up with a weekly todo list that I pull from each morning. It's always a work in progress though!