Now that things in my personal life have settled down a bit I have been trying to get more organized and making an effort to plan my life in advance. I notice that when I plan things out in advance things tend to run more smoothly and I have less things to worry about. Since I have been actively working on organizing, planning and cleaning up my to do list and calendars (paper and digital) I have been searching the internet for inspiration. So check out some of my favorite information that I have found along the way.
Organizing Tips
I really enjoyed Laura’s post How to Combat Digital Hoarding. In the digital world that we live in we now have many more digital files and without a system they can be a big old mess. Laura shares some of the things she has been working on with some great tips.
Most of my digital files are fairly organized, however, the problem is I need to purge the ones that no longer serve a purpose (and purge more often). I also want to do a better job at naming digital files and making sure they have a home. Another issue I have is that I have things in so many different places – Dropbox, Google Drive (I have my personal one and one that was used for school – they need to be merged) and on my laptop as well as some on my phone.
I really liked how Laura talked about pdf’s in her video. Nearly all the pdf’s I have are in a folder called “To Read”. The problem is, I don’t really get around to reading these as often as I should. I made a promise to myself that I would read a few every month and either archive or delete them. Some are a couple pages are tips and others are manuals, articles from when I was in school or entire books. I don’t need all of these taking up precious space and just need to go ahead and read and/or purge them.
More organizing tips:
+ 101 items to get rid of without regret
+ 3 Steps to Organized Files
Planning and Productivity Tips
I really love watching Nora Conrads videos on planning and productivity on YouTube. Two of my favorite videos are from her Productivity Series called The Brain Dump Method and Scheduling Your Brain Dumps.
I have been doing brain dumps for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t until a couple years ago that I found that not only did other people do it but there was also a term for it. I used to do my brain dumps strictly on paper but now I do it on paper and also in ToDoist. As Nora notes it helps to clear “mind clutter”. I tried scheduling my brain dumps but sometimes they just happen whenever they want. I know if I don’t write it down or input it in ToDoist somewhere I will probably forget about it temporarily (or permanently on some occasions). I try to make it a habit to go through my brain dumps and make actually create tasks of the information if needed that way it is organized and not just a bunch of words.
Watch all of Nora’s Productivity Series videos
During one of my late night YouTube watching binges I found this GREAT VIDEO from Speaker and Author Amy Landino titled How To Plan Your Day. My favorite part was when she said a to do list is like a junk drawer – it has a bunch of stuff in there (mostly important) but needs to be organized.
Take a look:
When I stumbled upon How To Become A Morning Person & Love It I almost skipped to something else but I really enjoyed the infographic that was in the article and there were some helpful tips there as well. I am totally not a morning person. I have tried (and failed) several times to become one and that is just not part of my genetic makeup. In face, I am up at 1:49am on a Saturday morning working on this post. Does that count as being a morning person? I am almost sleepy enough for bed but I’m enjoying working on this post.
More productivity tips:
+ 30+ Gmail Tips and Tools That Can Boost Productivity
+ Video: 8 Things to Do Before 8AM to Make Your Days Less Hectic
+ 12 Evening Habits Worth Developing
What issues are you currently having with organizing and/or planning your home or life? What are some of your favorite organizing and planning tips? Let us know in the comments.
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