3 Things I Do To Stay Organized

3 Things I Do To Stay Organized

December 4, 2018

It’s already December, can you believe it? That means the new year is quickly approaching and it’s time to get your life right before it arrives.

I simply love organizing things. Sometimes I spend more time planning out my projects than I do actually working on the project. I just love organizing the details, creating charts, making to-do lists, and creating calendars. I love it so much I wanted to share the 3 things I do to stay organized, with you all.

#1. Use a Planner

I have always used planners since my college days. But somehow, I would always manage to stop using it before the year was over. The problem was, I wasn’t using them correctly (I pretty much used it to jot down my OOTD). As this year started, I knew I needed something to keep everything I had planned all in one place. Between working fulltime, coaching cheerleading, blogging, vlogging, and Instagram, I just couldn’t keep my head on straight. I thought back to when I first started teaching and actually used the planner for a few months to jot down different activities and events. I knew a monthly planner was just what I needed. So, this time last year, I  stopped at a Walmart and purchased a $5 Day Designer Monthly Planner. I tell y’all, it was like having a personal assistant. And the fact that I only spent $5 was a bonus. If you are new to using a planner, DO NOT go out and buy one of those hundred dollar planners that you may end up not using. Walmart and Target have some super cute inexpensive planners to use to get you started for your first year. I have linked some great options here: option 1  | option 2  | option 3  | option 4

The key is to find a planner that works for your life. I knew I needed something that had a full month calendar, as well as weekly. This is great to see your month at a glance, and still, have a separate place to go into further detail when planning out each day or week.

 

#2. Use To-do Lists

Another thing I have to do to stay organized is to use to-do lists. If I don’t write it down, it will probably not happen.

I love how using a to-do list helps me prioritize my tasks, remember what they are, as well as see what all I have planned. This way I can be somewhat realistic about whether I can actually complete the tasks in the time I have.

What really helped me this Summer that I implement now, was to turn my to-do lists into daily schedules. I assigned each task a time frame that was as realistic as possible, I included breaks for eating and rest and checked off my tasks as I completed them.

Of course, there will always be times when something doesn’t get done or something takes way longer than expected. That is completely okay, just add that task to another day’s to-do list and keep moving.

 

#3. Create and Use Your Own Graphic Organizers

It may just be the teacher in me, or it may just be the fact that I love organizing, but creating my own graphic organizers has been a godsend.

As I mentioned, this year was my first to use my planner correctly with diligence. In doing so, I noticed I needed even more space to plan out my life. I only use my planner for my business (I don’t seem to have much of a personal life anymore). I use the monthly spread to plan my blog posts and to keep track of my Instagram posts. Well, that wasn’t organized enough for me to stay productive, so I created my own planner to plan out my Instagram posts with more details. I created a grid to resemble that of Instagram and wrote down what type of posts I wanted for each day of the month. Well, after using my monthly Instagram planning grid for October and having the best month ever for Instagram (so much less stress), I decided to make one for YouTube to plan out my videos for December. And then I made a photoshoot planning grid to help plan out my photoshoots for my blog and Instagram. This helped my shoots run more smoothly and be planned out in advance.

To make these graphic organizers, I used Google docs and created tables with the number of cells I needed.

I did the same for my weekly planner. If you noticed, I haven’t mentioned anything about using the weekly planner in my planner. That’s because I am a “list” girl. And like I said you need to find a planner that works for your life, in other words, that works for you. The only downfall about my current planner is that the days on the weekly planner are horizontal. So visually, it just didn’t work for me. Here is where my self-created weekly planner came in to play. Since I like using lists, I needed my days to be vertical on the weekly planner, so I created a table for that as well using Google Docs.

The best part about creating your own graphic organizers is that you get to make it just how you want it to be.

To start, you can just make your own table on a sheet of paper with a pencil and ruler and write down your tasks and plans. My first few were handwritten before I decided to get fancy and make it on the PC.

 

I hope these tools will help you to get your life organized and relieve some stress. If you would like a copy of any of my custom graphic organizers, just look below.

Weekly to-do Schedule

Photoshoot Planning Grid

Instagram Planning Grid

YouTube Planning Grid

 

xoxo Tish

 

P.S. Organization isn’t about perfection; it’s about efficiency, reducing stress and clutter, saving time and money and improving your overall quality of life. –  Christina Scalise

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