One thing that drives me crazy is when I feel like i'm wasting time due to a lack of organisation. It increases my stress levels ridiculously and i'm sure I look like i'm about to explode as a result. I often get asked by my fellow students and work colleagues how I manage to fit everything in and it is simply down to being organised with life. Here are some tips and tricks which help me keep my life organised...
Make your bed everyday
This is a habit that I struggled to do at first, and still sometime forget, but I really see the benefits. It starts the day with an automatic win. The bedroom looks tidier and more organised and it is a positive thing right at the beginning of the day. This positivity can help you make better decisions throughout the day and help get you in the best mindset to stay organised.
Set aside time to organise, prepare and plan:
It sounds silly but spending 15 minutes planning can save you sometimes an hour of hassle down the line where you are stressed out (and potentially on the verge of break down). When planning ahead think about tasks logically so that you can be the most productive and efficient and don't forget to include travel time into your appointments/meetings/events so that you don't end up arriving late.
Organisation the night before can also help you to catch a few more z's and have a shortened morning routine. Preparing things like lunches/meals and the clothes you're going to wear when you have a little more time in the evening can be really beneficial to help you start your morning well.
Utilise your diary & calendars
The first step to utilising your diary and calendar is to actually possess and use them! If you don't want to splash out on something new try checking out Pinterest as it is swimming with gorgeous free printables you can try.
Once you have your diary and calendars you need to use them to their full potential. I find that colour coding my Filofax helps me to visualise what's in my upcoming schedule which is great for a quick glance. The next step to utilising them is to write everything down so you don't forget things, which means that I carry mine everywhere with me. I book my next appointments for things when I finish my last and I check at the beginning of every month for all birthdays.
Make lists
I am driven by sense of achievement and even on a daily level at work I spend the first 5-10 minutes of my day making a list of what I need to do and update it as the workload comes through and then at the end of the day I review what isn't complete and spend the last 5 minutes of my day re-scheduling any left over tasks in order of priority. Personally I like to make little tick boxes by the items on my list so that the list looks more and more positive as it gets closer to completion.
Look at the bigger picture
Look at the bigger picture and evaluate what you want to achieve overall. Then use smaller tasks to help make the bigger picture more of a reality. For me I have an extensive bucket list, so when I organise some travel I look at the list and see if I can combine the two. This can work the same way with health and fitness goals, see if in your weekly plan you could squeeze in an extra work out. Use organisation to help you balance your life while still achieving the things you desire.
Schedule in time to relax
Otherwise you will burn out. This links into looking at the bigger picture, if you don't schedule in time to relax all these goals, appointments and schedules will become too much and can cause serious burn out. Schedule an hour to soak in the bath with a good book and a glass of wine, or an afternoon to chill out and watch a favourite film. Make sure to stick to these appointments with yourself as it can be all too easy to flake and become distracted. You wouldn't stand up a friend, so don't stand yourself up either.
Get some sleep!
I find that all the organisation in the world can't help me if I haven't got enough sleep. I know for a twenty-five year old this sounds a little OAP but I try and get to bed before eleven every night as I know that most nights this leads to a good amount of z's. Its also been shown that good levels of high quality sleep can improve concentration levels, memory ability and put you in a good mood which will allow you to kick ass in the day.
Here are a few items which help me stay on top of things:
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Pink Personal Organiser - Filofax
Floral Desk Planner - Etsy
Blue Goals Journal - Kikki-K
Never Ending To Do List - Notonthehighstreet.com
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And if you prefer the more technological option for organisation then here are a few apps to help:
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| iCalendar Streaks Do! |
iCalendar is a calendar app which allows for colour coding options, reminders, daily, weekly, monthly and annual views and is very visual which I adore. It can sync with email servers such as google, outlook and yahoo. It also allows you to export to PDF and print your calendar.
Streaks is a to-do-list app which features more on goals in a daily form, from drinking more water, walking 10,000 steps or walking the dog. You can set 6 goals you wish to achieve everyday and the app helps to motivate you to achieve them and logs a very visual history to indicate where you did (or didn't) achieve these.
Do! is a much more simplistic to-do-list app which takes on the visual of a notebook. It allows you to add in tasks and then strike them out once complete with a simple double tap. There is also a widget to make this process easier - but I haven't set this up on mine. The only negative that I find with the app is the number of to-do's you have on your list comes up like a notification red circle in the corner of the app which when I've set more than a daily goal really bugs me.
What methods do you use to stay organised? If you try any of these tips let me know how you get on with them! I'd love to hear your thoughts.