5 Tips to Stay Organized

I’ve told you how full my life is lately, so I thought I’d also share my tips for staying organized.

Lists on lists
I’m rarely out and about without my planner. I use it to keep track of what is due each day, what I want to accomplish for the week, and anything miscellaneous that I need to know, like when Sprout needs his heartworm preventative. It’s really hard to try to remember everything in all different facets of life, so if it’s important, it gets written down. I keep checklists by day and week based on priorities.

Gmail Folders
My Gmail has 35 folders, which all have subfolders within them. There, I house anything I may need in the future. Other emails get deleted right away so they don’t hang out in Gmail limbo. Any email that I need to respond to stays in my “unread” panel until it has been addressed. (I try to keep that to 100 or fewer each day, so I tackle email when I have a free minute, like when I’m on the train.)

Delegate
There are times when something comes my way that I know I can’t devote enough time to, so it’s important for my sanity that I delegate. I was struggling to keep up with the housework on top of everything, so we decided to outsource and hire a cleaning company. It’s amazing how it feels to walk into a clean house! It’s a luxury that not everyone can afford, especially when starting out, but it saves me hours each week. T took on doing more laundry and other things around the house, and he’s proving to be a pretty awesome house husband 😉

Right in the trash
I started opening mail next to the trash can (or recycling bin, depending on what it is!) and it has saved on how much stuff we accumulate. Rather than letting a catalog sit around, I toss it, knowing that if I really need something, I can go to the website. Junk mail gets tossed right away, and important mail goes in the wall hanger so it draws our attention.

Shared calendars
Maintaining a Google Calendar that I share with close friends and my sisters makes it so much easier to plan get-togethers. There aren’t as many emails or texts to keep up with, because we have a good idea of when we are all free. (If you don’t want to give access to your calendar to others, you can use Doodle to poll for specific events.)