I’ve had quite a bit of experience in organization…or more accurately, I have a quite of bit of experience being disorganized and have a huge desire to find something that keeps me organized.
Over the years, I’ve tried numerous systems and some of them have worked, some of them haven’t, and they’ve all had some type of adjusting on my part to suit them for my needs. I never really had anything during school as far as keeping my thoughts and tasks in order and the first real “planner” I’ve ever had was something they issued to us at the Naval Academy. It was a Franklin Covey calendar/day planner thingy and it was part of a class we had to take where they issued the book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”
I tried using the planner for a month or so and honestly it took a lot more time in me keeping that thing up to date instead of actually doing the things that I needed to do. I should probably re-read the book since I remember there were quite a bit of great concepts in there, but it’s been a few years…let me add that to my to-do list 🙂
When my wife and I were first married, she made lists for EVERYTHING..so much so that no matter where I was in the house, I found piles of post-its and scrap papers with lists. I probably could have benefitted from using lists for myself, but the sheer volume of lists that my wife used kind of drove me away from adding to the pile, so for years, I never used anything to keep me organized.
At some point during my Navy career, I decided I needed to get my shit together and finally get organized. I found a few different systems and used a combination of them together and that really worked for me in the situation I was in. Basically, I was a geo-bachelor (a term we used in the Navy that described someone living away from their family during a duty station..my family lived in Maryland and I would drive 3 hours away each week to work in Virginia Beach), so I started researching systems and found something called Get Things Done (GTD) and 43 Folders, along with an app on my phone and computer called Omnifocus.
Using those systems together, and more importantly sticking to them, increased my productivity both at work and at home and I found myself having more time to do other things. I could really go back to using those systems again since they proved to be good for the way I think, but since then I kind of fell out of it and really just need a kickstart again.
I did use them once again when I was in the midst of retiring from the Navy and moving my family out to Iowa, but it wasn’t as efficient since I had a lot more on my plate with also trying to run a business remotely as well. Though I did sign up for some training through Asian Efficiency, which dialed in my use of Omnifocus, but really just need to get back at it again.
Since then, I’ve been floundering. I’ve been reluctant to get back organized for whatever reason and when I finally do have some time to think about it, I figure that what I’m doing now is half-assed working. I tried using a Bullet Journal, but the act of writing things out for me is just frustrating…mainly because my handwriting sucks! I think I still need something app/folder driven, but I am not giving up on a journal so I found a new system that has an app and an associated journal, but haven’t gotten the journals yet.
Once I do, I’ll post again and let you all you know how it’s working or not for me. In the meantime, what kinds of systems do you use to keep yourself on track? I want something for my entire life and not just purely work, or fitness, or personal…I need something for all aspects and it needs to be easily accessible and not limited to a filing cabinet or a journal.
Have you looked at Trello?
Hi Scott! Yes, I’ve looked into it and it’s definitely got my curiosity piqued…I just need to play around with it more. Do you have any advice on how to start up with it?
I would make different boards (home, work, fitness, etc.). I use one column as a to do list, another as in work and a third as completed. Since we recently started a new company, its nice to go back and see what you have accomplished. You can also share with your wife, assign tasks, input updates, put deadlines, alarms and reminders. It will connect with Gmail to directly input emails as tasks if you want. Thats all I use currently. For the house I have mundane things like pre-emergent for the lawn (fall and spring), fertilizing, trimming, winterizing, etc. It also helps track improvements to the house if you were ever to sell. You could show someone all the upgrades and sweat equity you put in the property.
Just my thoughts….
That’s awesome! I’ll put that on my to-do list to check it out…see what I did there? 😉
I agree that I want one place for everything. That works best for me. I don’t seem to be able to stick to electronic trackers, such as for diet and exercise. Maybe it seems too much like work to me. I use a Passion Planner. It is like an old fashioned planner, in other words paper. But, I love the planning activities it includes. And it suits my style. So, that’s what I do.
Thanks, Cathy! I will look into that too, but definitely needs something on my phone since I can’t always carry around a paper planner all the time.
Hi. Tried to leave a comment. Not sue if it worked. I use a Passion Planner. It’s paper. It has fun planning activities, and I can keep everything in one place. And it isn’t electronic. So, it doesn’t feel like work.