How I stay Organized (without Overwhelm & Stress)
When it comes to organization without overwhelm, I have a few basic tenets that I abide by—simplification and automation are key!
So, in today’s blog post (and the YouTube video at the bottom of the page), I’m breaking down my systems and why they work so well! These are some of my core beliefs and some of the most helpful things I do to help me stay organized, complete tasks, manage information, track and complete my goals and projects, and much much more.
01. i put everything in one place.
This is what I mean when I say “simplify” and, honestly, I think it’s one of the most important things when it comes to getting organized and staying organized. I needed an all-in-one organization solution and Notion has been that game-changer for me. It’s why I put so much energy and effort into making Notion templates, like my Anti-Burnout Notion Digital Planner, because I’ve never felt so organized in my entire life.
With my Notion system, I am able to keep track of:
Miscellaneous notes
Tasks
My Business stats, sales, CRM, etc.
Notes for my Day job, including student notes
Recipes
Grocery lists
Trips I’m planning—or want to take
Notes from books I’m reading (automatically!)
My timelines and milestones for all my goals
All of my projects—personally and professionally
Cleaning tasks (like when I last descaled my Keurig)
And tons more! Everything all in one place, so I don’t have to check Google Drive Or Microsoft Tasks or my email or whatever to track down information. It’s all in one spot.
02. I write everything down.
If there’s one thing I believe to my core, it’s that we need to stop trying to memorize—and even remember—everything!
If it’s a random idea I have for my business OR a thought I had that I could incorporate into my copy on my website OR a social media post idea. If it’s something I want to share with a client OR a resource I want to add to my memberships OR a training idea that I have for the future…those are all things I can right down.
We do ourselves a disservice when it comes to trying to remember things. If it’s important, your brain is the LAST thing you should be relying on to remember things. If any change has been crucial in my business and life, it was the the shift to write it down, write it down, write it down.
On of the ways in which I try to make this even easier for myself is by having a “quick capture” page in my Notion system. This is something I learned in David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” system, and that I was reminded of and given ideas for how to implement in Notion by Thomas Allen on YouTube. For me, this look like the following…
03. i make it accessible.
I believe accessibility is two-fold: you need to have it constantly available to you as you’re working because you just never know when you’re going to have a task pop-up or note you need to take AND it needs to be available on your devices. Why?
Well, for example, the other day my friend and I were out to dinner. We inevitably start talking about business every time we hang out and—on this day—she was an idea-generating machine! She had all these ideas for my business and I loved a lot of them. So, I snagged my phone to jot down her ideas in my Notion systems. That’s what I mean by make it accessible.
Another example? During my workday, if I have something come up for my day job—a note I need to take or task I need to do—I am able to quickly pull up my Notion on my desktop and jot it down. I used to do things like this on sticky notes on my desk and then transfer them into my systems. But, just being to add them in immediately because my system is just RIGHT THERE is invaluable in my opinion!
It’s one of the many ways this system helps me wrangle all the information and the millions of variables that are being thrown at me day in and day out. If I have ideas? I can pull up my Notion or out my phone and jot them down. If I think of something I need to remember to do, same thing. It’s amazing and makes me feel so much more organized and avoid having things slip through the cracks!
04. i automate & templatize as much as humanly possible.
One of the other game-changers for me when it came to productivity was to create templates, automations, etc. to kind of let things run in the background in my life. I recapped a lot of this in a recent workshop I did for We Are Women Owned on “Best Practices for Preventing Burnout in Your Business” (if this is something you’re interested in learning more about—drop a comment, please!), but in a nutshell, here are some examples of all the things that I automate and templatize in my business, work and life:
I have templates in my life for:
My business
My content creation workflows in biz
My graphics for YouTube, my website, Pinterest, etc.
Blog and Podcast post templates
Podcast Audacity templates (so I can just pop the new audio into a template and it’s done)
My life:
Journal templates
Note taking templates
I have automations that run for:
In my business:
Adding sales to my sales tracker
Adding prospective clients to my CRM
Adding Facebook leads to my email client
Tagging leads
Updating my list of subscribers
Saving Zoom Recordings into my Google Drive
Recurring business tasks
In my personal life:
Cleaning tasks (Keurig, laundry, etc.)
Personal hygiene tasks (changing contact lens case, scheduling doctor’s appts)
Paying taxes
Prioritizing tasks, etc.
Anything you can do to take the pressure off of your brain to remember
(and to make this automatic) - the BETTER!
these are some of the ways, I stay organized!
I highly recommend checking out the YouTube video below to see more!
But, in the meantime, what are some things you do to stay organized in your life?
