Using organizational tools can help you stay on top of your life. Most people already use a tool to manage at least some aspect of their life, but everyone can benefit from finding the right combination for their respective needs. With planning, commitment, and the right organizational tools, you can create a better structure for your days. This equates to maximizing your productivity, improved relationships, and reduced stress.
Benefits Of Using Organizational Tools
Organizational tools help provide structure. Without structure, life can get pretty chaotic, especially if you have multiple commitments. When everything feels out of control, it is hard to balance your self care needs. Yet this is when you need to do it the most. By incorporating organizational tools into your toolkit, you can start to create space to deal with what is important. It helps you prioritize tasks and ensure you don’t miss anything. It even helps you with improving your relationships because you don’t miss as many deadlines or forget about commitments. By using organizational tools, you take the burden of remembering off of yourself. This in and of itself is a stress reducer. Less stress typically leads to improved sleep. Are you convinced that you need to use organizational tools yet?
When you learn to use organizational tools to your advantage, you manage your time better. This is a result of blocking time and tracking the things you need to complete. Furthermore, once you start to master one, it makes it easier to incorporate others. Knowing what to use can be a delicate balancing act, it takes time to make it work for you. But creating systems that work for your own lifestyle, you can maximize the benefits. Word of caution, if you find it overwhelming, it may not be the right path for you to pursue. If it hinders your progress, it’s okay to not use it.
Organizational Tools Know How
Planning is an often overlooked part of organizing our lives. Without a plan, your tools don’t work. Knowing how to use them will give you a better chance of succeeding. Additionally, like any plan and tools, you need to review your approach. What’s working, what isn’t? Sometimes people blame the tool when in reality it is their application that needs adjusting. Allotting time to review, both daily and weekly, is important. Only then can you truly know if changes are needed.
Organizational tools take practice and commitment. Some people have a hard time adjusting to their use. They can appear stifling and rigid. If you approach it with an open mind it will be easier to incorporate into your regular practice. We all have days where we forget about our tools or mess something up. That’s normal. Don’t worry about it, you can reset the next day. Like any habit, incorporating organizational tools to help you manage your life can improve your overall quality of life.
Calendars
Calendars come in various formats. Daily versions break down your time by the hour, weekly calendars provide you a breakdown day-by-day, monthly gives you a bigger perspective which can help with patterns, and lastly, a year calendar. Each of these formats can provide you with a different level of detail, so it is best if you customize it to how you like to see things. If you aren’t sure where to start, I’d say a weekly calendar is your best bet. If you require greater structure, go for a daily calendar.
Use your calendar to either list deadlines, schedule bigger tasks or appointments, and reminders for key dates. Calendars can be an organizational tool on their own, and they also come in planners. Some even come with an embedded section for tasks to be completed. Colour coding within your calendar can also provide an added layer of detail that is quick for the eye to zone-in on.
Meal Planners
Another organizational tool I use are meal planner sheets. A specific purpose calendar, a meal planner breaks a week into days in one page. They can also include a breakdown for your main meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Planning and preparing meals is a huge stressor, especially with busy lives. Healthy meals are key for our self care pillars. By using this organizational tool, you can block a chunk of time, once or twice a week, to figure out what you will eat in the coming days. This not only reduces the stress of last-minute meals, but it also helps you get organized with your grocery shopping. This reduces your food waste, and the time you spend trying to figure things out each day when you are depleted of energy. It also helps you maximize your meal preparation to free up time.
To Do Lists
Lists is one of my favourite go to organizational tools. Lists can be simple, just a random list of things you need to get done, or they can get elaborate. Similar to a calendar, to do lists can offload information from your mind to something external. You can use an app for this or a note taking program, but I prefer pen and paper. I don’t get the same satisfaction of crossing things off of the list when I do it digitally, but it does help you search for things if you ever need to go back and look. With paper, sticky notes can be placed in random places to help you remember things. They come in lots of colour so you can colour code too, but they can also get messy.
Regardless of which format you use, digital or analog, your list is only effective as an organizational tool if you use it correctly. Some say to keep the list short, otherwise it can become daunting. I like to take it one step further. I make different lists for different aspects of my life. One for personal things, one for work, and then a someday maybe list for things that aren’t critical, but I don’t want to forget about them. Writing it down releases the burden of having to remember it later, and it takes weight off of your shoulders.
Maximizing your “to do list” organizational tool
When you make a list, it is most effective if you prioritize the items on there. By knowing what you need to tackle first, it makes it easier to get through the other things when you get to them. I like to make my list, and then number them from either most important to least, or hardest to easiest. The start of the day is when I am most productive, so the harder or more important tasks get done right away when I am at full capacity. I leave the other things to when my productivity drops or when I am tired.
Another way to organize your lists is by grouping like with like. Completing similar activities back-to-back is often more productive. This is not to say that you should multi-task. In fact, try not to do that. It actually is better if you focus on one activity at a time. By grouping similar things, you can develop a rhythm and increase your productivity. At the end of the day, anything that hasn’t been accomplished can either go on the next day’s list, or reevaluated if it even needs to be done. Time sometimes reveals a task may not even be necessary.
Vision Boards
Personal vision boards are a way to organize your long-term goals. They are not as defined as your daily tasks, but they do serve as reminders of what you are working towards. Take the prompts from your vision board and then incorporate actionable steps into either your calendar or to do lists for the week, or both. This helps you stay on track and helps you break things down into manageable steps.
Storage
This may seem like an odd organizational tool, but having a place for all your material things is key to keeping a clutter-free home. This helps reduce the physical mess and the emotional drainage it can cause. In essence, by creating proper storage for things in each of your spaces, you are clearing space in your mind. This reduces stress and provides you with more calm. This also goes for your digital storage needs. Clutter even in our desktops and phones can lead to increased stress. This is why filing systems can go a long way.
Filing systems
Whether digital or analog, having a good filing system is important. It helps you keep your files tidy, but more importantly, you can find what you need when you need it. This means creating an organizational system that makes sense to you. Have a standardized way of naming your files. And throw out what you don’t need. When it is in paper form, it is easy to spot the mess. Digitally, this is harder. Bigger storage capacities only augment the problem.
It can be overwhelming if you already have a lot of files. One solution is to come up with a system and use it for your new files. You can leave your old files as is in their own archive folder, and you can move old files into your new system as you use them. Alternatively, take the old files and break down their migration into the new system with manageable steps that you can do over time. Once you have a system in place, like any other tool, you need to review regularly and adjust.
Notepad
Lastly, one often overlooked organizational tool is a notepad, especially by your bedside. We often process things at the end of the day as we are winding down, or get woken up with a thought that we don’t want to lose. By having a notepad nearby, you can quickly jot it down and focus on rest. During the waking hours, we often have random thoughts and then we get busy and forget. By jotting it down, we can ensure we can get back to it later when we are freed up.
Don’t underestimate the power of writing things down. It helps you stay on top of things. By having a notepad or notebook that you dedicate to tasks, it’ll make you more prone to using it. Nowadays you have options with colours, different types of paper, and tactile covers. Find something that feels right for you and is portable.
What’s your favourite organizational tool?
Organizational tools can be a great addition to help you manage your life. One of the best reasons is to reduce your stress levels. By incorporating organizational tools into your everyday, you can do a major brain dump, freeing up your mind to focus on the things that matter most. Stop missing things, manage your time better, and increase your productivity. By giving yourself a system with which to stay organized, you are investing in being your best self daily.
IMAGE CREDIT: Pexels | Leeloo The First.