Life admin tips that keep me organised

I am quietly obsessed with being organised 😬 but it works for me. I don’t function well without a plan, without knowing when I am doing something, when I can rest etc

Over the years I have learnt to be less rigid in my planning, I’ve learnt to be ok if things don’t go to plan. I have also let go of the fact that there is something wrong with needing a plan. There isn’t at all. I function at my best with a plan. That’s me. I have been able to use that skill to my advantage and create a business helping others stay organised. It lights me up 🙌🏻

It took me a while to get here. Even after I started my business. I used to think I was being a pain, being controlling, for needing to know when things were going to occur. A lot of it came down to not wanting to disappoint people. I would say yes to something that I wasn’t prepared for and later pay the consequences. For example, if one of my children asked to go to the shops after school and I said yes, knowing that what I had planned for dinner was going to take a bit longer than the time I would have left after spending time at the shops, then I’d end up with hungry, cranky kids when I should of said no. This is just one basic example and sometimes I feel completely fine to say yes and then go with the flow, but I’ve also learnt to accept it’s ok to say no.

As a mum to 3 boys there is a lot to do, a lot to remember. I have tried notes and a calendar on the fridge, a physical to-do and a physical planner. None of those work for me. I am the type of person who would leave me grocery list on the fridge when I go to the supermarket… not helpful. This is because I am just not a paper person and I have learnt to just embrace that!

So, the keep myself organised I use the following tools:

Microsoft Outlook for emails and calendar (app, not web based)

Trello

Apple Reminders

Mealboard

Outlook

Things I put in my calendar are:
All my personal appointments (chiro, massage, haircuts etc)
Work meetings
Kids school events
Kids sports
School terms & holidays
School term week numbers
Catch ups with friends & family

Outlook has a category system which I use to categorise different things in my email, for example the kids each have a specific colour, personal appointments are another colour, client meetings etc

To manage my emails I keep work and personal separate but they function pretty similarly. If an email is unread it has not been actioned. I am not someone who has 35,648 unread emails in my inbox 😬
Once an email has been actioned it get filed away in its specific folder (bills, school etc). I don’t get junk mail, I don’t subscribe to anything and if something slips through the cracks, I unsubscribe from it straight away. I do not like the feeling of being overwhelmed with too many emails so I don’t let it get to that point. I also don’t want to miss things and that is easily done with a lot of spam, and overwhelming when your phone is dinging all day with emails coming in. Sometimes I don’t file things away after they have been actioned so I spend time once a week and clear out my inbox.

Trello

I use Trello to manage my tasks. I’ve used it for work for years but never really used it for my personal tasks until fairly recently and it has been a game changer. Especially with the add in Outlook has for Trello. I can open an email in Outlook and ‘send’ it to Trello. Trello is a kanban style board that I have lists in for different areas of my life, like life admin, financial, kids and goals. So for example if I receive an invoice from school, I send it over to Trello into the ‘kids’ list. It instantly creates a card that I can notes in, add attachments if I need it. I jump into Trello and add a due date on the task and that’s that! I have cards for things I need to buy, I have a ‘kmart’ card that I add random things to as I think of it, a card for Woolies that I add things I need to get on my mid week top up etc

Apple Reminders

I use Apple Reminders for things that I must not forget. I find Apple Reminders are more ‘in your face' than emails or Trello notifications. I have them set as time sensitive and they stay on my lock screen for a long time. Apple says 1 hour but I think it’s longer. Tomorrow I have to remember to give my 6 year old his school photo form and to tell him to give it to his teacher so I have set a reminder in Apple Reminders for this. It’s something I really need to remember and a note on the fridge, or me remembering, likely won’t happen. Not because I have a terrible memory, I just don’t like to overload my brain!

Mealboard

Mealboard is a meal planning app. It is a game changer! I am sure we have all had days where we have no idea what to cook with the chicken breast defrosting in the fridge and the supplies in the fridge and pantry. The days where we just don’t want to think about it. Using Mealboard, or any meal planning system stops this from happening. It takes a bit of time to set up but oh so worth it.
I had a bunch of recipes saved in Pinterest and cookbooks that I have imported into the app. The importing itself is easy however if you have a few recipes to add it might take some time. Once they’re all in you simply decide on a meal plan length, add your recipes then add all the ingredients to your shopping list. I then use this list when I’m at the supermarket, ticking things off in the app as I go. You can also add meal plan templates so if you have say 4 weeks of different meals you can just add in week 1 to the meal plan for that week and it’s done
Another step here is to pop a weekly meal plan on the fridge so you stop getting the daily question from the kids… what’s for dinner? I have one here you can grab.

So this is how I function! It isn’t perfect and I’m sure there is another way out there that will one day work better but this is working great right now so I’m sticking to it. I don’t feel overwhelmed, I know what I need to do and when I need to do it. One day I’ll check out a system like Notion as I am sure I can do all of this in one place but for now, this works.

Getting and staying organised doesn’t have to be scary. But if it is, if you’re sick of feeling overwhelmed with life and just want more structure, send me a message via the contact page and we can have a chat