My partner and I fulfill the roles in every department for two businesses: this one and our CBD Cafe.
People ask me how I manage everything.
A lot of the time, I don't know how to answer this question. I often need to work on managing myself. I look at other people's lives, and I, too, wonder how it all gets done. So I'm certainly not an expert on this subject.
Everyone is different, and perfection is futile. There is no precise answer for how to feel organized, stay on task, increase productivity, or use time more wisely. However, I've come to rely on a few systems to keep myself in check.
If I follow the systems, I have to think less about the big picture and can blissfully focus on the details. This practice helps relieve anxiety caused by an overwhelming number of responsibilities. That deer-in-the-headlights feeling is the biggest thing that will keep me from being productive and completing tasks.
What I do may not work for you, as what everyone else does doesn't work for me. Please note that this system was born out of my forgetting or failing to stay on task by hundreds — probably thousands! — of times. You will likely have to fail a lot before you find what works for you, too. Further, my system is constantly changing. A part of my reason for writing this down is to continue to build self-awareness of my intentional and unintentional daily routines.
The Workaholic's Best Friends
Before I begin, I must remind everyone to keep unique, complex passwords stored in a secure password tracker service. You don't think you'll get hacked until it happens to you.
Google Calendar
First up is my most appreciated tool: Google Calendar. This is one I absolutely cannot live without. If it's not on Google Calendar, it didn't happen — or it's not happening because I WILL forget.
Appointment keeping & appointment sharing: Google Calendar is great for tracking personal appointments and schedules. It's also a standard for collaborating with others. No further explanation is needed when "I'll shoot you a calendar invite" is uttered.
But, of course, my chaotic self took this a step further. I've come to rely on my Google Calendar 100%. It keeps me in check all day, every day.
Color coding and separate calendars: I have a personal calendar, a Bear Dance Market calendar, and a Gray Matters calendar. The Bear Dance calendar makes our work day appear on all my devices and sends reminders to the iPad we use as a register. It makes a noise when it's time to turn the open signs around and start closing procedures, which is handy. It's also a nice visual.
The morning routine block: I have a repeating event for my morning routine. I know exactly how long I need because of Routinery (continue reading for more.) I must move the routine up if I have something to do in the morning. Suppose I am doing something different (like traveling) and need to block out time to get ready or get up extra early. I always block it out in Google Calendar so I cannot get confused and wake up later than I need to.
Routine/task management: I use the reminders integration exclusively for recurring reminders and tasks. This is separate from my Todoist app and one-time tasks. (Read more below!)
Google Drive
I use Google Drive for everything!
I use docs and sheets to track almost every kind of project. I've got a template for just about everything. I'm working on publishing my templates as their post. You can also join my Facebook group to access my works in progress early.
Google Keep
I use Google Keep for quick and easily accessible notes, shopping lists, drafting posts, and as a clipboard for moving text content and links across devices. I recommend using labels and color coding to help keep things organized and to filter your notes for a peaceful, compartmentalized mind!
Gmail Labels
A manually organized label can be the hub for a particular project or client, so you never have to search to recap something important.
You are seriously missing out if you aren't creating inbox filters to label/sort your inbox automatically.
I'm also still a fan of Unroll.me for my personal email account.
ToDoist
Brain dumping tasks: Sometimes I work better with a paper list, but most of the time, I'm so forgetful, the paper list gets lost and not serving me — OR the list is so overwhelming that I have no idea where to start.
Prioritizing & Organizing: Todoist makes it easy to add a label and a project to each task, which I use to help prioritize and strategically split my time among my various obligations.
Todoist can be configured to push scheduled tasks to my Google Calendar, which can be dragged around to reschedule.
You can also create recurring tasks in Todoist, but I prefer using my built-in Google reminders. A different interface makes it seem more urgent, so I can't ignore it. (Because sometimes, to disconnect on weekends, I need to be able to ignore the Todoist app altogether.)
SocialPilot
There are countless solutions to the social media scheduling problem, but SocialPilot is my personal favorite. It has a simple interface, no gimmicks, is reasonably easy to understand and use, and is a powerful option for the price. There's a learning curve because the interface is not incredibly elegant, but this is a non-issue once you get the hang of it.
Work-Life Balance
Routinery
It took me forever to listen to my intuition and get into this app, but it's been worth it. Routinery helps me remember to do something in the morning and prevents me from getting distracted by something ridiculous, making myself late. It has helped make my mornings relaxing and fun instead of frantic and confusing. If you let it, it will help influence your habits and form new ones! Recommend trying this out.
Digital Wellbeing
Digital Wellbeing is an app to analyze usage and set limit timers on Android. It can dim your screen and turn on DND at night, depending on your preferences.
iOS does this too.
Separate Devices for Work & Personal
If you lack discipline, trick yourself into it. The first step I made towards separating work and personal was removing the Facebook app from my phone and turning off email notifications. I needed more self-control over checking emails and notices on these two apps. I had to get on my Chromebook to check Facebook for a while. Now I have an iPad, but it's a similar effect — a full-time work device, a part-time media device, and many fewer distractions during off hours.
iPad tablet and Android cell phone: At the moment (despite the disappointing camera situation), I am pleased with a budget Motorola with Android OS for my personal device and an iPad for my work device. I like how notifications work differently on each OS. It is easier for me to ignore what is not essential on each respective device based on how it works AND how the settings have been configured.
No matter your strategy, I recommend finding a way to get your devices to work for you instead of allowing yourself to become a servant. It's crucial to analyze how many notifications you're getting and reduce interruptions from things that create unnecessary noise.
In Review
What I Like:
My word of the year this year was discipline. For the first time in my adult life (I can remember), I never neglected one of my tools for over a few weeks.
My Work/Personal boundaries are much better than in all previous years. It is easier than ever to shut off completely at 6 PM. (This could still be improved upon, though.)
What Can Be Done Better:
I've slacked on my paper journal a lot this year. I'm not a super committed creative bullet journaler with intricate weekly spreads — my bullet journal style is fundamental and practical — but it still used to be a daily practice. I frequently became overwhelmed by my life/shenanigans this year and had to keep switching up my system to stay on top of everything. My priority with my paper journal changed to be primarily a personal diary — This move has been mostly successful, but I still wish I had used it more. I intend to work on creating a time block in my day for personal journaling again.
(I plan to continue adding reflections to this section as I think of more ways I'd like my systems to improve.)
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