How do you keep organized?

[Digital]

How do you keep yourself organized? What tools do you keep from losing track.

For me with TGL, I use my white board in my office, it maintains all the items going on, that I need to keep track of and fix/work on, etc. My handwriting is usually horrible, but readable at least to me.

 

How to do you keep yourself organized and on track?

[hurricaneviolet]

My main way of staying organized is my planner, which is loosely a bullet journal, but basically it's a hand drawn planner and I have specific short-hand designation for events, appointments, tasks, notes, and completed tasks and moved tasks. Which helps me to stay organized on a day-to-day basis. I could take a picture of it later, but there are also lots of examples online :). I do 1 week for each two page spread, and I have a section for each day, and then a large notes section for random stuff.

I also have a dry-erase calendar which I keep track of appointments and events on for the entire month, a dry erase board which I mostly keep a shopping list on, but also anything I need to remember, and I always have a document open on my computer with things I need to do/remember, but don't need to do RIGHT NOW.

So basically I use the dry-erase calendar and the document to plan out my week in my planner :).

And if all else fails and I absolutely cannot forget something, I tell like 10 people to please remind me and send me a text so I remember.

Edited April 3, 2017 by hurricaneviolet

[Digital]

10 minutes ago, hurricaneviolet said:

My main way of staying organized is my planner, which is loosely a bullet journal, but basically it's a hand drawn planner and I have specific short-hand designation for events, appointments, tasks, notes, and completed tasks and moved tasks.

I actually was intrigued enough to look up information about Bullet Journalling, and am very interested. I might just start trying it.

http://bulletjournal.com/get-started/

 

[hurricaneviolet]

8 minutes ago, Digital said:

I actually was intrigued enough to look up information about Bullet Journalling, and am very interested. I might just start trying it.

http://bulletjournal.com/get-started/

 

You should! It's great! :). I use a Moleskine dotted notebook and I'm really happy with it.

[SingSong]

I remember hearing about bullet journaling a couple years ago, but I never tried it.

 

My problem is that I write my to-do lists in random notebooks (that I lose track of at the end of the day, usually), and the act of even doing that is sporadic for me. I try to get something done immediately when it comes to mind (if possible).

I keep telling myself that once I clean out and sort my USB files, I'll be able to start clean and start being organized after that point. But that hasn't happened yet.

 

I definitely need to find a better way to keep track of things than repeating dates and to-do lists over and over in my head. So thank you @hurricaneviolet; I have been inspired to try a planner again.

[Syntax]

Post it notes. It sounds silly but I probably wouldn't do well without them.  

I keep a huge running task list of all the stuff I basically ever want to do organized into categories. Then every morning(or the night before) I make a daily task list of what I want to accomplish the next day on a post it note. So I have a work post-it-note and a home post-it-note for chore/errands/life/everything else. It's cool cause at the end of the year I can see the thousands of things I accomplished and I reward myself if I hit goals.

I basically try to cater the organizing to what I'm organizing. I keep the records of my rabbits and their lines and kindles in a journal so it's one place to go to know who is due this week, who is ready to be bred, etc. For my own development projects I use a combination of a repository and scrum board to keep up and organized.

[Cadence]

I use two planners - one for keeping track of events and things to do in a weekly format with enough space to expand on my task details, and another that has a monthly section at the top of each page where I can keep myself accountable to monthly goals and tasks. 

And sticky notes! Always have them around in case I need to jot things down and put into my planners later.

 

[Nate]

I have tried all sorts of things over the years. 

Sticky Notes, Whiteboard, Planner, Google Docs Excel. At one point I even installed a wiki on my server just to organise everything  

 

But then I discovered Trello. It has changed my life as far as organising goes. You can download the app on iPhone, iPad and most Androids, and can update your notes 'on the go' if you think of something or have 10 minutes free on the bus etc.

Here is my referral link in case anyone wants to check it out: https://trello.com/natewiggett1/recommend

Edited April 19, 2017 by Nate.Tube

[Anoua]

Sometimes I don't lol Well I have a physical journal, I use that kind of stuff for actually planning things out more in details for programming and such. Sometimes just to get my thoughts out. 

I also use Trello for bug tracking mainly. Nothing too advanced but just to remember things people have reported or I've found that I need to get to. I've also used Toggle, which is a timer sometimes, and have a free trial of todoist (a daily todo list app) so been trying to use that but kind of fell out of it a bit. 

But my new favorite that I pretty much have open all the time now is Workflowy. Before workflowy I used sticky notes a lot (windows post it notes) which I still do use actually. But sometimes I'd start going more in-depth or need a note for a longer than the 5 minutes before coding etc.. and it sometimes just gets crowded plus there is no real formatting. But workflowy just works great for me. Discovered it randomly. It's essentially one document with lists really. BUT the great thing is you can zoom in on specific bullet points, easily close and open them, etc... Hard to describe, probably not for everyone, but felt very intuitive for me. I use it for a lot of random stuff such as home improvement projects I want to get to, or random stuff I want to buy, recipes, games I want to beat or play (I sometimes forget about games for a while even ones I really like and want to finish so helps be keep track), and just all kinds of stuff including Projects (with Animal Acres, Eliyo, etc.. underneath that). Which is nice so I can clear my mind and not worry about, oh don't want to forget this etc.. 

Feel free to use my referral link if you do sign up,

https://workflowy.com/invite/47db1f81.lnx