How do you organize your life?
I am always curious and interested in learning how people get stuff done.
Here are some tools I have heard of:
Google Calendar
I have a friend who lives off this calendar for work and personal life but I find I need to be able to see notes in a list and not in a calendar format which is nice visually with colours, but I need an actual TASK LIST to follow at a glance
AwesomeNotes
I used to use ANotes (this is how I organized my life before they rebranded themselves because their name sounded so juvenile), but I found that they didn’t have the robust requirements I needed for dates, start planning dates, etc. The app was cute, it had lots of pretty colours and icons but I prefer functionality, so I switched to ToDo app, which is still not perfect but it is better than ANotes.
Wunderlist
I used to use this for grocery lists or short notes for the daily reminders but now they want you to create an account and sign in which doesn’t work on my iPod Touch
Apple’s Reminders
I now use this to make short task lists or notes to myself — it loads a nanosecond faster than my ToDo app and I am not afraid of accidentally deleting anything while I am quickly typing down a note.
ToDo
This is the one I use for organizing my entire life. I cannot life without it and get really sad if I can’t access it for password reminders or notes. In one glance I have my tasks for the week along with reminders and even notes on what I have for money transfers go pay for bills and so on. It covers all aspects of my life:
- pricing comparisons of products
- things I want to borrow from the library, read, listen to or watch
- what to enter in my budget when I get home
- blog post ideas (even actual blog posts I copy and paste into WordPress)
- appointments
- Little Bun notes: what to bring to daycare
- Events: birthdays, anniversaries and anything I have to prep ahead of time for it like presents to buy or photo collages to make
I live off this app.
Other apps recommended by others are:
- Teux Deux
- Todoist
- OmniFocus
I have never used any of the three above but many people swear by OmniFocus.
Or you can just use a paper planner but I make so many changes that it really annoys me if I see things crossed out or if I have to use white-out on it (a nice, clean, organized page is my goal here, so chicken scratch won’t cut it).
What do you use to organize your life?
6 Comments
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liteadventurer
I have an old fashioned wall calendar hanging by the front door; that’s where I mark vacations, birthdays, and important appointments. I like being able to look at the big picture all at once and haven’t found a digital substitute that can replicate that sufficiently.
For smaller stuff like reminders to buy pet food, I use the Fantastical calendar app on my phone. I really loved the iPhone’s native calendar app until they redesigned it into a bungled mess a few years ago.
Perhaps the most important organizational tool I use is that I minimize my daily responsibilities as much as possible. Over the last several years, I’ve cut out a lot of garbage from my life and unless it’s coming from family or my small group of best friends, I say no to just about everything requiring a time commitment. Organization is easy when you don’t have much to organize 🙂
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Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge.
Little Bun has his calendar on the wall with his photo that we made, AND a iPad calendar that I taught him how to input events like: Little Bun – Soccer! ….
As for the iPhone Calendar, I don’t bother with that any more. I need something more robust and my Todo app handles everything from what to buy, to what to research, to appointments, logins…
Then as you said — commitments. I don’t over commit each week. I have zero going on weekly and I have plenty of time. If we have an event, I need at least 48 hours notice to go to it (even for a festival), so I can plan, and not rush when I come home and think: OH I FORGOT TO _____… and have my whole week thrown off.
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Kandice
I have an old school hard copy calendar (spiral bound) that goes with me everywhere. I don’t like iCal as a general rule. I just downloaded Office365 for my new iPad Pro and it includes Outlook, which is what I exclusively used when working for my former firm. My husband and I essentially communicated via Outlook appointment reminder. 😂 Now that we’ve got two teenagers, it’s going to get more challenging. I’ve heard Cozi is good for families, but I haven’t tried it.
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Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge.
I’ll look into Cozi as Little Bun gets older.. or we may do Google Calendar between the three of our emails.
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SarahN
I use GCal and the latest app allows for listing rather than grid. I also you Google Note for multiple post it like notes of lists. Groceries. LIst of regular weekend tasks (resurrected weekly). But also, I like lists so I archive lists like – weddings I’ve been to. Or friends to keep in touch with (like, so I don’t forget some and spend a heap of time/energy on others). Love it!