The Key to an Organized Life Series: Information
If there’s one thing I love talking about, it’s organization. And for me, organization is more than just getting your belongings in order. That’s why this mini-series is going to cover three different ways you can organize your life. The key to an organized life is more than keeping things neat and orderly. It’s more about learning to maintain it. You can get yourself organized but fall back into bad habits before you know it. And because I have a lot to say about this topic, I figured it was best to break it down into three posts.
They will be:
Information
Objects + Stuff
Life in General
The first key to an organized life is dealing with information
Information, in this context, falls into three categories. If you haven’t noticed already, I like groups of threes. They are notes, ideas/thoughts, and tasks/to-dos. This is the kind of information our brains are flooded with on a daily basis. I’m going to show you how I capture each of them.
Tasks + To-Dos
One thing we all have in common is never-ending tasks and to-dos. It doesn’t matter if you’re a single, career-driven woman, or a mother of three kids. We all have to-do lists and tasks. And while we may have a handle on them, new ones pop up all the time, and often out of the blue.
Have you ever been in line at the grocery store and you remember something important? What about sitting in the Starbucks drive-through line? I know I've remembered a bunch of stuff while waiting for my order.
It happens. All. The. Time. And if you want to live an organized life, you need a way to capture those tasks so they don’t remain “open loops” in your head. Open loops refer to tasks that keep popping up because you’re not writing it down when you first think of it. The phrase was coined by David Allen, author of Getting Things Done.
It’s vital to write down any task or to-do as soon as it appears. No matter how big or small. This way you’re removing it from your brain and thus saving you constant nagging later. But when you write down these open loops, it must be somewhere you’ll refer to later. Otherwise, they’ll be sitting dormant on paper rather than in your head.
Depending on where I am when the task strikes, I’ll use my Reminders app, voice recognition, or bullet journal.
In my Reminders app, I have a list called “Running To-Do List.” This is where I brain dump anything and everything that comes to mind when I’m out and about. When something strikes, I add it to the list without much thought. How do I know to check it later? I have a pre-set reminder to go off once a day at 3:00 pm. It simply tells me “Check Running To-Do List.” I’ll open it up and categorize items on it per its priority. By the end of each day, I have a clear list and a clear mind.
What about if you’re driving? That’s where voice recognition apps come in handy. My phone is connected to my car so if I’m driving, all I have to do is press a button and say, “Hey, Siri, remind me to take out the trash in one hour.” Siri will later remind me and even if it’s not the time to do it yet, I’ll write it down so I don’t forget.
Notes
Notes can be anything from steps you need to take to complete a certain task. Or they can be an observation of something you saw, read, or heard. For me, notes are often quick observations or specific things I need to do for a certain task.
I capture my Notes in a few ways. The first and often-used spot is my journal. I journal every day and my entries are more than daily recaps. More often than not, they’re ramblings of notes and things I want to remember. I can then refer to these entries when that particular task comes up.
If you want to learn more about my daily journaling practice, check out the One Page a Day section of this website.
If I’m out and about I will capture any Notes in my — wait for it — Notes app. I love that I can type something in there and get it on my computer later in the day. However, it’s important to categorize your notes. If you randomly write something down and don’t categorize it, good luck finding it when the time comes. While the Notes app has a fantastic search function, categories still make things easier to find.
Here are some of my categories:
Home
Tasks or To-Do
Business
Writing
Blog Post Ideas
When I type the note into the app, I tag it with one of those categories so I can find it quickly. I can’t stress this enough. If you don’t have an organized system in place for finding your notes, you’re going to have a hard time remembering the important things.
Ideas + Thoughts
The third type of information I capture is ideas and thoughts. Contrary to what you think, these are different than notes. Notes are more specific. Ideas and thoughts aren’t concrete yet. They’re dreams, aspirations, and hopes.
Believe it or not, you can still categorize ideas and thoughts. I tend to capture these in two areas. The first is the trusty Notes app I mentioned before. One category I didn’t share with you — because I was saving it — is called “Ideas.” Anytime I jot something down that I would like to work on in the future, it gets the Ideas label. This way I know it needs more planning before I embark on it.
The second place I capture ideas is in my Rocketbook. I can brainstorm ideas, scan the page, and send it to my Ideas folder on Google Drive. Once a week I refer to that folder and see if there’s anything I can start working on. My journal is another place I capture ideas and thoughts.
Whether you’re capturing tasks, notes, or ideas, you need to keep them somewhere easy to navigate. It should also be a place you refer to quite often. If you don’t journal and you keep this information in a journal, you’ll never see it again. But if you refer to your Notes app a lot throughout the day, that’s where you should keep all this captured information.
A simple solution is keeping a notepad in your workspace. Capture any random thought or to-do that comes to mind and at the end of the day, sort through everything. Move it to a more permanent home. These methods are for you to capture information quickly and efficiently. It’s not meant for you to figure out what to do with it the moment it comes into your head.
And that’s the number one reason for doing this. No matter how you choose to capture your information, the most important part is that you get it out of your head. Our brains are designed for thinking. They weren’t built to store tons of little to-dos and information. So the moment you think of something, get it out of your head as fast as possible. An organized life means having the systems in place to capture this information. Systems that are reliable and searchable.
I share a lot about my planning process and organizing methods on my Instagram. So if you aren’t already, make sure to follow me. And be sure to sign up for my mailing list so you never miss a blog post. Every week I write about simple living, planning, and self-care.
When it comes to an organized life, what do you think is key? How do you capture information? Digitally, physically, or both?
