In which I'm curious about organization
I love the idea of being organized--truly. In some ways, I'm pretty good at it. (The key is making sure you understand how YOU think and organize accordingly. It does no good to put everything away in boxes and file folders if you are a terribly visual person because you'll never find it again. And anyone who says there is a single correct way to organize is daft.) I confess, I don't use my iphone the way God and Steve Jobs intended. I use the note function to keep myself VERY organized--lists for bookstore trips, library excursions, gifts to buy. My agent is still staggered that when we visited a yarn store together in NYC, I whipped out my iphone to open a note where I had jotted what sort of yarn I wanted for a particular knitting project. This is why people always think I'm more organized than I really am. I'm also entirely hopeless at things like filofaxes--although I LOVE them--and planner pads. I greatly appreciate the IDEA of these things, but the truth is, I like to write out my thoughts by hand and I need space to do it.
Most of my organizational systems are adequate but tweakable and I do experiment from time to time to see if I can improve them. The area I'm fiddling with now is the daily to-do list. I find I accomplish more if I have one, and when I'm feeling particularly hard against it, I will write down mundane things like "start dishwasher" just so I can cross it off and feel virtuous. But keeping a to-do list on a random piece of paper is unthinkable to me, so I have an enormous spiral notebook--enormous because my handwriting is large. On the front page I have a running to-do list of projects that I want to tackle over the next few months. On days when I need a specific list, I date a page and jot down everything I want to do, crossing things off as they get accomplished.
But recently I've refined the technique a little, and starting using the back sides of the pages for my journal. There are loads of reasons why. First, I hate keeping track of multiple notebooks. I already have them in every room of the house, and adding a dedicated journal to the mix is unnecessary. Second, half of my to-do notebook would be going to waste otherwise. Third, my journal entries are usually a sort of mental housekeeping where I unpack the crowded places, air them out, and put things neatly away again. I don't need a special place to do that. Besides, tying it to what I was doing at the time seems to help me sort out what I was trying to work through at any given time.
And I'm wondering, how do YOU stay organized? And do you keep a journal?
Most of my organizational systems are adequate but tweakable and I do experiment from time to time to see if I can improve them. The area I'm fiddling with now is the daily to-do list. I find I accomplish more if I have one, and when I'm feeling particularly hard against it, I will write down mundane things like "start dishwasher" just so I can cross it off and feel virtuous. But keeping a to-do list on a random piece of paper is unthinkable to me, so I have an enormous spiral notebook--enormous because my handwriting is large. On the front page I have a running to-do list of projects that I want to tackle over the next few months. On days when I need a specific list, I date a page and jot down everything I want to do, crossing things off as they get accomplished.
But recently I've refined the technique a little, and starting using the back sides of the pages for my journal. There are loads of reasons why. First, I hate keeping track of multiple notebooks. I already have them in every room of the house, and adding a dedicated journal to the mix is unnecessary. Second, half of my to-do notebook would be going to waste otherwise. Third, my journal entries are usually a sort of mental housekeeping where I unpack the crowded places, air them out, and put things neatly away again. I don't need a special place to do that. Besides, tying it to what I was doing at the time seems to help me sort out what I was trying to work through at any given time.
And I'm wondering, how do YOU stay organized? And do you keep a journal?
Comments
Heaven forbid, Rosemary! I'm
Heaven forbid, Rosemary! I'm instructing my daughter to burn everything when I die. ;-)
The funniest item I ever saw
The funniest item I ever saw on a To-Do list was written by Crazy Joe....."Buy a House". I had to laugh. Most of us can remember that without putting it on our list. Hahaha Kim
I recently got my first iPod
I recently got my first iPod touch and I'm finding it very helpful in keeping organized, especially with the help of a couple apps I downloaded. I'm more than halfway through the month and I'm still on budget. It's a miracle! I have to do lists for work, library books due dates and even writing goals. It's fab. I'm a bit of a visual person so it's no perfect, but I do love having it all in one place. I love your idea of keeping a journal on the back of the to do list. And when you think about it, that's going to be the kind of thing historians of the future will love.
I use the Notes on the iphone
I use the Notes on the iphone too! That's what I love about it (and of course, the iPod).
Josh is a organizing fool. He
Josh is a organizing fool. He loves all things like mind dumps to list of lists. I write it down. I do have software, remember the milk, to do on my phone, but I like pen and paper.He even does 5 mins on big task, I just can't I try hard but not me. My Iphone is my list now, I take pictures of books, I can Amazon wishlist right in the store, it helped me actually make a Christmas list.
I'm a serial list-maker. I
I'm a serial list-maker. I take the "start dishwasher" to a whole new level when I put things like "start shower" and "take shower". Yes, I like to give myself every opporunity to have things to cross off!All other areas of my life need more organization.I do use my blogs as journals for different areas of my life but I do have a personal journal that I come to every once in awhile. I also make journal entries in my WIP notebooks.
I keep a To Do list, too.
I keep a To Do list, too. But instead of daily lists, I make a weekly list. I have health problems and can't remember anything for more than 5 minutes at a time. So the weekly list works much better for me. I can cross off as much or as little as I can manage that day, and I don't forget things that need to happen later in the week, like paying a bill or refilling a prescription. I also have a day planner that I use to keep track of doctors' appointments and when bills are due, but the weekly To Do list is my savior.
I go between keeping a paper
I go between keeping a paper journal and an online journal. I also used to carry my digital camera around with me to snap pictures of whatever took my fancy, but it recently went to pot, so until I get another one, there will be no photo documentation of my life. Alas. To keep my life organized, I make lists on neon colored post-its of all sizes (nothing is more satisfying than crossing something off a list!) and write down my schedule and appointments in a good old fashioned high school planner that lives in my purse. Yes, I, a young woman of the technology generation, STILL use a planner.
I always keep a tiny notebook
I always keep a tiny notebook in my purse. I have a giant heap of post-its on my desk. A small purple notebook (with pockets) is where I write down everything from writing ideas to a strange phone number that called me (and I don't recognize). The pockets are filled with post-its where I wrote down story ideas that I used. I have little baskets that I fill with odds and ends; that really needs work. No matter how many times arrange them, the minute I need something, the items end up looking messy.I keep track of writing submissions in two ways. One, I put them into the calendar on my phone (my phone recently suffered a small drowning; that is not good.). Two, I made a spreadsheet to keep track of them. Same goes for agent queries. I'm the Spreadsheet Queen.Like you, I keep notebooks everywhere. I even keep pencils in my bathroom. I do keep a journal, but it's sporadic. It's lovely, though. It's purple and made of leather. The only drawback is that the pages don't have lines...and my handwriting is ghastly. So, it's horribly messy. But I can read it. :-)
No journal, that's what my
No journal, that's what my blog is for. But, we have a three page excel file for our budget. One is a monthly spreadsheet where we plan our month out, one has debt on it so we can track how much we have paid down and how much is left, and one is for tracking medical bills. We use the Dave Ramsey financial plan and love it. We also keep an online file of all the stuff we have done and want to do to our house. As well as a checklist to get ready for baby. I keep weekly grocery lists to plan out the places I am going and our menu. I also have a list of our favorite recipes so that I can look and see what we haven't had in a while. I do daily lists too. I have a learning disability, and my long term memory is in the bottom ten%. So if I don't write it down, it doesn't get done. On the plus side, if something bad happens I don't remember the sordid details for long!