Have you ever felt disorganized?
I’ve been teaching colleagues and business professionals how to get and stay organized in a world where it’s harder and harder to keep track of everything we need to do and separate the lines between work and personal tasks. Like most, I find myself overwhelmed with the sheer number of tasks I need to do. Worse, my memory sucks, so relying on it is pointless. I’m also easily distracted. I really have a lot going for me.
Many of us face a common struggle. We have fifty lists in fifty different places, random notes from meetings scribbled on paper, on a sticky note, in a Word document, in OneNote or Google Keep, and on and on.
Perhaps you are thinking, “I know! I’ll get a journal! I see people using journals all the time and they seem super put together!” So you head to your favorite retailer or online shopping giant and choose the perfect book. The cover is a color you like, the pages are perfect for your writing style (too thin and the ink will bleed through, too thick and it’s like trying to write on a pair of Wranglers), and it has really cool ribbons so you’ll never lose your place. It’s perfect!
Once you have your beautiful new organizational cure-all and your favorite pen, you crack it open, ready to change your life…and those empty pages just stare back at you. What to write? Do you start with a simple list? Maybe some meeting notes? Maybe a traditional journal or diary entry? Riddled with indecision, you head to the internet. That’s where all the best answers are. You pop open your favorite search engine and type something like “journal ideas” or “starting an organizational journal.”
Whoops.
You are immediately confronted with thousands and thousands of images and ideas from people who must make a living by writing in their journals. They are beautifully artistic and creative, seemingly perfect in every way. Sure, the actual useful part of the page is only about two inches by two inches, but my God, it looks SO good!
Overwhelmed, you close your browser, set the journal aside and go right back to what you were doing before (see the opening paragraph).
What if I told you there was a better way? Below are five ways to get started on your organizational discovery.
Whether you are on top of everything in your life or more like me and it feels like there’s no way to keep all of these things straight, these steps will work for you.
- Don’t fight your nature.
I see so many people try and force something that isn’t natural to them. If you hate analog tools, a journal is never going to work. If you’re a pen and paper person, OneNote, while a great tool, might not be your best choice. If you have a hybrid schedule and are working in multiple places, using separate methods for personal and work tasks might prove challenging.
Before you begin, think about what works for you and what doesn’t. Where are your current struggles? Do you write lists and then lose them? Do you over list, meaning you write down every single thing and end up with a list that’s four miles long? Do you write nothing down and then forget most of what you were supposed to do?
Be sure to include aspects that you like! This is really important. The more you like doing this, the more likely you are to do it! Be honest with yourself. Are you a doodler? Perhaps a journal might work where you can dedicate pages in the back to doodling while you listen to meetings, presentations, or calls.
2. Don’t try to mimic someone else.
This step is short and sweet. As I wrote about earlier, there are a million ways to do this. Don’t pigeonhole yourself by overcommitting to a method. The Bullet Journal method, for example, works great for a lot of people. I tried it and it didn’t work for me…entirely. This leads us to:
3. Mix and match your way to organizational glory!
Something you might notice about all of those beautiful journals that you see online is that they’re all a little different. The personal flair, the added artistic flourish, the clear indication of selfhood all bring something special to that person’s experience. Bring that to the process for yourself.
Whether your organizational tool is barebones and basic or looks like it should be in a museum, it MUST work for YOU. Maybe it’s a simple to-do list and notes pages in OneNote. Maybe it’s a legal pad with a running list. Whatever it is, it has to be unapologetically you.
You can also mix and match from different methods. The sticky note method, for example, can be used in multiple mediums. In this method, you write tasks on a sticky note. Once the tasks are done, you move the sticky note to another location, some form of a “done” box. You can do this in a journal by drawing squares or just simply sticking the notes in a big pile on a page. It’s great fun to go back to that page and look at all you’ve gotten done in a period. You can also do this in OneNote, Google Keep, ClickUp, or Trello. You can even do it right on your desktop. There’s no single right way to do this.
The Bullet Journal method mentioned above was developed in 2013 by Ryder Carroll and is one of the most popular organizational methods. You can learn about it by visiting his website, Bullet Journal. I tried this method, but it didn’t work for me. I love pieces of it, but my job at the time didn’t involve much long term planning. My current job involves lots of long term planning and the day-to-day things I need to keep track of. So I kept the parts of the method that worked and omitted the parts that didn’t.
I’m a journal guy. I love my journal. I love writing in it, I love looking at it, and I love how it helps me keep everything in one place. But I have a job where I have to keep track of A LOT. It’s complex and comes at me fast, it would simply be too difficult to write it all down by hand.
OneNote has entered the chat.
I use OneNote for specific purposes. Meeting notes, project notes, and 1:1 meetings with my team. I type fast, so I’m able to get it all down in real time, saving me from my poor memory. This allows me to have an accurate record of what was discussed that I can return to later. While I would love for everything to be in my journal, I had to adapt in my new position when, after two weeks, I had frantically filled over forty pages. Looking back, I can barely read some of it because I was writing so much so fast.
Speaking of adapting…
4. Adapt and change as your needs change.
We like our systems and our stability. It’s hard when things change. But modifying your organizational system as your environment or needs change is critical. I rely on OneNote far more now than I did before. It started when I was earning my MBA. I began using spiral notebooks because I love to write with pen and paper. But I was spending valuable class and learning time configuring pages, planning out where notes would go, stressing about leaving room for additional notes, should they be necessary, making sure it was all legible so I could review it when assignments or tests were on the horizon.
Yeesh.
OneNote allowed me the flexibility, speed, and modifications necessary to take the notes I needed to take. It allowed me to build assignment lists, keep track of what I had done and what I had yet to do.
For writing projects, I use the Google family of products. I write in Google Docs, track my work in Google Sheets, organize my life in Google Keep, and store photos in Google Photos. Having a sequestered workspace helps me stay organized and focused when I’m working. It also allows me to have a simple and organized file system so I can quickly and easily find what I need. I used to use the Apple office software for these needs, but found that while I really liked the software, it just didn’t work for me the way I needed it to.
For other projects, I use ClickUp. It’s a project management software that lets me see where tasks are, what tasks are upcoming, and most importantly, allows for collaboration with my partner. This drastically reduces the number of emails and messages that clog our inboxes and can easily be overlooked or ignored.
This might sound like a lot. Journal, OneNote, Google, ClickUp. It is. But each method has its place. OneNote for my 9–5. Google for writing. ClickUp for projects. Journaling is the catch-all where I can put all the tasks in a simple format. For example, my journal might have something like “Review Project X tasks in OneNote.” If I’m looking at my week or day ahead, I know that I’ll be spending my 9–5 workday on Project X without the need to have all the OneNote tasks in two places (trust me…don’t go down that road). When I’m writing, I’m only in the Google workspace so I’m only seeing the materials that exist there. It has really helped me avoid bleed through between projects.
My initial instincts were to force everything into one method. But it wasn’t working because the needs for the different ventures were too disparate. When I started building systems for the unique venture, my life became much easier and much less stressful.
5. Your system should REDUCE stress, not ADD stress.
So this isn’t so much a step as it is advice. If the system you have is stressing you out, then it’s probably not a great system. If you’re using a journal but constantly forget it, perhaps an electronic system might be better for you. If typing on a computer all day makes you want to throw it out the window, then maybe an analog method will help get your eyeballs away from the screen for a much needed break. Analog systems also force us to slow down. Research shows that writing things by hand creates a stronger memory connection to the content.
In our fast paced and ever changing world, we also have to be fast paced and ever changing. Finding an organizational system that works for you will help slow things down, keep the most important tasks front of mind, and let you manage your world instead of the other way around.
Interested in a deeper dive in making your to-do list work for you? Read my article: 5 Ways to Tada your To-Do!
What do you think? Comment below and let’s talk about it. You can also listen to my conversations on topics like this on my weekly podcast Born to Yap, Forced to Work (available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify).
I’m a workforce development, culture, and leadership coach who has a decade of experience helping to build amazing teams and leaders. If you’re interested in working with me, visit my website to learn more: Longview Collaborative.
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Overwhelmed by Organization? 5 Steps for Your Organizational Overhaul was originally published in Never Stop Writing on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.