Getting More Organized
Several days ago, Laura from Organizing Junkie posted about her blogging notebook. I mulled that post over for several days. In fact, I left the tab open and I looked at it almost every day for a week. At roughly the same time, I reread an article on editorial calendars that I had read a while back, and suddenly things began to gel. Once I had figured out all the things I needed to keep track of I put pencil to paper. This is my second week on the notebook method, and here is what the set of pages I have used this week looks like. I took the picture this morning, as I was planning my day, after I decided that today’s post would be the notebook.
You can see it gets pretty messy by Friday, LOL. But I have to tell you, I have gotten more work done this week that I have in the past month, just because I am no longer spinning my wheels wondering what I am supposed to be doing.
On the left is a list of reviews and blog posts I need to write, across all my blogs. Beside this is my to-do list. I know that it looks like I have not done a lot of it this week, but I can assure you that the checked off items were biggies, and took several hours of sustained effort each. On the right are my daily trackers. I use that side to keep track of: which girl is cleaning the kitchen today, which boy is cleaning the small bathroom, what three household chores are the priority, how much money I make (hey, I’m keeping it real), the daily posts on my three main blogs, which other blogs I am posting on, what’s for supper, and my daily calorie and saturated fats count. I decided recording the number of potty runs was a bit much, though if I ever get to go alone, I may note it. In the back of the book are lists of post ideas for all my blogs. When I read, it is beside me so I can take notes. The notebook goes where I go, except to bed, because when I go to bed, it’s to sleep, not work.
I do think that I will make some weeks up in advance, probably by running a block of Monday through Friday across the top of the left hand page. That way, it won’t be such a hassle to note when the next post is due on the non-daily blogs (that’s what is making the review and posts column so long). Any questions?
That’s awesome!! And messy is good, it means that it is getting used
That is REALLY clever! I’ve tried using the Calendar in Outlook and even a spreadsheet in Google documents, but I think something about writing things down by hand that you can actually CROSS OFF when you’re done is so much more satisfying than just deleting the words on the screen. I’m going to have to try this!
As many blogs as you have, this is really impressive!
Shivers of delight are running up and down my spine. I love organization, and have been pretty organized until.. well, up until about 7 months ago when I started paid blogging, lol. Elizabeth is right– there IS something about writing things down. I’ve tried to do it the electronic way and it just never works.
I’m going to get a notebook. This will probably put the StickyNote company out of business, but I think my desk will look better….
I like the idea of having a notebook to organize everything – it is something longly overdue I should use sometime! I love notebooks but I rarely use them for much anymore unless I’m away my computer!
[...] are now full, fuller, fullest, at least through October. I told you a few days ago about my new notebook method of organizing myself, and you saw I still have a massive to-do list with many, many hours-long [...]