How I Keep All Aspects of My Life Organized

Life can get wild sometimes for all of us whether you're a dog mom, a mom of 4 kids, work 2 jobs, or just stay at home to handle the household everyday.   That's why I figured it would be a good idea to do a post on how I keep all aspects of my life organized. 

DAILY TASKS & CALENDARS
So I have several calendars that I use and on a weekly basis I make sure they all match.  I have: 
|*| A Filofax planner (with/ Monthly + Weekly Calendars) that is carried with me in my purse. 
|*| A monthly calendar at my work desk
|*| A monthly calendar on the fridge

Each month is filled out at the beginning of the year to note: 
Days off work
Appointments I already know of
Birthdays
Paydays
My husband's on call weeks

I trace with a blue highlighter, the squares of the dates for any days I am not working whether it's for a weekend, a holiday, or scheduled time off.  This makes it easier for me to glance at my month and see when my free (not at work) times are if I am thinking of when to complete a small project or time consuming task.  

Each month I go ahead for the next couple of months and make sure any appointments, events, and scheduled volunteer days are noted.  

In my Filofax planner, I also have a weekly calendar and that contains the daily tasks I need to complete which can include: 
Hair washing
Making my lunch for the next day
Paying a bill
Finding something I misplaced
Gardening tasks

Established Routines for different days of the week: 
+Every Thursday and Sunday are vacuum days.  I do this so that I have a fresh start before the weekend and a fresh start before the week.  
+Every Sunday I choose my outfits for the week based on my weather app, so that getting dressed each morning is a mindless task. 
+Every Thursday I backup my computer's hard drive.  
+Every other Friday I do meal planning and make a grocery list so I'm set for about 2 weeks. You can read this post on meal planning to see how I do it. 
+Every other Thursday I sit down and figure out what amounts to take out from my paycheck the next day for different spending envelopes. 
+Fridays are laundry day
+The middle of every month is when I wash the floors, wash the sheets, and change the rat cages. 

And if I have something out of the ordinary planned during a day I normally do a routine like that, I just squeeze it in or I do it the day before or after. 

This method works best for me because I feel completely in control of my life.  I never worry that I forgot about something or forgot to do something. 

How I keep it flowing smoothly:
I stick with my routine so much and for so long that it has become a habit ingrained in my life.  I never have to force myself to complete the tasks, because my body and brain are so used to doing them.   I have been doing this for SO long that I really don't think I could ever stop. 


WORK TASKS
For my work tasks at my full time job, I have a weekly and monthly planner.  The monthly planner has all of my meetings in it and my scheduled time off as well as any reminders for that month.   I keep the meetings in this calendar instead of my wall calendar because this is the planner I take to meetings so if someone asks my availability for the next meeting, I can easily answer them.   

The weekly section of my planner contains any routine assignments I need to send out, tracking charts to check off when I receive a response from each person in my Division, and any other tasks that I need to remind myself to do on a regular basis. 

BLOG TASKS
For blogging I keep a monthly and weekly planner that let's me schedule posts on the monthly pages, then I go to the weekly pages and write the specifics that need done for each of those blog posts.   

The weekly planner also contains all of my regularly completed tasks for each week.  For instance, every Friday I review my analytics, and the last Friday of each month I update my media kit. 

FINANCES
Ahhh, finances, my favorite thing to talk about. Whatever I do, it seems to work fine for me and I've never missed a bill payment or discovered an untracked expense in my entire life.  

So I basically use all of the things found in my FREE Printable Home Management Binder in the Finance section.  And I have two sets of them.  I keep one in my home binder and one smaller version in my Filofax.  
+ My bill due dates are kept on monthly calendar print outs AND on a chart where I can track when I pay them. 
+ The amounts that go to each budget category from each paycheck are planned out in advance and tracked when they go in my cash envelopes.  
+ At the end of each month I review my monthly budget for next month to see if it needs tweaked. 


Why this works for me: I like to keep things on paper because I trust it more than using a computer.  So if my computer crashes, I can still keep track of things by using my Filofax pages.  Either way, it's easier to keep control over my finances and curb my spending when I hold myself accountable in all aspects of finance by staying organized. 

Oh and super fun - I track my financial goal process on these free printable charts. 

HOLIDAYS
Holidays are normally stressful for people but they are a breeze for me because I stay organized with these free printable charts and lists. 

For gifts, I save money each month during the year.  By Christmas, I have plenty to spend according to my Christmas budget for each person. 

For cleaning, I make a cleaning schedule ahead of time and assign certain tasks for certain days.   

For meals, I do my regular meal planning and write my cooking schedule for the day. 

I'm telling you guys, you really need to try this method! 

I also have a FREE Printable Home Management Binder that you can get and it has pretty much everything I've covered in this post inside. 

How do you stay organized in life? Are you going to start using some of my methods?

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