How to get on top of your tasks
I love spreadsheets. I’m the type of person that makes sure every small aspect of my life is organized. I always have a plan A, a plan B, and a plan C. I like to know what I can expect out of situations because I feel like that decreases the amount of pressure I put on myself. In fact, I probably spend more time planning than executing. To me, spending a good hour organizing my Google Drive folder and adding important dates to my calendar is therapeutic.
I know not everyone is like that. But I realized only recently that many people don’t do some things that are absolutely essential to me. If you’re struggling with organization, constantly forget events and assignments, or lose your mind because you never have time for anything, I suggest you sit down and buckle up, because this will be a comprehensive guide on how to get your sh*t together and your life back on track.
Before we start though, you need to understand that I can hand you a glass of water, but I won’t pour it down your throat. AKA, I’m providing you with a guide of many things you can do to improve your organizational abilities — you can do as many as you want. What I can’t do, however, is force you to follow through with whatever your goal is.
Now that that’s out of the way, let me give you some tips that you can start applying today to decrease the stress you face over your lack of organization. We’ll go over general organization strategies, habit building, and finding motivation.
Organize Your Life
Time management
This is one of those big topics you’ve read about a million times, so I won’t parrot what everyone else is saying. Instead, I’ll focus on the importance of time management and how you can quickly improve it.
With good time management you have the ability to know what else you can add to your plate. You know how much time things take you and how much time you can allocate for something that pops up. This is important because you’ll have the amazing ability to plan things in advance. You have to write a 1,000-word essay. You’ve done this before and know that if you do it before work you will work faster, so you can schedule that for three weeks from now and won’t panic when you are reminded of the deadline.
To improve on your time management, you can revise your schedule — which we will talk about next. Ask yourself if the time you estimated for something was enough or maybe too little or too much. Make sure you’re reflecting on your processes.
Building a schedule
I cannot stress this enough. I don’t know how a 20-year-old who doesn’t have a planner has survived this far. You need a daily, weekly, and monthly planner. I haven’t met a single person who said having an organized schedule hasn’t helped them be more organized in general.
The first thing you need is to get your planner or calendar. I use an online one because it’s simpler to move things around and doesn’t generate waste. Also, I’ll never lose it since it’s on my phone and computer. Once you have your preferred organization medium, you need to figure out a good method to build out your schedule. This is especially important for those who are self-employed or have flexible work hours (hello Parkinson’s Law). I suggest time blocking, where you assign some time to dedicate to a single task. This is a good way to learn how much time you take to do certain things. It does take some trial and error but I think having a colorful calendar makes me less prone to procrastinate during the day, since I know exactly what I should be doing at each moment. That said, if you have another system you like to use, then focus on that. I would love to learn how other people work!
There’s another detail about using your calendar: not only is it a daily and weekly schedule, but it should also be where you write all of your important deadlines. Yes, even that final essay that’s due next year. Write it down now because you will definitely forget. And If you’re the type of person that always hands things in late, here’s a protip: on your calendar, write down the due date one or two days before the actual date. By the time the deadline comes, you will have probably forgotten about this, and you might even hand something in early. Who knows?
Keeping track of deadlines
Something else you can do if you want to be really extra is to have a secondary organizational system. It can be a to-do list or whiteboard, for example. Something simpler and more condensed than a spread-out calendar. If you’re like me and feel productive when you cross something off, writing down your assignments on a to-do list can help you remember the specific tasks you need to accomplish for the day. I use the app Todoist because it has a Google Calendar integration, so I don’t need to input things twice. I write it down on Todoist, set the time on Google Calendar, then cross it out. This is my little ritual.
For keeping up with larger deadlines, you can set notifications on your calendar or phone to remind you of upcoming projects. I like to opt for a halfway check-in. Make sure you also write down what you should have accomplished thus far. Along with the reminder, it helps make sure you’re on track and won’t need to rush things the day before. Starting things early will give you more time and less stress.
Sort Out Your Documents
You need to have a good system for storing and sorting important documents, either physically or digitally. I use Google Drive to organize everything I have because it’s free and has quite a lot of space. This is one of the ways you can try to arrange your files, but I’m sure other organizational patterns will work too.
- Separate things first by general function (work, school, side project, personal finance, photo album, etc). You can make this separation by creating different folders or using entirely different emails.
- Then, divide by date/project/subcategory. An example can be to put different school subjects in different folders and create smaller sub-folders for separate projects in each subject. You can also separate files according to whether you need to revise them or if they’re complete.
- Pro-tip: if you have many documents with a similar template, you can just throw them into a spreadsheet. This might not work for everything, but whenever you have the same sets of information for different clients, you can use this method. Instead of having a PDF for each client with name, contact, job info, etc., you can compile it into a single document and ctrl+F whenever you need to find something specific.
- Pro-tip #2: Always have a *safe* virtual backup of important documents. (This is especially important if you’re traveling. Take a pic of your passport.)
- Organize documents as soon as you receive/create them. Don’t be lazy, it will come back to get ‘ya. Don’t let things pile up and snowball you.
Build Habits
Having habits and routines is really important to stay organized. Not only because there are some things you need to take care of daily, but also because making things become habits also makes them automatic (and therefore less tiring). When you’re trying to be organized, the last thing you want to do is think about being organized. Apart from the usual “do something for 21 days”, here’s something that helped me form new habits and maintain old ones.
Use a habit tracker
I found a habit tracker to be a super helpful tool for many reasons. Just like my calendar, I use a digital version of a habit tracker, but you can definitely have it in a notebook or glued to your wall. Believe me when I say that I need to be reminded of the simplest things like washing my face. Don’t judge me, this is why I use it. This tool can help you with the following if you’re struggling to maintain a routine:
- Accountability. A habit tracker is a visual way to make sure you’re doing what you planned to. Looking at the list will keep you accountable for your own promises.
- Memory. If you add notifications to your habit tracker, you won’t forget the small things. Even if you really want to start journaling in the morning, it can be super easy to forget about it when you’re rushing with other things.
- Motivation. For me, checking off a task list or filling up my habit tracker gives me a huge feeling of accomplishment and makes me motivated to keep my efforts up.
When you start using a habit tracker, it’s important to have the right mindset. Incorporating new habits is both a lengthy and difficult process, so you must treat your habit tracker as a starting point. It’s okay to not finish all of your habits every single day. With time, perseverance, and effort, your habits will become more and more automatic.
Habit suggestions (if you don’t know where to start)
- Check your email. Every day. Clear that messy inbox.
- Journal. I love this one because it makes me feel calm and productive. For some people, meditation does that but I don’t personally do it.
- Read. I recently started reading again mainly because I wanted to do something fun outside of the screens.
- Eat breakfast. The thing is, breakfast is a good opportunity to slow down your morning, so you should sit down and eat something (even if just for 5 minutes).
- Exercise. Alternatively, you can stretch, which is what I do. I’m not an exercise person, so trust me when I tell you that you can do it too.
- Drink water. Yes, I know you’ve heard this one before. I see you avoiding water as if it’s acid. I see you and your yellow pee. Drink. Water.
Finding motivation
Great, now you know what you should do. But how do we go from a plan to action? Here’s a little trick if you’re prone to feeling unmotivated: being organized cuts down on the amount of motivation we need to have. When you stick to a schedule, you don’t need to want to do things. You just do them, because it becomes second nature to you. But if you’re still struggling with increasing your diligence, finding sources of motivation will help you get started.
Start with your extrinsic motivations. These are things that come from outside, like work responsibilities, peer and family pressure, or the need to pay rent. Emotionally, extrinsic motivation isn’t as strong as we’d like it to be, unfortunately. So we must look deeper to find what truly moves us.
Our intrinsic, or internal, motivations are things that motivate us on a fundamental level. They speak to our core values and feelings. Maybe that is wanting to feel smart and accomplished, or seeking internal gratification for besting a challenge. If you can identify what makes you happy and proud you’ll be one step closer to having strong motivations.
If you really have no intrinsic motivation, there’s another tip you can use, which is to set up a reward system. Award yourself based on the amount and complexity of work you’re completing. If you really don’t want to do something, at least you’ll know that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Completing a report might mean you can eat fast food, and cleaning the bathroom will allow you a spa day. Now the boring part is just a means to an end.
The winning mentality
One of my biggest pet peeves in high school were the students that would claim they didn’t study for a test then proceed to rub their good scores in my face. When you’re in the pursuit of a more organized and successful lifestyle, there’s an important mindset that you must adopt.
First of all, this isn’t high school anymore (or maybe it is for you, reader). Still, it’s not cute to brag about your messy sleep schedule or your inability to function as a human being. Why do we make our misery a competition? No more of that. You’re aiming for punctuality, diligence, tranquility, and results. You need to take yourself seriously if you want to achieve that. Next time someone “brags” about their insomnia, you tell them that you feel great after sleeping for well-deserved 8 hours.
If you’re not convinced by the internal pressure to impress yourself, think of the image you put out to others. Can your coworkers count on you? Are you that person that no one expects anything from? Being organized shows other people that you are responsible. There’s no need to brag about it too, it’s easy to notice who’s on top of their tasks and doesn’t forget important assignments.
I know this may seem like a lot, and that’s because it really is. Being organized won’t happen overnight, especially if you naturally tend to be messy. This article should serve to you as a guide, not a rulebook. If you’ve been struggling with organization or need a complete mental reset, these tips might help you find your way.
You will also want to have periodic checkups with yourself. What’s working and what can you change? After a few months of testing out calendar blocking, you might realize that you prefer to just have a daily to-do list, and that’s completely fine. Do things your way. If you feel like it’s working, that’s what you should keep on doing.
Time allocation, task management, habit building, and document storing are the main aspects of organization I have highlighted here. Remember to keep your spirits up. Having the right mindset and being motivated to improve will help you get through rough patches. Is there anything else you would include?
