A few months ago I was trying to find the best system to keep me, my family and my business organized and simplified. I constantly came up with great ideas or made appointments/play dates while at work and would jot them done on scrap paper and by time I got home, I would’ve forgotten what it was since I had no trusted system to capture all of my ideas while out and about. I purchased a nice agenda from Franklin Covey but found it to be too bulky and cumbersome. And although it had all of the essential tools I needed to keep organized, it was not simple.
Searching for the perfect system stemmed from reading Leo Babauta’s book, The Power of Less. It gave great advice on collecting your thoughts and then transfer them to a trusted system. But then it goes a step further to give you tips on weekly review of your thoughts. It was all tremendous advice but I still haven’t found the perfect system until I read Emily’s post on simplifying her life. She mentioned how she uses Things in conjunction with iCal and let me tell you, this has been the best system ever!
Things is an application for your iMac, iPhone or iPod where you create lists and manage them seamlessly. I sync my lists from my iPhone to my iMac daily that way wherever I am, I can access my lists. I can collect all of my ideas into the inbox and then when I have time, typically at the end of the day, I sort through them and usually assign them to a project or schedule them for a certain day, where they would then show up in my list of things to do today automatically.
Projects is by far my favorite feature of this application. I can create a project, like Office Renovation in the above example, and then create a list of things to do under that header. You can even go as far as schedule them to accomplish them on a specific date. Right now I have 8 projects being managed simultaneously.
Using this system has streamlined my appointment calendar. I only use my iCal for appointments and meetings now. Having these two systems in place has made me feel more organized and simplified.
Do you have a great system that works?
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I use Bent for Mac. Love, Love, Love it! Why do we business mothers have soooo many schedules and lists!
Found you through DID.
I use Bento for Mac. Love, Love, Love it! Why do we business mothers have soooo many schedules and lists!
Found you through DID.
I actually use Franklin Covey because I like a paper system. But I use outlook (work stuff) and a google (personal) calendar as well for some things.
I’m on a never-ending quest to organize my life. I use a paper calendar and write tasks down on random pieces of paper or enter them into a text file on my PC or into my BlackBerry. Maybe my life would be easier if we were a Mac family, but, alas… Need to figure out how to consolidate.
oh, nice! i’m going to check it out. i love me some organizing tools!!