Write | Inspire | Dream
I have always found that keeping my life organized is absolutely essential to my overall functioning. Staying organized keeps me sane, time conscious, and aware of what I’ve accomplished and what still needs to get done. Having a planner that allows me to track all of my tasks, calendar, and goals has always been important to me. I wanted one place where I could go to keep all of my life organized, and although a long-term goal of mine is to come out with a line of La.Rue planners (wink-wink), for now, I found one that I love that keeps me moving forward. If you’re struggling with not only getting organized by designing a day for productivity, read my blog, How I Design my Day to get some ideas on how to create a productive day for yourself.
Day Designer
If you’re a paper person and like to carry around a physical planner, Day Designer is the ultimate calendar and planning tool for you. Every year they come out with a new collection of planners with a mini ($49) and regular size ($59) – both New Year and Academic Year calendars – designed to keep every day of your year organized and beautiful. The Day Designers offers you a detailed plan of your day for every weekday, giving you the chance to plan out your week in great detail to get yourself prepared. The planner’s beginning pages include several worksheets aimed towards achieving goals and redesigning your life to be more intentional. Following the introduction are daily planning pages for Monday-Friday, along with weekends, and monthly calendars. This planner is incredible, which is why I have been using it for years. Whether you’re a student or in the workforce, this planner will completely redesign your life and how you organize it.
Why it’s Important to Plan your Day
When it comes to planning and organizing, sometimes I do so much to get my work and thoughts collected that I overwhelm myself with how much I’ve separated all of this “organizing.” Over organizing can be just as stressful as not being organized at all, which is why it’s so important to find the tools that work for you that keep you moving through your day efficiently. Whether you’re in school or working a full-time job, or in-between, odds are you’re busy working on one project or another. In any setting it’s important to set deadlines for yourself outside of the ones already expected of you. For example, if you have an assignment or a project due and your boss or professor gives you a deadline, you take the time to plan out the actions and steps you need to take to get the final result. By creating a plan of action when attacking a new goal or new project, having it planned out and time dedicated, you’re much more likely not only to get it done on time, but produce a fantastic final product. The La.Rue Daily & Weekly Planning Pages are perfect for planning your days and weeks ahead of time to be prepared and organized.
Going in great depth when you plan your days means you’re setting your own deadlines and guidelines for whatever you’re working on. You’re blocking out time for specific things like work versus running errands, which keeps you on track throughout your day. Now, of course, it is ok for everything on your list for one day not to get done. There is always another day, but writing down everything allows you to see what you are able to get done. You are able to see what projects took the most time so that you’re more prepared for the next time you’re working on something similar. By writing a task down, checking it off, tracking your progress, and seeing your completion at the end of the day, it promotes a healthy attitude and great appetite for working hard and aiming to get things done.
Apps for Organizing
If you’re more tech-savvy and like to keep all your organizing on your computer and phone, there are several apps to help you do so. Even though I have a Mac, I love Microsoft and google; so, I don’t use Pages or any of the Mac apps. For my overall organization of the blog, I absolutely love Microsoft OneNote and Google Docs. With OneNote, I can keep everything as organized as possible with different folders and sections and it’s all in one spot rather than combining my work with all of my personal things saved to my folders on my laptop. On Google Docs, I keep a master spreadsheet for all of the different content I use along with my Google Calendar that keeps me up-to-date and informed on my due dates and tasks that have to get done.
Over the years of schooling and working, I’ve come to find that it’s important to separate areas of your life in different ways to stay even more organized. If you’re a student, the app MyHomework Student Planner is fantastic for keeping you on track, reminding you of assignments due, and tracking your progress on major projects. For those of you who are working and have a lot going on with projects, maybe you’re in school too, and overall your life is busy, Trello is an amazing app to keep all of your ongoing work and projects tracked and organized. And finally, if you’re just starting to get your life organized, and you’re reading this thinking, “Lauren, I am not about to download and work on all of these apps.” Then MinimaList is the app for you; it’s a wonderfully minimal task app that helps you keep things organized in a clean and easy way. You can create lists, manage your tasks, set reminders, and create a plan of action for whatever you’re working on or towards. In fact, all of these apps and all of these programs do the same; it’s all about what suits the user’s needs and how efficiently you’d like to organize your life.
La.Rue 30-Day Intentional Living Challenge
I hope you’ve been noticing the promotional material that’s been showing up on my social media for the launch of the 30-Day La.Rue Intentional Living Challenge and I wanted to share a bit more of what it is here because if you’re in need of re-organizing your life completely, this is absolutely the challenge for you. This 30-Day Challenge will re-focus your life completely, requiring you to create new habits, change your routine, and live intentionally. How does this change your life? The end goal of the challenge is to understand what changes you need to make, what goals you must work towards, and what action you aspire to take in achieving your dreams. The La.Rue 30-Day Intentionally Living Challenge launches on November 12! Just ten short days away, so visit my shop to preorder your product now! And as always, you’re a goddess and keep thriving!
Leave a Reply