Getting Your Life Together With One Notebook
Is it possible?
How to organize your life with a notebook and keep track of everything you need to get done? How to use just a few pages today and have full clarity on your life projects, goals, and daily tasks?
First of all, yes, it’s possible.
But you have to follow through the roadmap I’ve created in this post.
Have I tried the system?
Yes… and no!
How so?
I use this organizing system, but I love journals, so I’ve split each list and task into a few journals. My journals are my hobby, and there’s no greater pleasure to me than sitting down with a pile of notebooks and journals and planning my days, weeks, months, and life in general.
However, you can absolutely use one notebook for everything, and it will truly require you to focus for half an hour today and 5 minutes daily afterward.
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What is the biggest advantage of using a notebook to organize your life?
I’m so happy you asked that question.
While I like the idea of using online tools, and I know there are plenty of them that will do the same job, I still believe that the starting point must happen with a pen and paper.
Why?
Writing (actual writing on paper) improves your creativity and your artistic abilities. If your life is a mess that needs a huge review and short organizing system, you will need all of your creative juices flowing freely through your mind.
Putting pen to paper will get you started. Brainstorming will be easier. Mind mapping will be more functional and visual.
When you create something with your hands, it will express your unique way of thinking. No online program can fully transfer what’s in your mind in the format that your mind creates. The best advice is to use a program only after being aware of how your inner organizing system works best; you are used to systemizing and organizing your days successfully for a while.
What will you learn today?
Fun Organizing System Using a Notebook Only
Here’s a brief table of the things we will cover in this post.
- Setting up goals (no, not organizing ones).
- Asking the right questions so we could find hidden information inside us.
- How lists work, and how many do you need?
- What structure to use when listing everything that your mind stores?
- Okay, and now what? Where to start when getting to work on all that?
- Daily planning and how to make it effective?
- Essential tips to keep the system going.
Who Am I To Speak of Organization and Planning?
I am a blogger and successfully run two blogs (a third one in the making). You could dive deeper into my life on this page, but what you might need to know is that besides writing, my passion is to plan and organize my messy life.
I write the content for my blogs by myself, but I also have an assistant who helps me with tons of other small (and not so small tasks). She needs my guidance daily, and I must be aware of every project I hand over to her. I also create products, run giveaways, and try to be as present as possible on my private FB group. On top of that, I have a dog and a fiancé, and they both need my attention daily. I have to be mindful of my health as we are undergoing fertility treatment, and I want to keep track of all the blogging trends.
It’s tiring even to type all that, but the only way to know what’s happening in my life is by organizing myself in a better way.
Here’s my philosophy to everyone who believes they need to organize their time better… YOU CAN’T!
Time is not yours to organize it. However, you absolutely CAN organize yourself and get things done in the time you’re gifted with.
To everyone who believes they need to organize their time better… YOU CAN’T!
Time is not yours to organize it. However, you absolutely CAN organize yourself and get things done in the time you’re gifted with.
Rachel Jo
Enough ramblings. Let’s get to work!
How To Organize Your Life With a Notebook
Okay, now you have your notebook in front of you. You have exactly five steps to go through before reaching that nirvana mindset of a fully organized life. Open the first page and start with the first step of this gorgeous process.
Step 1: Setting Up Goals That Matter
You want to set up the right goals because they will be your guide on the road to a fully and seriously organized life. To do that, you want to answer the following questions.
Questions: What do I want to achieve by organizing my life? Why is it important for me to get organized?
Knowing your Why is an essential part of every decision we make. When it comes to organizing a mess, your Why becomes a central part of the process.
Very often, you will get discouraged and will feel like there’s no light in the tunnel. In those moments, you want to flip to your notebook’s first page and see your initial thought process.
Now, list all of the reasons that come into your mind. We all have different motivations to do the same things, but here are some examples that might resonate with you:
- clarity;
- serenity;
- improving self-organizing skills;
- getting my life together;
- decluttering;
- renovation;
- starting a new life in a more intentional way;
Step 2: Make Lists of Everything
I mean it! Now is the time to write on paper all that needs to get done.
Here’s the structure you are going to use:
Start with one section of your life. It could be work, home, homeschooling, business, volunteer activities, or anything else you need to organize on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
Write the section’s name at the top of the page and create a few different lists for it:
- Current Projects – everything you work on right now, today, this week, this month.
- Future Projects – everything that’s either waiting for you to start it or it’s a project you wish you could start.
- Goals I Work On – any tasks, projects, and to-dos you believe are goals for you to achieve. They usually have high value to you.
- Day to Day Tasks and To-dos – here goes everything you do daily that you need reminders of.
- Week to Week Tasks – same as above, but you do them weekly.
- Month to Month Tasks – same as above, but you do them monthly.
- Unfinished Projects – these are project you started and then suddenly stopped working on them at some point, but they still create a mental clutter in your mind.
Don’t skip any of the sections. Write every task or project that goes into that category even if you write it twice (a current project could be a month-to-month task).
Do that for every area of your life. It might take you a bit of time, but it will free your mind from storing all information.
Step 3: Highlight The Unfinished Projects
Okay, now that you have all of your tasks, projects, and to-dos written down, you want to finish every unfinished project asap.
Your task is to tick off everything you’ve started and dropped in the middle of the project, so you could create a clean space for starting whatever comes next.
If you started a project and didn’t want to finish it at all – scratch it off as canceled.
If you started a project but finishing it depends on something you’re waiting to happen, move it into the current project list.
Everything else that must get done is an emergency for you actually to get it done.
This step’s importance comes from the fact that we need to tick off something from those lists, so we get into momentum and create self-satisfaction.
No matter your next step – make this one your priority for at least a week before cluttering your planner with more started projects.
Step 4: Batch Work
Now that you finished everything you started, it’s time to get ahead.
Go through each of those lists and highlight (with a different color) everything that you could do ahead. This could be anything from scheduling social media (which we do on our blogs) to meal prepping for the week (which I wish was more consistent with).
Batch working is one of my favorite way to get ahead on small tasks that allow me to finish them in advance.
It might take you extra few hours today, but tomorrow you will be carefree about it. Once you realize how useful batch working is, you will turn it into your main planning system.
Step 5: Daily Planing
Okay, you have your list of projects and to-do lists; your batch worklist is waiting for you too. What should you do next?
Schedule things out.
Yes, use the same notebook, and depending on how busy you are, use every page as a daily or a weekly planner page. I suggest you draw the lines and write the dates for the rest of the month.
Why?
While writing down all your tasks and to-dos, you will most likely encounter “Oh, what about…?” and “Okay, but after that…” moments. That would often mean you need to follow up or check something regarding a task or a project.
I often have a Notes box where I write small follow-ups that I don’t have the time to schedule (or I don’t have the information regarding when to check them).
Keypoints When Organizing Your Life With a Notebook
Here is a tiny list of the main keypoints:
- Know your Why so that you could refer to it when tempted to procrastinate.
- Make lists of everything so that you declutter your mind.
- Finish everything you’ve started before adding even more work to your busy days.
- Batch work as much as you can today so that you enjoy some stress-free time tomorrow.
Tips to Keep Yourself Organized
Here are my favorite tips that help me stay on top of my lists every day. Maybe none of them will be a surprise to you, but have you tried them all at once? If you answered No, then you have your reasons why you feel overwhelmed most of the time.
Schedule Fewer Tasks Than You Think You Should Do
It’s in our nature to expect a lot from ourselves, but the reality is – life happens. Read an example of why scheduling less is actually more.
Example: Let’s say that you’ve scheduled your Wednesday like that:
- You have three meetings with potential and current clients;
- you are inspired to undergo research on a business idea you have for the last two weeks;
- Your daughter has a dentist appointment at 10 a.m…
Sounds simple, right? However, another patient has a toothache, and the dentist squeezes him between other patients. You will have to wait additional 10 minutes before you enter the dentist’s office, and now you also have to spend 5 more minutes explaining to your daughter that the man with the machines actually wants to help.
When you finally get back home, you have less than a minute to calm your child and your mind so that you could have a proper meeting with a potential client.
Two hours later, you decide that the research must wait for another sunny day because you don’t have any dinner prepared.
What if…?
What if you believed that you aren’t a computer and working by the minute isn’t, and it shouldn’t be one of your superpowers?
What if you had left a bigger gap between the meetings and schedule one of them for the next day?
What if you had pre-planned your meals Sunday morning, and instead of wondering what to cook at 4 p.m., you open the meal plan and just started cooking?
What if you had mercy for yourself and scheduled fewer things, leaving the opportunity to add more if you have time for it?
Reduce Social Media
There’s an exciting setting on your phone that allows you to track how much time you spend on social media.
It’s exciting because the numbers you see there answer your “Where did the day go and why didn’t I do anything?” question.
You know that social media isn’t the place you should be at 1 a.m.
If you aren’t sure how to take control of your social media time, you also have the option to restrict the time you spend on almost every app on your phone. I use it for FB to know when it’s time to leave it for the day. I also use it for learning a language as it helps me reach a goal of minimum time I want to spend learning that language.
Read Books
Such a boring suggestion, right?
Well, I also suggest you read the right books – those that motivate you to be more organized. My productivity went through the roof when I started reading more books on how to be productive. Try it for yourself.
Sign Up For Skillshare
I recently signed up for Skillshare and went through many time management and organizing classes that gave me many ideas on improving productivity and getting my life together.
They offer a 14-day free trial (cancel anytime) to try and enjoy some of their thousands of classes). Click here to get your two weeks of free classes.
3 Ready-To-Use Tools Make This System Work
Ready for you to jot down your lists, projects, and ideas, this leather journal will make the process official and way much more enjoyable. It comes in three different sizes, and I bet it can fit in any handbag.
This portfolio will carry not only your notebook and a pen but your tables and any additional office supplies you use for your planning system. If you would like to combine paper planning with online tools (such as Goole Calendar), this is your best choice.
If you are ready to start planning your life in a better way and truly keep it simple, this gorgeous journal will inspire you enough.
How To Organize Your Life With a Notebook
Blogger, dreamer, procrastinator, and lover of everything soul-touching. My mission is to make you laugh, provoke your thoughts, light up your day and inspire you to fall in love with life and yourself.
sherry
Wednesday 26th of January 2022
I have a silly question but my OCD interferes with me using a single notebook. I love the idea but I can't get beyond the issue of using up one section before the others. What do I do with the information that needs to go in a certain section but that section ran out of paper?
RachelJo
Friday 28th of January 2022
Hi Sherry, you could approach this in a few different ways. If one section runs out of space, and the other sections are also used up, you could always just get a new notebook. The other way is to start that section again at the end of the others, clip the used-up pages and place a colored note where the new section goes (I hope I explained myself well o this one, lol).