24 Ways to Stay Organised

When you are organised, life can feel as easy as a vacation. Here are 24 tips and tricks to help you feel happy, relaxed and calm in your daily life.

1. Set alarms on your Phone. These are great for time sensitive tasks. I set alarms for everything from bus pick up reminders to calls I need to make on certain days.
   
   
2. Have an assigned spot for your keys and purse. This tip will save you so much time, every time you walk into your home place your keys and purse in their designated spot(s). You will always know where they are and you won't have to hunt them down when you need to leave. Plus, you'll love it so much that you will want to find homes for everything else you use on a regular basis.
   
   
3. Have a place for your planner. Like your keys and purse, it'll make it easier to find your planner when you need it and it gives it importance in your mind as a key part of your life organising system.
   
   
4. Have everything that is scheduled and/or time sensitive for everyone in the family/household (appointments, schedule, kids activities, events, deadlines, etc) in one calendar or planner. Life is easier to schedule if you have everything in one place. You won't have to hunt through 47 different planners and calendars to find out if someone is free on a certain day or to know what's on the schedule for any given day.
   
   
5. Establish habits. Habits make life so much easier, as if it's on auto-pilot. This is especially true for those boring or annoying tasks.
   
   
6. Establish a morning routine. This gets your day off to a great start and enables you to attach new habits as you become more and more accustomed to your routine. If you'd like to learn how to set up your perfect morning routine, check out this post here.
   
   
7. Review often. Looking back is a great way to see what's working and what's not. Check out this post for more on this!
   
   
8. Cut out what isn't working. Keep an eye on what's not working and if you can get rid of that squeaky wheel, do so as soon as you can. If you can't, then try to simplfy or change it so that it is working better for you.
   
   
9. Visualise the end results, your final outcome, and work backwards from there. If you know the reason WHY you are doing something in the first place, it's easier to do the tasks and get them off of your to-do list as you move forward towards your goal.
   
   
10. Do a little bit every day to build consistancy. Things can get done a little at a time. Even if you are going slowly, it's better than not starting at all. Building consistency creates habit that will eventually make the tasks easier too!
    
    
    
11. Be prepared. Boy scout or not, life is unpredictable so always be prepared for what could happen. Just remember not to spiral down into becoming a Debbie Downer and focusing on all the bad things that might happen.
    
    
12. Plan in time for the unexpected. Leave space in your planner for things that may trip you up, especially if it's for an appointment, deadline or other time sensitive things that you can not be late for.
    
    
13. Don't over schedule yourself. Even if you are physically and mentally capable of knocking 712 thing off of your to-do list in one day, it doesn't mean that you should! If you keep up that pace, eventually you will burn yourself out! Here's a post with some tips on this.
    
    
14. Schedule in Breaks. Don't forget to take care of you! You need a bit of rest and recharge through out the day. Write a tea break into your planner or schedule time to play with stickers and paper in your planner.
    
    
15. Tell someone and be accountable. By letting someone know of your plans, they can help make sure that you do it by checking in with your progress and reminding you of deadlines.
    
    
16. Have someone give you a deadline. If it's a task or chore that doesn't have a built in deadline, have someone create a realistic one for you and then hold you to it and if you're late you can owe them a coffee or something. If you don't have someone to do this, try the Flight app who send a donation on your behalf to a charity you hate if you fail.
    
    
    
17. Simplify! The simpler something is, the easier it is to do it and to keep at it.
    
    
18. Declutter everyday. Or most days ;) By doing it on a regular basis, you will form a habit of decluttering and it keeps your house, purse, desk and mind clear and working like well oiled machines.
    
    
19. Have regular braindumps, then organise the items into task lists. This keeps your brain clear and stops it thinking the same thought ('I have to do , abc, xyz plus 4 million other things!'). Think of it as decluttering your brain.
    
    
20. Learn from your mistakes. We all make them and failures actually help us learn and move forward.
    
    
21. Don't write things on scraps of paper and backs of envelopes. Once it's out of your head, you'll probably stop thinking about it and if you lose that scrap of paper, it's gone! Plus, it's more recopying, just put it into your planner in the first place!
    
    
22. Don't fight your Planner. If it isn't working well for you, it's probably not the best planner for you. Tweak things, change things around or get a completely different planner system, whatever it takes to get one that suits your needs.
    
    
23. Change your rings. If you find yourself somewhere you can't write and something pops into your head (why doesn this always happen in the shower, while driving or just as you're falling asleep?), switch one of your rings to a different finger. If you habitually wear the same rings on the same fingers, finding one on the opposite hand (after your shower, when you get home or after you wake up the next morning), it will feel odd and prompt you to remember that thought that popped into your head.
    
    
24. Have fun! Find systems that don't feel like such a chore, making them pretty really helps me. If that works for you, great! Make things pretty! If not, if it feels more like a distraction than anything else, find what does work for you and do that.

 All goodies used in this dashboard are from my April Hip Kit Club kits. 

 

 Happy Planning!

It's Never Too Late to Make Your Dreams Come True

What do a blogger, a marathoner and parachuter have in common. Nothing necessarily, but in this case, they are all over 100 years old. But, we'll come back to them in just a bit :D

'In nine hundred years of time and space and I've never met anybody who wasn't important.'

                                -Doctor Who

Everyone is important and has a life to live and a gift to share with the world.

If you aren't sharing your gifts with us, what is stopping you? What is holding you back? Do you believe that you are not able? 

If you feel that you can't dream big and achieve your big goals, then think again!! Eleanor Roosevelt says you should 'do one thing every day that scares you.'  Life really is short, it's in the everyday that memories and acheivements are made little by little. As short as life is, there is still lots of time to do what you do best. Life is amazing and it's for living, whether you are young or only young at heart.

The idea of old age is changing. In the 90s, the cast of FRIENDS was teasing Ross about kissing the old lady librarian, who was 50 years old. Now, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow and Courntey Cox are redefining 50, along with many others! Think about it, if that 50 year old lives until she's 80 or more, that's 30 years! That's a long time she'll have to achieve her dreams!  Just think of all the things that you've accomplished in the past 30 years... Life is for living!

Here are some amazingly inspiring stories:

Dorothy Custer parachuted off a bridge for her 102nd birthday.
Flo Meiler started track and field at 60 and now she's still winning medals in her 80s!
Olive Riley began a blog at 107 yeras old.
Buster Martin walked the 2008 London marathon at 101.
Jennifer Figge swam the Atlantic at 56 years old, the ATLANTIC!

If sports (extreme or not) aren't your thing, that's perfect! Not everyone was put on earth to jump off of a bridge. The thing is to find out why you were put here. What are you supposed to share with us? What do you want to do most in the world?

If you don't know what you'd like to do, if you don't know what your dreams are, then you can download my FREE Dream Printable that has lots of prompts that will help you figure it out. Just pop on over to this link to get it:

FREE Dream Prompt Printable

I recently made this Dream Spread for my planner, it's in my bullet journal so I can take a peek at it whenever I need a bit of inspiration. I wrote in some of my big dreams and left room for more when the inspiration strikes me.

Of course, not everyone grows old gracefully and stays spry and able to do amazing things, so in order to stay youthful, in mind and body, you need to take care of yourself and that starts now! Whether you are 18 or 80. There are two big factors that I see to keeping youthful and spry: eat right and move your body. Let's look at these two important things more closely:

Eating right.

This does not mean the latest health craze. Quinoa, smoothies and gluten free will go out of fashion just like Atkins and fat-free.

What you need to do is eat REAL food.

The closer a food is to nature, the better it is for you. Now, this doesn't mean that you have to eat raw wheat from the field, it simply means that you need to watch out for processed foods. This is really hard if you live in the States. EVERY thing comes in a box! I mean, I've even seen apples slices in the grocery store! What you don't realise is that they are covered in preservatives to keep them from going brown and those presevatives are not food. Most processed food is not food! They are full of chemicals plus, there's added sugar, salt and fat that you're body can't handle.  

It doesn't mean that you can't have cookies, cake and all your favourites, it just means that you need to make them yourself. The lure of fast food is strong in the States and more and more in other countries. There's a burger joint on every corner, but if you can keep fast food and processed food to a minimum you'll be all set. You don't need to cut it out all together, just reduce it. Your body doesn't recognise the processed stuff and doesn't know what do do with it so it stores it as fat, making you gain weight and feel lethargic. And you can't chase your dreams if you don't have the energy or not even around to do the chasing!

Move your body!

I'm going to tell the story of 2 women I know, best friends from high school. I met them both when they were just turning 50 and were both about the same weight. One lady was walking on a regular basis and is still very active today, and she was worried about her friend who wasn't very active at all. A few years had gone by and the second lady started putting on weight, content to spend time at home watching TV. We were at a wedding once, when they were in their mid 50s, we were planning to walk from the church to reception with the first lady in our group, not a very long walk, maybe 20 minutes. The second lady decided to stay at a cafe near by, have a coffee and a piece of pie and take her car to the reception. This may seem like a little thing, I know I brushed it aside as a minor thing at the time. But after years full of little decisions like this, these two women are leading two very different lives today. They are 67 now, the first lady goes on hikes with her husband on a regular basis, walking all day sometimes. The second lady, needs a cane to walk and most times resorts to her wheelchair. 

Taking care of your body not only allows you live a longer, healthier life, it also gives you the physical and mental stregnth needed to do all the things that you want to do with your life. Your dreams will keep you young in your heart!

'The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.'

           -Coco Chanel 

What are you thinking out loud? What is your gift to the world?

Don't forget to download your Free Dream Prompt Printable!!

A Planner Girl's Adventure in Scrapbookland

Planner girls and Scrapbookers are sisters in papercrafting crime. These two worlds are not so dis-similar however many differences there seem to be. We are all connected by our love of stickers and paper!

A couple of weeks ago, I met my sister-in-law, Violaine, in Parc Floral, just outside of Paris for our annual scrapy get together. I was a scrapbooker before coming over to the planner side (and I still scrapbook, just not as often as I used to) and we've been going to this event every year for about 7 years now. She's pregnant and decided to only come for one day, but I went for 2 days.

DAY ONE

Celebrate Altered Book Album

Debby Schuh always has the most amazing classes and she's the main reason we go to these events. Her classes are fun, unique with absolutely adorable projects! This first class was no exception. However, it's hard to cut and stick when your fingers are numb from the cold. The event organisers hadn't turned on the heat! My feet were also numb and I couldn't feel my bum! My chair got so cold that even sitting on my coat didn't make a difference. We took a coffee break, the warm cups, defrosting our fingers, helped a lot. We also took a bathroom break to get out of the cold room and the lukewarm water of the sink felt like it was burning my frozen hands! Neither one of use was able to finish the project. :( I will though, it will make a great little planner!

 Christmas Joy Album

After a quick lunch, where I accidentally bought my preggo SIL a sandwich with jambon de parme, (Oops!) we were back with Debby and her Christmas album. I love having my Christmas album all done in advance, so that when December rolls around, I can simply add photos and memorabilia and not have to worry. Doing it in the spring means that I don't have to add in yet another project to my fall to-do list, which is always crazy full!

Eventhough they had finally turned the heat on, the room was still not warm and we were chilled through from the morning. Also being quite chatty I didn't finish this one in class either, but I did get it finished on the train ride home while watching Outlander on my phone! I felt quite spoiled being able to travel alone without all my geeklings constantly needing things from me and the younger ones climbing all over me.

We did a bit of shopping after this, but I only bought a few things. I limited myself to only 3 rolls of washi (I have so much already), some stickers and I found a mini Happy Planner! It's so cute, even if I don't have a purpose for it just yet. Most of the stands sold primarily stamps and stencils, which a I usually don't know what to do with, but that changed on Day 2.

 

DAY TWO

My Story Book Album

I went back alone the next day, crossing the entirety of Paris with the Metro all on my own, and started with this cute class from Debby. With no sister-in-law to chat with, I did finish this project in class, and I got a chance to chat a lot with Debby too.

 
Rainbows and Butterflies 

When I saw that my friend, Terhi, fellow Hip Kit Club Design Team member was teaching, I made sure to sign up for one of her classes, even if I seem to be allergic to mixed media save a splash of watercolour here and there. Tehri is the queen of mixed media and she made it sooo easy! Just look at what I was able to make under her guiding hand!

She showed me some of ther pages and if you think her work looks amazing online, you should see it in real life, knocked my socks off!  My most favourite  part of my time with Terhi was being able to sit and chat and get to know her better! Imagine the sweetest, kindest person you know, got her? Good! Now, imagine the most talented. Mulitply each by 4 and add them together and you get Terhi! She's fantastic and I love her to bits!

After coming home, I sat down, took what she taught me and made this for my next Hip Kit Club assignment:

I think I'll be adding a little more mixed media to my planner from now on ;)

Dream a little Dream Album

My last class, I was back with Debby Schuh. She really is the reason my SIL and I go back to this event year after year. I was looking forward to this one as much as the Christmas one! It was a twist on the elastic system used in Traveller's notebooks. It's like a creative TN with super powers! I think I'm going to use this as some sort of memory planner since there are 12 pages. 

This idea is unique and absolutely genius, not to mention gorgeous. I'm sure I'll be making variations of this in the near future!

The not so good stuff

No review would be honest if there weren't some cons to balance all these pros. Everything was not sunshine and roses over these 2 days. This little planner girl CANNOT overlook poor organisation in a company who's sole purpose is to ORGANISE events! Sure, a few bumps in the road can be expected, but it's been 10 years that they've been holding this event and each and every year there have been major problems. I mean come on, heat seems like a pretty basic thing when it's only about 8°C outside! I was not alone in thinking that I was just another dollar sign walking in the door and I more than likely will not be going back. 

Ok, let's not dwell on the negatives, let's look at another photo of pretty things!

However I'll follow Debby where ever she holds a class in my corner of Europe and I'd love to meet up with Terhi again!

Happy Planning!