How I Aim to be more Organised

Most people that know me, know that I like to be organised and can get very stressy when I am not. I hate being late above all else, even though that seems to be happening quite alot to me lately with 2and a half hours driving to work. So this year I have made a vow, not a New Years Resolution, to be more organised. This is something I am going to be doing not just in my personal life but in my work life as well.

First things first is to get yourself a Planner and a pen, from my experience you need to get one that you like the look of, that you can easily access and most importantly that is easy for YOU to write in. I make emphasis on the YOU part of that sentence because at the end of the day it is only you that will be writing in it and if you find it difficult because it doesn't open well or your hand gets in the way of the binding you wont use it and therefore will lose track of things.

I love Paperblanks Planners, they are just really easy to carry around and have a wonderful feel. Their designs are amazing and you can almost certainly find one to suit anyone. They come in a variety of sizes too, I find the Midi one is the best size for me.

So now you have your Planner, write in it, start off by writing down all the pre-planned events and any birthdays etc. I have taken the time to write out when I plan to write a post and when I plan to get it published. This keeps me on track and helps me to not get over stressed with things.

You must always make sure that if you get a date or something comes up that you write it in your Planner as soon as possible. I carry mine in my handbag so can always update it whenever I need to. I am sure you will agree that like me, you will forget it till until it suddenly comes up out of no where or you may have ended up double booking yourself.

You also need to LOOK at you Planner regularly. Something I didn't do last year, I always carried it round with me and never really used it. I fell into the same trap at the start of January when Harley had a vet appointment, I had it in my head it was 10am... nope it was 11am so we had to hover round my Mums till it was time to go back.  That extra hour I could have been doing my cooking for the week instead of dossing about,

Another great way of being organised is to write lists out and keep them up to date, this brings me to my next purchase, a list book from Paperchase. I use it to write out all my blog post ideas and even over Christmas used it to write out a to-do list. It is surprising how much you will use it. 

I also got post-it notes in my list book and have found that these can be useful for marking pages in your Planner.

I write lists at work weekly, so that I know where I am at and what needs to be done etc. I need to be more pro-active and do this at home, so that I can get all my DIY and house bits done.

I am terrible with money as I am sure we all secretly are and am really trying to turn that around, this could be seen as a separate issue to organisation, however I feel if you want to be better with money you need to take control and organise it.

So the first thing I plan to do is to create a budget sheet, with all your incomings and outgoings, to determine your surplus. This will give you a chance to review everything and see where you may be able to cut back and what you can save.

I haven't done this next idea yet, but plan to as soon as payday arrives, it always takes forever to come doesn't it? I plan to take out my shopping money allowance and keep it in a separate envelope at home, I will also do this with my spending money for the month. I will also put a set amount of money into my savings straight away and take out a set amount I plan to save for my holiday money. The holiday money will get put on a cash passport of some kind straight away, that way you have no risk of spending it.

I do some activities with Harley too, which cost money and will also take that set amount out to keep to the side for those things.

I hope that this will make me better with spending money and more aware of what I spend money on.

A great thing that people often forget about is your alarm! Set it, pick a time that you want to be awake or ready for something, choose the right sound that will get you to get up and going. If you want to set 3 alarms 5.30, 5,40 and 5.45 do it! You are the one that knows you best, so if that's what you need to do to be up by the right time then go ahead and do it.

Yes I do have an alarm for my pill and even have an app, it's something us girls have to remember! 

I really do hope that these methods work and that I become more organised. Is there anything that you do that keeps you organised?