5 Ways To Stay Organized Without A Paper Planner

Enter Nirvana

It’s a new year (heck, it’s a new decade!) and the store shelves are stocked with an abundance of planners in all sizes and colors, each beckoning to me with their promises of an organized year ahead. This is the time of year when I start to experience what I like to call “prior purchase amnesia.” I become so distracted with the pretty blank pages and giddy with the thought of color-coding my life that I forget what happened to last year’s planner.

Actually, that’s the whole problem…I forgot what happened to last year’s planner. As in, I have no clue where it’s been since April. “But this year will be different,” I argue with myself.

There’s fantasy me…and then there’s the real me

You see, I like to think of myself as an uber-organized person and for the most part, I am. I generally have a firm grasp of what’s going on in my life, both at home and at work. I know when my kids have events at school and when they need a special outfit for a dress-up day. I’m never caught off guard when the pediatrician calls to confirm an appointment I made six months ago or when the pest control guy is ringing the doorbell for our quarterly appointment. I’m a planner…at least I thought I was until recently.

Planning, I’ve discovered, is wanting to know all the steps between point A and point Z. Planning involves strategic consideration and thoughtful preparation. That is not me. I’m a controller. Controllers simply need to know the desired outcome. After that, we kinda fly by the seat of our pants.

So what’s a girl to do when you need to stay organized and not lose your mind over keeping up with one more thing that’s now drowning in your Mary Poppins-sized purse? I’m glad you asked. In an effort to stay in control of the chaos (and realistic) I’ve found a few tricks that help me sync between my phone and computer that make staying organized a snap.

5 Ways To Stay Organized Without A Paper Planner:

1. Pick a calendar app and stick with it. I prefer Google to iCalendar simply due to the ability to use different colors for events. Nothing makes me feel more organized than color-coding. At a glance, I can see what events are kid vs. work or events just for me. The important thing is that you can see it on your phone and your computer and that you actually use it.
2. Have a collaboration tool. If you work with multiple people on projects, having a collaboration tool is a must. In general, these tools allow you to create projects with interim tasks and subtasks, as well as the ability to assign due dates and owners. I’ve been using Asana for a few years now and have found it super easy to navigate. Other good options are Trello and Airtable. If you simply need the ability to share a to-do or grocery list with your spouse, Wunderlist is awesome.
3. Take notes! I keep notes for ERRRTHING in my life. If it’s a random thought in my head, I have to document it immediately or else it’s gone forever. In the past, I would have to look in six different places to figure out when I dumped a particular thought, but now I exclusively use Microsoft OneNote. I have separate sections for work, writing and personal. Not only can I color-code (yay!), but I can create subsections and tasks until my heart is content (swoon!). Evernote is also another handy note-taking tool to check out.
4. Document storage is a must. I’m a sucker for a spreadsheet, especially when it involves a budget or a to-do list. I also have a million photos and graphics that I need to grab at a moment’s notice without hogging up space on my phone or computer. If you need to share or update any document from multiple devices, cloud-based storage is your best friend. Google Drive and Dropbox are two of the most popular options and both have free and paid plans depending on your storage capacity needs.
5. Don’t use them all! My last piece of organizational advice is not to use too many tools at once. Managing them all becomes a job of its own. When your phone is stacked with apps you started to use, but then fizzled out, you’re less likely to be able to find the ones that are actually helpful. Do a little “app cleaning” and get rid of that clutter.

You’re still (not) buying it

I know there are some of you that shutter at the thought of ditching that paper planner because it’s existence brings a Zen-like calm to your otherwise chaotic life. That’s ok, friend. I’m not here to pry its pages out of your clenched fist. People like me need people like you to balance us out. When the internet fails and all our information is lost, you’ll be the ones laughing and we’ll be begging to borrow a few blank pages and a pen!