Why You Feel Like There Is Not Enough Time In The Day

How many times have you said to yourself: there just isn’t enough time in the day?

Granted, there is ALWAYS something more we could be doing, but if you are constantly running out of time every day, there is likely an underlying issue.

But before I get to them, I want to mention mindset. If you tell yourself repeatedly that there is never enough time, there will never be enough time. The stories you tell yourself all day go a LONG way in creating the reality you are living. So before you tackle any of the things I will cover below, start with what you are saying to yourself on a daily basis. Reverse the narrative and you might be surprised by how much time you find just by doing that.

You are trying to do ALL THE THINGS

Whether thats every social media platform in your business or doing all of the Perfect-Pinterest-Mom things, you simply can’t do all of it. Choose the things that are the most important to you or that serve you the most and do that. As you become more successful, get more support or move into different seasons in your life, you may be able to take on more. But while I do believe we can have it all, we can’t do it all at once. Its possible to simply have too much going on.

Pick a strategy with fewer things, that is doable longterm and that feels good to you and stick with it.

You don’t plan your day

As the saying goes; If you don’t plan your day, someone else will.

You will forever be at the whim of everyone else if don’t plan your day. For example; answering an email as soon as it comes in is prioritizing that persons schedule over yours. Instead, use a planner and create a plan each day where there are scheduled times to answer emails that makes sense for you.

That does’t mean every day will go according to plan or that you must follow it no matter what (flexibility and freedom are important after all!), but it does mean that you will do a MUCH better job at prioritizing and accomplishing the things YOU need to get done.

Don’t have a planner or haven’t found one you life? The Life Book planner is a complete day planner and goal planner in one and with its unique features and layout, will help you to stay organized and productive and focused on your goals in a way that feels good to you. Learn more about it here.

Not ready to commit? Take a test drive with the free one month version here. Just keep in mind the full planner has even more awesome features then the mini one.

You try to do it all yourself

Help is a beautiful thing; Its allows us to get the support we need to create the life we desire. No one has achieved great success on their own and if they say so, they are either lying to you or to themselves.

Figure out what it is that only you can do and work on delegating some of the rest. Start with the thing that you dislike the most or that you already know someone else could do better or more efficiently.

This doesn’t have to cost money either! Sometimes its a question of asking the people around you to help. Maybe your kids can do more of the housework or cooking, maybe your significant other could run some of the errands or maybe an employee can take on some of tasks you don’t need to be doing yourself.

You are disorganized

Listen, we all have hot mess MOMENTS, but this glamorization of being a hot mess like it somehow makes life easier is a big fat lie.

Its much harder to be a hot mess day in and day out, then it is to be well organized. There’s this myth that being organized means you must be perfect all the time or that its actually more work then being a hot mess. When we normalize living like a constant hot mess we send the message that its easier to live that way and it simply isn’t.

Being well organized actually gives us room to be imperfect, to be human. It allows us to occasionally forget things or take on too much at some point, without our entire world caving in. The more organized you are, the more flexibility and freedom you have. (not to mention the more time and energy and stress you will save!)

Do yourself a favour and if you are not already, start getting organized today. (The best place to start is with a planner!)

I promise you, you will thank me for it.

Jennifer

p.s. If you enjoyed this post and would like access to daily free content on all things organization and productivity, you can find me on IG @organized_owl.

Easy Habits That Keep You More Organized

Implementing new habits can seem like such a big endeavour sometimes because, lets be honest, they require a certain amount of time, planning and preparation.

So its always fun to learn about little habits that you can start right away with little to none of that AND that have a big impact.

So here are 3 easy habits to keep you organized you can start doing today to help you stay more organized, both physically and mentally.

Do it now.

If it takes less than 1 minute, do it right away. Hang the shirt back up, wipe down the counter, add the link to your post. Its the little things you leave all day long that add up to lots of clutter and tasks that don’t get done.

Never leave a room empty handed.

Every time you leave a room, look around and see if there is something you can put away on your way to where you are going. I didn’t even realize not everyone does this until I moved in with my husband! I watched my mom do this all my life and I picked up on it and do it too. Its also the reason why my home is generally tidy and uncluttered. This one might take a little more thought to implement, but its super easy to do because you’re already getting up!

Write it down in the moment.

The biggest mistake we make in life is thinking we will remember something later. Unfortunately, we often think of things when we are in the middle of something else, so whenever that happens, take 15 seconds to write it in your planner or create a note/reminder on your phone. Relying on your memory is not a good strategy, but I’m guessing you probably already know this.

The best place to write these reminders down is in your planner, so if you are not using one, start now! I personally thing that paper works better (and well, to be honest, science has shown paper works best) but if you are a digital person through and through, then do whats best for you. I created the Life Book planner for the ambitious entrepreneur with big dreams and a full life, just like you, so I know you’ll love it. To find out more head on over here.

Or, test out the free mini one month version here first.

Jennifer

p.s. If you enjoyed this post and would like access to daily free content on all things organization and productivity, you can find me on IG @organized_owl.

How To Have More Flexibility and Freedom In Your Life

Most of us want more freedom in our lives.

To be able to schedule out days the way we want, to able to do things the way we want, when we want.

Heck, if you’re an entrepreneur its probably one of the main reasons you decided to open your business.

Because of this desire for freedom and flexibility we often shy away from things that we think are only going to force us to be more rigid and structured.

This tends to include anything that has to do with organization and productivity because the belief is that any system designed to make us more organized and productive dictates how we spend all our time and must be followed precisely everyday to work, thereby taking away the freedom and flexibility we desire.

But its actually the opposite.

Its these very things that allow us to have the freedom and flexibility we want.

Imagine 2 people who have the exact same work load. One is super organized and knows how to work efficiently.

The other is a hot mess who struggles to manage their time and rarely gets things done quickly.

The first, using the organizational systems they have, gets to work and is done by noon. They decide to tackle a bit of tomorrows work and then quit for the day at 2pm.

The other has to work into the evening and still doesn’t finish everything that needed to get done. Which means that tomorrow before even starting whats scheduled to be done, they will have to finish today’s work first.

Which one of those people has more freedom do you think?

Its not hard to see that its the first one.

Lets continue the hypothetical situation:

The next day, person number 1 gets a call from a friend who invites them to go shopping and out for lunch. Since they already got some of their work done the day before and because they have a great morning routine that lets them get started on their day early, by the time they get the call, they already have their work for the day done. Woo hoo, impromptu friend date!

Person number 2 gets this call but the lets it go to voice mail because they are frantically trying to figure out how they are going to play catch up. They struggle through a few hours of work and finally listen to their messages. Even if they wanted to ditch work and go, its already 1 pm and lunch is over, not to mention the friend found someone else to go with.

I think we all aspire to be person number 1.

Of course, in the real world, there will still be days you have a too much to do to play hooky and moments when your mind and body just won’t allow you to be all that productive. We are humans after all.

But imagine the life you could be leading if you would embrace organization, systems and great time management skills? The best systems are ones that are personalized to suit your unique life and personality so this won’t look the same for every person.

Some people will benefit greatly from an early morning routine and some won’t, some will be super productive with time blocking and others won’t.

One thing that most people will benefit from however, is a planner. Personally I believe a paper planner to be more effective but if digital is your thing, then do it. If you don’t have a planner, The Life Book is a great option for ambitious woman with a full life and big dreams. You can learn more about it here.

You can also test it out for free here.

So I hope, if you have resisted organization and productivity systems so far, that I have at least convinced you to do more research. Test out some things and see what impact they have on your life.

Freedom is right around the next well planned out day.

Jennifer

p.s. If you enjoyed this post and would like access to daily free content on all things organization and productivity, you can find me on IG @organized_owl.

How To Prioritize Your To Do List So You Can Get The Important Things Done

Has this ever happened to you?

You make a to do list but at the end of the day you realize you still didn’t get done the things that really needed to get done, so you end up working until midnight?

It makes life feel like an endless hamster wheel doesn’t it? Like you just can’t get ahead and are always working 5 minutes before deadlines.

The good news is its fixable and the even better news is, its not that hard.

What you need to do is prioritize your tasks. As you create a monthly to-do list, weekly to-do list and daily to-do list, you are going to add items in based on urgency and importance.

The following 3 questions will help you decide which items should be on whichever list you are crafting.

The first 2 evaluate urgency, the 3rd importance:

Will there be an negative consequence if I don’t do it today/this week/this month?
If I don’t do this today/this week/this month, will there be time to do it before the deadline?
How important is this compared to the other tasks on my list?

Its comes down to this:

If it’s urgent and important, it comes first.

If it’s urgent but not important, you might want to let it go.

If it’s important but not urgent, it comes second if you have time.

If it’s not important and not urgent…well I think you know what to do.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: Once you have made your list, you need to tackle things in order of importance as much as possible. Life has a way of happening as the day goes on and if you wait to do the important things until close to the end of the day, you are far more likely to run out of time and not get them done.

Interruptions, distractions and unexpected things come up no matter how organized you are so if you accept this and act accordingly, you will be able to get far more done then if you keep trying to create the perfect day.

When you start with the most important things, what might not get done are the things that can be rescheduled another day with little to no consequences.

Prioritizing is en essential part of a productive day and now you know exactly how to do it so you can get the things done that move the needle the most.

Jennifer

p.s. If you enjoyed this post and would like access to daily free content on all things organization and productivity, you can find me on IG @organized_owl.

How To Avoid Decision Fatigue

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

If you are human, you have experienced decision fatigue.

Every tiny piece of information or data our senses pick up on throughout the day becomes a decision. Your brain has to decide what to do with each one, even if that’s to ignore it.

And in today’s world, where we are bombarded with hundreds of thousands of bits of information daily, most of us experience decision fatigue every day.

Consciously we might not realize why it is that it can be so hard to decide what to eat for supper but often it’s because your brain is simply tapped out.

And if you’re an enneagram 9, this happens even faster, amaright fellow 9s?

So how do we get around it with the seemingly unavoidable stream of data coming our way?

Like this: by doing the following to reduce the amount of decisions we need to make each day.

1-Protect your focus

Remove or reduce the amount of technology around you when you are working. Constant dings and notifications are not only tiny decisions you have to make, they are a huge distraction.

Wait until later in the day to catch up on news and scroll social media. Delay taking in new information as much as possible until the bulk of your work is done.

2-Plan in advance.

Planning is simply making decisions in advance. Plan out your months, weeks and days in advance so that the amount of decisions you have to make in the moment are greatly reduced. Its also far easier to make decisions in advance then it is in the moment because the pressure is off. With a solid plan you can move through your day smoothly, simply following what you mapped out.

The absolute easiest way of doing this is by using a great planner. Check out the one I use here. You can also get a free mini copy here to test it out first!.

3-Habits.

You never have to decide to do something that is already a habit because its automatic and that’s why habits are so powerful. Create habits of things you do regularly so they are one less decision to be made.

The key here is for these things to be true habits. Meaning, you truly do them without thinking for the most part. If you still have to consciously get yourself to it, its not a habit yet. Building healthy habits can take some time and its important not to try creating too many at once. Start slowly, using habit stacking and one at a time, automate those things you do daily so they take less energy and mind power.

If you experience decision fatigue on a regular basis, you now know what to do to about it! Of course, its going to still happen from time to time because #life, but the goal is to avoid it occurring on a daily basis because its tiring and wastes a ton of time.

Jennifer

How To Get Your Computer Files Organized

It matters how you save files on your computer or phone!

Be honest, how much time have you lost looking for a file because you can’t remember where you saved it, or its name?

And as an online entrepreneur I’m guessing you have hundreds of posts, photos and graphics by now. I’m also guessing the whole mess overwhelms you and you don’t even know where to start. Unfortunately, as much as I can help you with getting organized and productive, I can’t do this for you unless you want to ship your computer to me…

So I’ve broken it down for you in a simple step by step process which should help get the ball rolling:

Save all documents a file sharing app or program like Google Docs, Apple files, Dropbox or Notes so you can access everything from both your computer and your phone.
Create the categories and subcategories. Start with Business and Personal and work from there, creating the subcategories you need. Don’t get too hung on this step if you are unsure of the subcategories. You can create new ones as you go through the files.
Start sorting. One file at a time, modify the name in a way that makes sense to you. A great way is to use the subject and then date the file was last used. (this is great for content creators)
Once the name is modified, transfer that file to the appropriate file folder (Business or Personal). Once all files are sorted to one of those 2, sort the files into appropriate subcategories. Do this as many times as you need to, depending on how many sub categories you need.

I recommend starting with the files already in your documents folder and then tackling the download folder (cuz I know ya’ll have waaaayyy too many files in there), desktop and so on.

Block out a couple of hours in your planner to tackle this and get it done or, if there is too much to do all at once, set a goal to do 20 files a day until it’s done.

Interested in more tips tricks on organization and productivity? Follow me in IG @organized_owl or FB @organizedowl.

Happy sorting!

Jennifer

How To Create Business Systems To Save Time And Energy

Systems make life easier.

Its that simple. It may not be glamorous or it may seem boring to you, but if you take the time to implement various systems into your business, you are going to save a ton and time and energy.

And more time and energy for enjoying life IS fun and glamorous!

So here’s what you do.

Figure out where you need them

What areas of your business seem to take more time then they should? Or where do mistakes or confusion happen often? Basically, you are looking for the problems areas. The things that take too much time, don’t get done efficiently or don’t get done well.

Create the system

Now its time to actually create the system. If this is something you do often, then this won’t take a lot of time. Just make sure you are thorough and don’t forget any steps. It helps if you do this while actually doing the task.

List out all the things and/or steps included in this task.
Put these things in order in which they should be done.
Look at each step and see if there is a short cut or quicker way of doing it. If you need to, ask experts, business friends or do some research.
Look at each step and see if there is anything that could be done in advance (planning) to make things more efficient.
Rewrite the order of the steps with any new changes from step 3 and 4, being really specific about how to do each step. Create, set up any new things you need to in order to be able to follow your new system. (ie: file folders, documents, memory aid, planning space, etc)
Keep this list to refer to whenever you do this step until it’s memorized as well as to use as SOP should you hire someone to do this in the future.

And there you go! You might have to modify or add things in after a couple of times through because its normal to forget the little things sometimes.

You can create a system for almost anything you do in your business, should you feel the need but some of the first or most common ones are:

Content creation
Social media posting and engagement
How and where files are saved and used.
Quick access to commonly used links, lists and other information.
Graphic creation

And lastly, a planner system. This is probably the most important one to create as it is the secret sauce to staying organized, managing your time and well and being able to prioritize and stay focused on what matters. The solid foundation to a great planner systems is a well designed planner.

And I don’t mean pretty design, I’m talking useful features and an effective layout. A planner that has what you need as well as the space to be personalized is the golden standard and the Life Book planner has both. Check it out here.

Systems are meant to make life easier but sometimes they can seem overwhelming to put in place. Head on over to the work with me section if you would like some help!

Jennifer

Unexpected Things That Make You More Productive

There are of course, the obvious things that make a person more productive, things like batching certain tasks, creating a schedule, getting rid of distractions, etc.

But there are some surprising things that can make a big impact on how much you get done and the great thing is how easy and simply they can be to implement.

So let’s get right to it, because after all, you’e got stuff to do!

Putting LESS on your to-do list. Overwhelm can seriously get in the way of getting things done.
Getting dressed. Doesn’t have to be office attire, but putting on an outfit that feels put together signals to your brain it’s time to be productive.
Your view. Looking at a sink of dirty dishes from your desk in the kitchen? Not helpful.
Lots of natural light. Unless you are a serious night owl, having natural light in your work space energizes you.
Tackling the big stuff first. Ok, so this may not be so surprising if you’ve been following me for a while but doing the bigger, often less desirable tasks first makes you so much more productive the rest of the day. It’s like a weight gets lifted off your shoulders and you get a shot of adrenaline. Seriously, try it, you will see.

Of course, none of these replace some of the classic producvity powerhouses, like using a planner, but they can give you a surprising boost.

Speaking of planners, you do have one, right?…

If not, thats the absolute first thing I recommend you doing. Head on over here to check out the one I use, the Life Book Planner. It has all the features you need (Master to do list, important dates page, budget page, complete goal planning section, meal and exercise planning, bullet journal tracking and more) and none of the fluff you don’t. Most importantly, the design allows you to personalize it to YOUR unique life and needs. Now thats a planner worth getting excited over! (Full transparency; I created this planner. Initially, for myself because I couldn’t find a planner that really worked. Then I realized there were probably a lot of people just like me and they NEEDED this planner in their hands)

Got some Q’s or just want more awesome tips and tricks on how to live more organized and productive? Find me on IG @organized_owl or FB @organizedowl.

Jennifer

Why You Need To Write Things Down

There’s a magic trick to getting things done, staying organized and achieving your goals.

Want to know what it is?

Writing things down on paper.

Not on your phone, computer or tablet.

And certainly not on the imaginary to-do list in your brain.

It may sound silly if you are not in the habit of using a planner or writing out your goal plans but hear me out:

Science has shown that actually writing things down improves cognitive function, more specifically the ability to learn new things and memory.

What does that mean?

It means that you are more likely to not only remember and understand, but also actually DO the things you write down.

Which translates to less stress, more clarity and increased productivity.

So basically, feeling zen while achieving your goals.

Have I convinced you yet?

If you are still on the fence or would like the exact scientific explanation, I highly recommend you spend a couple of minutes researching. Google will provide you with all you need to know.

Start with writing in a planner that has the features and space for you to write ALL THE THINGS down.

If you are looking for a great planner, check out the Life Book planner. Complete goal planner and day planner in one, the Life Book is going to be your writing secret sauce to success. Go to www.organizedowl.com to learn more and get your copy.

Jennifer

How To Make Sure You Use Your Planner

Don’t waste your money on another planner you don’t use!

I heard someone say the other day that planners are like personal assistants and I couldn’t agree more.

Mine absolutely runs my life!

Of course, making sure you use it is the first step to making your planner your most important employee.

So here are 3 tips to making sure you actually use your new planner.

Make sure the planner is well designed

And I don’t mean pretty. I mean the layout is designed in a way that truly works AND it has the features you really need, like customizable spaces and planning pages. One whole page per day may give you lots of room each day, but its hard to organize your week and have a clear idea of whats going on when you can’t see it all out in front of you. Make sure the planner you choose lets you customize it to suit your unique life and personality.

Put all the things in it

Its not simply for your schedule. Your planners needs to contain things like habit tracking, planning, to-do lists, important dates to remember, reminders, deadlines and more. Having all these things organized in ONE place is the secret sauce of a planner that really makes your life easier. Having it all in once place gives you try clarity and helps you to avoid forgetting things and double booking.

Create a planner habit

Make sure to set up a new habit of using the planner. Otherwise, when the novelty wears off, you will stop. Not sure how to create a habit that sticks? Check out this blog post that explains how.

In other words, your planner has to deliver, otherwise you won’t keep using it and it will be hard to create a habit.

Can’t find one? The Life Book planner has the unique features and layout that will deliver big time!
Learn more at www.organizedowl.com (link in bio)

Jennifer