What methods of organization have been successful for managing school, work and home obligations?
I have tried everything from lists to sticky notes to keep my life balanced and to remember all my assignments and due dates. I currently use a bullet journal and like what it offers, but I would still love to hear about methods that have allowed others to successfully meet all of life's obligations.
#school #organization
11 answers
Corinne’s Answer
If you choose to use the digital option, I wanted to mention that it helps to color-code the different events, alerts, activities, and meetings. It makes it easy to read. You can access the calendars via your cell phone (so you can be anywhere to access them). These calendars are very easy to modify, set as recurring events, and customize for alerts.
In my calendars, I also schedule time to perform tasks. This way, I see it on my calendar as a to-do which helps prevent procrastination (so I get much more accomplishments).
I hope this helped.
Karen A.’s Answer
Lisa’s Answer
Elizabeth’s Answer
Work/study wise, I adhere to dedicated start and stop times. This allows me to stay focused on the task at hand.
Example: when I was studying for a big exam, I would dedicate Saturday's. I would set a start and stop time to be in the local library. On those days, I also made sure I had fun plans and something to look forward to after my 'study stop time'.
And be realistic with how much you're taking on. It's very easy to feel overwhelmed.
It's all about balance.
M’s Answer
Jennifer’s Answer
For example, I live and die in Outlook, especially e-mail. Knowing that I already leverage e-mail so heavily to manage my work, I keep a running To Do e-mail that I update and resend to myself at the end of each day. I'll check off what I got done, add new items, prioritize the most critical / time sensitive items at the top. This insures I see the list every single day.
Simeon’s Answer
Taylor’s Answer
Melanie’s Answer
To organize your obligations, I recommend checking out Steven Covey's Time Management Matrix. It's a 4 section grid that lets you lists your tasks but also categorize them as important/urgent, important/not urgent, not important/urgent, and not important/not urgent. You can organize and prioritize this way by completing tasks in one section at a time. I learned about this method in college and it became my way of making to do lists, combining school and every day life tasks. I used to draw it on paper until I downloaded an app with that design. I now use the same concept in an excel spreadsheet at work.
You can learn more here: http://www.planetofsuccess.com/blog/2015/stephen-coveys-time-management-matrix-explained/
Best of luck!
Melanie recommends the following next steps:
Tara’s Answer
Julie’s Answer
This helps me avoid adding things to my list in order to procrastinate what I really don’t want to do but need to.