Challenge: Tip of the Month! How do you get/stay organized?

[ablake]

Hey everyone. Hope you've all had a lovely holiday season. 🙂

This year, we're trying some new things.

One of those things is a monthly challenge where you can all share your best tips & tricks with the rest of us.

Here's how the Tip of the Month challenge works

Each month, we'll post a new topic, and you can comment your tip on the thread. Community members can give Kudos to the ones they like best (and don't be afraid to start some conversations in sub-threads, we love to digress). At the end of the month, we'll close comments on the post, and the comment with the most Kudos wins.

That's really all there is to it. We like to keep it simple when we can.

But wait, what's in it for you?

Well, to be completely honest, we haven't quite decided everything yet, but this is what you get for now:

• Bragging rights, of course! (because you're the best)
• Access to everyone else's best tips/tricks (whether or not you contribute).
• A personal shout-out here in the community (after each challenge ends).

We're considering some cooler options for the future, like handing out some community points or adding your tip to a newsletter, but those are just ideas floating around for now. 

This month's topic:

How do you get/stay organized?

Inspired by the new year, we want to know how you get organized. Or if you're typically a pretty organized person, how do you stay that way? 

Pretty much anything is game. Organizing finances, clients, contacts, passwords, websites, the various tools and software you use, license keys. It can be a process, a tool, or a routine. Anything. 

What's your go-to organization tip that saves your life (or your business) every day?

Comment below.

[Muse · Accepted solution]

@ablake 

What a great question!  And one that pretty much everyone I work with struggles with -- including me! 

For me, I live (and die) by my Calendar.  I setup Google calendar and jot down everything I need to do.  I have reminders set which stay on my calendar until I mark them as done.

I also use the color-coding feature so that I can see what I need to do at a glance.  

At some point during the last week of each month, I take some time to really review what is noted in the month ahead so it's in my head.

But....  Any organizational tip won't work without good ole' fashioned discipline and follow through, right?  So I make it a priority that everything I jot down -- get's done.

This includes things like:

• Client (and GoDaddy) Zooms.
• Blog posting calendar (when to post and topics).
• Reviewing performance metrics and analytics for my websites.
• Social media posting reminders.  (Yeah, you can automate that but social media is about actually being social.)  
• Updates that need to be done on my sites.  For example on my eCom sites, USPS is having a rate increase on the 24th.  So I have my reminder to implement those increases on my sites a week in advance.
• Holidays that require marketing efforts (setup scheduled in  advance).
• Check domain renewals.
• Balance business checking account.
• When service payments are due (hosting, email, plugins, etc.).
• Note any goals that need to be met by date.

You can include pretty much any activity that you know needs to get done and by when.  Then, make sure to follow through and "get 'er done".   

This has helped me to keep me on track because I know what I need to do and when so I can plan my time and other business activities accordingly.

HTH! 😉

[ablake]

That's amazing @Muse !

Thanks for sharing. I definitely need to make better use of my calendar.