Your Past, Present, & Future Tools

My Top 3 Organizing Apps

If you don't organize your life, it’s going to be very hard to accomplish anything. 

You have to have some sort of system, structure, and timeline for how you’re going to  do the things you need to do in life and to keep it all together. Otherwise, overwhelm will take over and you won't be able to get to where you want to go. 

Today, we’re going to talk about organizing apps and how you can use them to help make your life better. So, when I say your past, your present, and your future tools, that's just what I mean - We have to take control of your past, to focus on your present, in order to make your future better.

Let's get into it … we don’t have any more time to waste before getting organized ...

Your Past: Google Drive

Create a system to organize your past …. For me, a big part of that is Google Drive.

Within Google Drive you have access to documents, excel, spreadsheets, and you can even make forms. You can do so much with Google Drive to organize your past! Those important things that you need when on the go (whether from your phone or when logging in from another computer) … whether its documents, charts, photos, anything pretty much anything else that’s written you can put in Google Drive.

Whenever you add a document to your Google Drive, you can then access them on the go and even share with others. If you’re a business owner, you can practically run your business from your phone, if you put everything in Google Drive.

One of my favorite parts of Google Drive though is Google Photos. You have all these photos, all these images, from all the trips you’ve taken, all the places you’ve gone, of your family, and don’t forget the random images you have in your phone but you don't want to delete because you feel like you’re going to need them sometime. Well, use Google Photos to store them, save them, organize them. 

Have you ever tried to look for a picture of something that you knew you had, but then you couldn't find it? You couldn’t find it because you didn't have a system in place ... with Google Photos, you can backup the photos from your phone, save your phone storage, but still sort the images into folders, by people, and even search them.

Worse yet … Have you ever lost or broke your phone and lost everything you had on it?!? 

Google Drive, and Google Photos, is accessible not just as an app on your phone, but also on your computer. So, you can load images from your camera or computer into them and still have access to them. You can also share albums with other people … all your family photos, all your group trip photos … now you've got all the pictures and can put them all together.

It’s pretty awesome. I’m sure that there are other apps you can use to organize your documents or photos as well, because the reality is we live in a digital age now so we don't print pictures like we used to (well, at least I don't).

What are you using to organize and back up your documents and your photos for ease of access on the go?

Your Present: Asana

You need a to do list or task tracker so that you can let go of the million random notes in your phone, actual sticky notes, and notebooks that you can never find when you need them. Are you one of those people that sends text messages to yourself to keep yourself organized?!? 

Well, you need something that will organize your present in a simple and concise way … that you won’t lose or forget where you put it. This is exactly why I use Asana. Asana isn’t just for teams … it’s not just for business … YOU can use Asana for yourself!

I use Asana both for my personal life, my business, and tasks/projects that I work on with others. And, you don't have to log into different areas to access each of them … you can quickly and easily switch from personal, to business, to collaborations with ease. 

Just like Google Drive, Asana is both an app on your phone and something that can be accessed from the computer. 

I use Asana to keep my personal life together - having a daily, weekly, monthly, and just future to do list, keeping lists of my goals, and even my grocery list, all go into Asana! When i think of random things that I need to do … yep, you guessed it - into Asana it goes. 

I have literally have organized my life in Asana. Yes, just like anything there's a learning curve, so getting it set up at the beginning might feel frustrating and overwhelming, but it can take you from disorganized to organized if you keep going. You’re able to add photos, documents, assign tasks to others, add due dates, and even set repeat reminders for things you have to do at certain frequencies - it just makes life so much easier. Each morning, you even get an email every morning about what you have going on for the day.

Seriously, what more do you need to get you your present organized?!?

Just think of the random things that constantly or randomly pop in your head … that you write down on the nearest piece of paper … or that you keep repeating to yourself to try to remember until you can get them written down … how often do you lose those thoughts or those notes?!? Your phone or computer is pretty much with us at all times … so you don't have to lose those notes anymore, you will now have a streamlined process from thought, to writing it down, and then being able to do it.

Does this mean I never use pen and paper? Not at all … my work to do lists are pen and paper, I haven’t found a good way to organize my job as an attorney on Asana because it’s so much more fluid in terms of tasks. 

And on the weekend, I like to do a pen and paper weekend to do list, so I have a quick list that I can glance at since my weekend to do list can be a combination of computer stuff, cleaning, cooking, business, and other random stuff that has to get done.

Now, what do you use to organize your day-to-day life? Are you the one with 1000 sticky notes? Do you have a notebook or folder? What system do you have in place to organize your day-to-day life on track?!?

Your Future: Calendar 

You want to get your future organized, you need a calendar! Whether it’s a paper calendar, electronic calendar, or the calendar app on your phone … you need something you can look at to not only keep yourself organized but also to  prevent you from becoming overwhelmed or from overbooking yourself. 

I use a combination of the calendar app on my phone and a paper calendar. It might sound counterproductive or counterintuitive but I use them for different things and have a system to make sure that they all line up.

I use my paper calendar for my overview of my day, appointments, birthdays, keeping track of what’s coming on tv, and what's coming up in future. To me, having a paper calendar is therapeutic because God forbid technology crashes, I have a back up. 

I don’t carry the paper calendar with me on the day because the calendar on my phone pretty much mirrors my paper calendar. Each week, I sit down with my paper calendar and go through my phone and make sure that the appointments listed in the paper calendar are in my phone and that the things listed in my phone are in my paper calendar. I’m checking and double checking to make sure that I’m not missing anything and haven’t overextended myself, or that if something comes up and I can no longer do something, I know a little further in advance than the day of. 

The calendar on my phone is multiple calendars in one - my work calendar, my business calendar, and my personal calendar, all show up together on my phone. Each calendar appointment is a different color based on the area of my life it applies to. To me, this is where the calendar app is better than the paper calendar, because I’m able to have a clear view of what my day looks like from work, to business, and my personal life. It helps to balance it all so that when I have to make an appointment or take off, I’m able to quickly block one calendar and it will sync with all, so that I’ll know my availability or unavailability in all areas of my life at a quick glance.

It doesn't matter what type of planner or calendar you use, but you’re an adult … you need a calendar. 

A lot of your overwhelm and overbooking comes from improper or poor planning because you aren’t taking control of your day and you don’t know what you have going on in your life until it's too late. How many times have you said “I don’t have time for this” or “I don’t have time for that” or even worse “I completely forgot I have this”?!? Yea, half of the battle is checking your calendar when someone asks you to do something so you aren’t double booking yourself or creating unnecessary overwhelm for yourself. 

Are you a paper calendar, electronic calendar, or calendar on your phone person?

How are you Organizing?

So, now that we’re at the end, do you get why I called it your past, present, and future tools? 

We have to take control of your past, to focus on your present, in order to make your future better.

Let’s use the tips or these tools to organize your life - oh, and I don’t think that I even mentioned that all of these apps are free! I’m sure that they’re paid versions of them, but the free versions have been able to do everything that I wanted and more.

Now you can organize your past, you can organize your present, and you can definitely organize your future. Getting yourself organized is just another way to change your perspective, change your mindset, and change your life! 

You’ve read this, but still aren’t sure where to get started in your organizational journey, please reach out! If you can’t tell by this blog, or just in general by now from other content, organizing and planning are my jam - it sets the foundation for an organized and  structured life that will allow you to do the things you want.

What’s your favorite app for getting yourself organizing? Comment below, it can help us all as well.

-Alesha

The “Lee” behind Legal.Lee