Planner vs Smart Phone

Organization Tip #1

My smart phone is one of my most important organizational tools.

In my last post, I wrote about how I got started on the quest of becoming better organized. When beginning to learn about this issue, I read a lot about using a planner. I was told to write down everything and to never let my planner get more than five feet away from me.

I tried. I really did.

I did pretty well entering my appointments. I found, though, that I had to rewrite the same to-do list over day after day. I finally just put my list on a piece of paper and moved it forward every day. Ugh.

There was another problem too—not only did I let my planner get more than five feet away, I often didn’t even know where it was!

Enter the smart phone! I keep my phone in my pocket or, at the farthest, in my purse. Don’t most of us?

Many of my phone apps are organizational tools.

• All the organizing gurus say you should have only one Calendar, so I use the one on my phone. I try really hard to enter appointments immediately, setting usually 2 reminders, one for the day or week before (depending on how much notice I need) and then another one to go off when I need to start getting ready to leave the house. (My planner never beeped to remind me.)
• I use Grocery Gadget, so my grocery list is always with me. When I run out of something, I stop and put it on my list. When my husband and I are upstairs and he tells me he needs something, I can immediately put it on my list instead of trying to remember until the next time I’m in the kitchen.
• When I need to remember to call someone or do something that doesn’t warrant an appointment, I set a Reminder.
• I used to carry a small pad of paper around with me that I called my “think pad.” I now use the Notes on my phone for anything that I am tempted to write on a piece of paper (or a napkin or the back of an envelope).
• I use Priority Matrix to help me prioritize my to-do list. I talked about that in another post.
• I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been away from home and needed to know someone’s address or phone number. I open my Contacts and voila!
• I use an app to store all logins and passwords, plus other important information, so I know right where to find it. I use eWallet which requires a password, so it has another layer of protection.
• I use Auto Care that reminds me when it’s time to change the oil, rotate the tires, change the air filter, etc.

A major key to these apps being helpful with organization, though, is my being consistent to enter the information, preferably when it first comes up. I have learned from experience that not only is the adage “garbage in, garbage out” true, so is “nothing in, nothing out”!

Just to be clear, I’m not 100 percent consistent, and I do actually use my phone for some fun things, too. But I’d be lost now without these tools; my phone has gone far beyond what a planner could ever be!