I hope you all had an amazing Christmas! I kept the girls home all week last week and it was so nice. I’m sad the holiday week is over but I’ve got some major catching up to do.
You know when you don’t check your email for a few days and then you start to dread it because you just know you’re going to have like 100 messages in your inbox? That’s how I was feeling yesterday. I’ve been “unplugged” for the majority of the week and now I have to play catch up. The good news is that despite my not checking my email, nobody died. Who’d have thought?
To continue on with my resolutions for 2014 I desperately need to get digitally organized and put more automated systems in place.
Putting Systems in Place
There are times when I feel so overwhelmed that I’m not getting what I should be getting done or are just waiting too long to work. For example, I’ve waited last minute – literally, last minute – to get the majority of my writing assignments done this week. I was having a good time with the girls, plus you can’t really write with two little kids who need your constant attention, so I put things off and put things off. Then I’d be down to the last wire to get things done.
I want to have everything in place so that if I want or need to take a few days I off I already have my work done.
The systems I want to put in place are:
Having all writing assignments done one week before they’re due. This way I’m always one week ahead and have posts ready to go. I should be able to accomplish this in a couple days. If I can make myself sit down and just write this shouldn’t be too hard to do. I just need to double up on posts one week then I can go back to my normal schedule.
Automating social media. I recently signed up for a free 30 day trial of HootSuite Pro. This lets you send posts via Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ from an unlimited number of RSS feeds. This way I won’t have to feel bad for forgetting to tweet one of my friends posts. Just set it and forget it. Love it! (Plus it’s one less thing to remember to do.)
Scheduling Posts in Advance for Other Blogs. On my other blogs I have started scheduling at least one weekly blog post ahead of time. So far, I’ve got Defeat Our Debt with one post a week scheduled until the end of February. I want to get this up to two and have it scheduled for six months. (I have a system for this too and it doesn’t take me that long.)
For smaller blogs I’m working on I just want to have fifty posts total. I’m working on one blog at a time though so that I can focus.
As I progress I want to continue to put systems in place that simplify all the tasks I do on a regular basis.
Getting Digitally Organized
I’m super organized when it comes to paper and pen. I’m old-school – I’m not fond of putting all of my documents on my computer even though I might need to.
When I originally began getting writing jobs I created a Microsoft Word folder for each client to keep all the posts I had wrote. I’ve become sloppy though and I want to get my posts back in their proper order. Plus I have a bunch of half written posts that would be easy to finish up.
I also need to create spreadsheets for a few blog related things.
I’ve got everything that I need to do written on a piece of paper and I vow to get started today! Hopefully by the time the New Year rolls around I’ll be halfway digitally organized.
Today is a writing day for me. Hopefully I can make a dent in my first system. Let’s kill procrastination in 2014!
Do you put systems in place to simplify your work/life? How about digital organization – any tips?
Big thanks to the following carnivals for including my submissions the past two weeks: Aspiring Blogger Financial Carnival hosted by Aspiring Blogger,Carnival of MoneyPros hosted by Your PF Pro, Carnival of Financial Independence hosted by Money Rebound, Carnival of Money hosted by Carnival of Money, Carnival of Retirement hosted by Grad Money Matters, Earn More Spend Less hosted by Student Loan Sherpa Carnival of MoneyPros hosted by FITnancials, Finance Carnival For Young Adults hosted by Stepping It Down, Lifestyle Carnival hosted by Avant Credit, Carnival of Financial Independence hosted by Reach Financial Independence,
Carnival of Financial Camaraderie hosted by Messy Money, Carnival of Money hosted by Carnival of Money
Carnival of Financial Planning hosted by Cult of Money, Carnival of Personal Finance hosted by Debt Blag
Carnival of Retirement hosted by Save and Conquer
This will be a very effective area to focus on. I’m a big believer in short but to the point to-do lists. You’ll feel so much better about your efforts once the posts are pre-written long in advance and already scheduled. I started a rule half way through last year where I wanted to make sure I had at least 2 weeks of posts ready to go on MMD at any given time.
I’m not as worried about having posts scheduled on this blog so much seeing as I pretty much write what I’m feeling at the time. Although I have been rethinking my strategy on here so I don’t know yet. As far as DOD though I’ve devised a new plan 😉 I might have to email you about it! lol So, I’m picking my posts and want them scheduled as far out into the future as possible!
These are AWESOME goals, Alexa! I have similar automation goals, as well as getting ahead on my blog. I have a second site I want to start working on but there’s no way I can spend time on it unless I reduce the amount of time I have to spend on Y.A.M. I also feel a need to get digitally organized, though that always seems to end being a lower priority than other things so my laptop and online files are a mess.
It always seems low priority to me too but I know if I spend a week or two working on getting things organized I’ll feel so much better! Then all I’ll have to do is stay on top of it. I’m trying to work on systems to minimize the time I have to spend on blogs but still get the same result. If I figure anything good out I’ll let you know!
Wow, now that’s a lot of writing! I’ve got a bunch of posts lined up for my site and it’s such a good feeling. Getting ahead of the game reduces so much stress. Good luck!
Yes it is! I’ve made good progress so far today though!
I need to get more organized in general. Files on the computer tend to get out of hand if you’re not careful and the less organized you are the less productive you are. Time is always a concern for me as I need to make sure I’m not neglecting the family so I’m going to make a schedule for online work and stick to it. That way I know I can get work done without interfering with family time.
That’s a good idea. Plus I always find that I get the really important stuff done if I only give myself so much time to work on things. It’s really a good time management/productivity strategy.
Evernote is my app to stay organized. It’s like OneNote in the Microsoft Office suite, but free. I make notes of anything I’d want to see later (travel plans, blog posts, to do lists, grocery lists) and it syncs with my phone without using data. So I can be out and about, and still have my grocery list without paying for data on my phone.
Would love to learn more about Hootsuite…no idea what that does but I feel like it might help me manage social media a bit. Will have to check that out.
I’ve never used evernote before but I do actually have Microsofts OneNote on my computer which I’ve never tried either. I’m going to have to give it a try!
I’d definitely recommend HootSuite even just the free version is great. If you’re visiting a bunch of blogs at one and don’t want to spam your Twitter feed you can schedule your tweets to go all throughout the day. I really like it.
I would love to work on getting more organized especially with the blog. I just run one blog and I struggle to get posts done ahead of time. I hope that I can finish up posts early and get at least a week ahead schedule. You will have to let us know how this goal works out for you in 2014.
For sure. Getting ahead of schedule reduces so much stress. I think it works best if you come up with what topics you want to write about over the next few weeks and sit down in a one to two hour block and do nothing but write. If you can block all distractions – social media, blogs, email – then you can really get a lot done.
You need to have systems in place without a doubt, especially when writing for multiple sites.
It sounds like you have a good handle of things.
For me, Evernote and Google Docs are about as complex as I get.
But I do use the heck out of both of those!!
I don’t use either one of those but I think I’m going to give Microsoft’s OneNote a shot. It would be nice to have everything in spot. Of course, I’m always going to prefer paper and pen so I’m not sure if it’s going to work out for me.
I think those are all really great goals, although I still don’t automate tweets or automate anyone else’s posts via twitter. I like to read them and decide if I want to tweet. It’s so easy to get digitally unorganized when you get busy, so setting that up ahead of time is a great idea!
Great job, Alexa.
I also try to have all assignments completed one week ahead of time. It makes life easier! I hate trying to pull something together at the last minute.
This is something I haven’t thought about much but probably should. I don’t automate much right now but probably should – it would stop things from falling through the cracks!!
Great goals, Alexa! I am working on organization this year too – and I’m so with you on the old-school way of doing things, writing them out instead of digitalizing them, etc. Getting there slowly, though. Good luck on your goals this year. 🙂
Organization of my home is where I need to spend my time right now. I can’t concentrate on digital work if my home is a mess. Like you, I also need to organize my digital work too! It’s never too early to get started on that spring cleaning. 🙂
Definitely interested in your opinion on Hootsuite! I’ve been looking into it, but not sure if I want to take the plunge quite yet.
These are great goals Alexa! I’m also hoping to put automated systems in place for some of my daily and monthly tasks. I would love to hear what ends up working for you!
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