Organization & Productivity

Trying To Focus During Your Routine So You Get the Work Done
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find myself struggling to maintain focus during a set routine. My main routine that I make sure to do every single day is my morning routine. This one has changed over the years; sometimes it changes based on what projects I’m currently working on, and sometimes with the day. Overall though, I think over the years, I learned what I need from my morning routine - what’s important, and the things that can be done whenever. Here is my general morning routine... Read more...
Organizing My Planner Cart
I recently added a project to my inbox list of tidying and organizing my planner cart. Basically, what it had turned into was a holding place for all of my used and unused planner kits from Planners Anonymous and Cocoa Daisy. Most people use a planner cart beside their planner space to hold the items they use all the time. In my circumstance, I already have a substantial desk space with multiple drawers for that purpose. To top it off, I have a two and four year old, so it’s... Read more...
How I Maintain Motivation Throughout the Day
As we all can attest, some days are harder than others to maintain motivation to do anything. In today’s blog, I’m going to describe how I keep motivated throughout any given day. I have a pretty busy schedule, so these tips might not work for everyone. Remember, we are all in different stages of life, and that’s ok! Use the information how you will. The biggest thing is to stick with a routine and just try plugging away at your tasks, and you will start to see your motivation increase,... Read more...
Time Blocking vs. Not Time Blocking
Hello! Let’s talk about a form of planning called time-blocking. Generally, a time-blocked schedule is done on a weekly basis and lines up what tasks and/or appointments you have during the week. It will normally be in a list format, with the days of the week at the top. My ideal time block schedule would start at 5:00am (since I wake up at that time), and end at 11:00pm. *Most planners will start at 7:00am or 8:00am, and end at 8:00pm or 9:00pm. (It is sometimes difficult to fit large... Read more...
Do The Things That Help You and Forget The Rest
I’ve been doing a lot of learning and reading recently, since Janes Agenda Masterplan started, and I’ve picked up quite a few tricks along the way, despite already having a great planner system that consistently works for me. I’ve also tried a few things that haven’t worked out for me and I wanted to pass along the tips that I learned about myself. First off, no one knows you better than yourself. Only you will know how you learn best, how you best consume information, and how you remember. Sometimes... Read more...
Do the 20% and Limit Distractions
Today I want to touch on something that confused me a bit when I first learned about it. It’s called the Pareto Principle, and it states that 20% of your work should yield 80% of the results. Of course, that’s the short form, and we will talk about it in detail in just a moment. So in my Janes Agenda Masterplan Class, we’re talking about a multitude of topics, all touching on productivity and how to improve your planning processes. Even though I’ve read and heard about a lot of... Read more...
What’s Your Next Action?
I was reading another book (yes, I know!) - Getting Things Done, by David Allen and I had (yet another?) revelation. As you can probably guess by the title, he talks about productivity, but in a stress-free way. Jane, from Janes Agenda says that every planner babe or guy should read this book at least once. After having read it, it makes me want to jump into the project of organizing all the things in my life - namely, referring to pages 116-120 in the book. You basically go through... Read more...
Just Do It!
I’m currently reading the book, Getting Things Done by David Allen. This is another book from Jane’s Agenda Masterplan Class. As of the time of writing this, I’ve only just reached Part 2 of the book, but quite a bit of it resonated with me. A few years ago, I struggled with my goals. (If you follow me on social media, you’ll know that I’m hugely into goal setting, and it’s one of the main tools of my trade - you can’t really plan if you don’t have goals.) The... Read more...
Minimalism: How Much Is Too Much?
Hi! Welcome back! I’ve written about minimalism ever since I started my Swedish Death Cleaning “journey”. I call it a journey since it never really ends…it becomes more of a lifestyle. What is Swedish Death Cleaning, you might ask? (I think) it originated in Sweden - people would begin cleaning up their home and getting rid of their belongings that were no longer serving them so that when they died, their kids didn’t have to do the cleaning for them. I have been on this journey for about three years... Read more...
How To Start Tidying Your Space
Maybe you know you have a messy space, or you know you have clutter around your home; maybe someone told you. Or, maybe you don’t have a lot of clutter, but you have a difficult time finding the motivation to clean when you have to. I have encountered all of these situations at different times in my life. (Such is life, and we are all human; it’s bound to happen to all of us at some point). I wanted to write on this topic, because today, I watched this “viral”... Read more...
Five Things That Motivate Me
Hello! Welcome back to today’s blog! Today, we’re going to talk about a little thing called motivation. You might be great at writing things in your planner, and making appointments, and thinking about all the great things that you want to do, but you might be lacking the get-up-and-go - that’s motivation. It’s the want or need to start or do something, usually by some external force. For example, the dishes are piling up in the kitchen. You have no plans for the day, and watching your favourite show on... Read more...
Why Some People Are Go-Getters and Others are Procrastinators
If you’re one of these types of people, you might wonder about the other type. If you’re a go-getter, you might wonder why people procrastinate, are lazy, or leave things to the last minute. If you procrastinate, maybe you wish you could be more of a “go-getter”, but don’t have the time, the motivation or the need. My definition of go-getter is someone who has everything planned, ready to go and is fully prepared and on time. (That might not mean all the time, but generally, is considered an "on-task’... Read more...
How Does Clutter Affect Your Mood?
Clutter - things strewn haphazardly around your home, or, maybe clutter arranged neatly on your desk or bookshelf. The point is, you have a lot of stuff and it’s hard to find new places to put new stuff. You might wonder how you’ve come to accumulate so much, but it slowly (and silently) seems to add up over years and years of buying things. How might clutter affect you? How it affects your mood is different for everyone, but may end up having similar outcomes. Let’s explore more about how... Read more...
The Art (and Beauty) of Minimalism
What is minimalism? At its most basic, it is a simple style. Actually, the technique of minimalism began with an art movement and it has taken over modern culture today. (As you may have noticed if you are part of the generation X Culture, our great grandparents homes were much more cluttered than our homes are today. It seemed as if they were trying to fill up all the empty spaces. Today, those spaces are seen as beautiful and give the atmosphere of a space the beauty that most of... Read more...
Things That Energize Me
Hello and welcome back to this week’s blog! Today, I’m going to talk about those things that specifically give me energy. In a previous blog, I discussed energy drainers and how to combat exhaustion, but this is a little different. Personally, I can have energy by simply having a good day, or as they say, waking up on the good side of the bed, or ingesting certain things. Let’s start with the natural energy boosters! Getting sleep/going to bed early: obviously this is a given when you are discussing energy.... Read more...
Purse Essentials: Things I Have In My Purse At All Times
It’s time for some purse talk. I haven’t done a “What’s In My Bag” video on my YouTube channel for a long time, but I used to love watching those! I’ve narrowed things down in recent years and I’m one of those crazy people that actually changes and cleans out my purse on a monthly or sometimes even weekly basis. I’ve recently found (within the last two years) a bag that works for me. At first, I was going to use it as a work bag, and then realized working... Read more...
How Self Awareness Leads to Greater Productivity, Motivation and Personal Growth
It is said that most of the great leaders of the world kept journals. Does this just mean that if you are a leader, you like to journal, or does journaling turn you into a leader? I don’t think we’ll really know, because I’m sure there are leaders out there who never thought about journaling a day in their life! Ask yourself why you track your habits. Why do you keep a memory journal or even a planner? Sure, it’s to help organize yourself and help you to remember things... Read more...
Energy Drainers & How To Combat Exhaustion
Hi friends! Welcome back to the blog, thanks for joining me today! I want to talk about our energy for a second. What drains our energy and what can we do to keep it or get more? Some things are pretty straight forward, but remember, people are all built differently. What works for you and me may not be the answer for someone else. Hopefully some of these ideas help you in maintaining your energy throughout the day as you complete your tasks, and help you to maintain your productivity.... Read more...
Don’t Feel Pressured To Do All The Things
I feel like today’s society puts pressure on us in different ways than before, compared to let’s say the 1950’s, but even going back 10 years ago. I’ve touched on this before, but I suppose that technology has the greatest role to play here. I mostly touch on the internet and tech tools in my blogs, but everything in our society has been affected by technology - even the way our cars are designed are much different today. This has also affected our kids and how we raise them. In... Read more...
Finding Time To Do Things
Hi there! Today, we are talking about something more than the never-ending to-do list. This time, we are going to explore how to find time to do things. Yes, it sounds similar, doesn’t it? But we’re not just talking about things you have on your to-do list. These might also be family obligations, girl’s night out, date nights, appointments, etc… The term “finding time” is one that I used to use quite often. As I’ve looked back on my life, I realize that I wasted quite a good lot of... Read more...
The Never Ending To Do List
Hi friends! Welcome to this week’s blog! I’m so glad you are here with us today. Let’s talk about this never-ending to do list. How many of you have had the scenario where you are driving yourself crazy because you’re tasks seem never-ending? Do you have anxiety over it? Do you sometimes want to just give up? I find the biggest issue with this dilemma is that it’s all in our heads. Yes, you may have tons of things to do, but the things on your list should not be... Read more...
How To Be Successful At Home, and At Life
Hi again, it’s me, Sandra. I want to start off by saying that success does not look the same for all people. I’m writing this as a general know-how to be successful in a home environment, and I’m sure that people from all walks of life can find something useful within this article. If you come across something that does not apply to you, well then by all means, move along to the next paragraph. With that being said, let’s get started! So I have been through a lot of... Read more...
The Benefits of Waking Up Early
I wasn’t always a morning person. I love my sleep, and as an adult I could lay in bed until as late as 2pm, if work allowed. Obviously sleep needs change as we grow older. As young people, our growing bodies need sleep. The teenage years, it’s practically impossible to wake your kids. However, as you get into your twenties and thirties, we usually fall into a schedule due to work and school demands. Once you have kids, things take a drastic turn for the worse and you get no... Read more...
How I Incorporate The Clean Mama & Fly Lady Cleaning Systems into My Own Cleaning Routine
Hi there! Welcome! This week, we are going to talk about cleaning systems and how I feel they help me in my own cleaning routine. The systems we’ll be discussing today are the Clean Mama System, developed by Becky Rapinchuk and the FlyLady System, developed by Marla Cilley. I will not be going in-depth on either of these systems; just giving a very basic overview of each and then explaining how I use them in my routine. I would suggest checking out each of these websites for further information if... Read more...
Being Satisfied With What You Have & How It Relates To Productivity
Hi friends! I’m back today with some little nuggets of wisdom that I feel like I should share now, before we get fully underway with the new year. When I talk about contentedness, I do not fully mean in terms of learning or personal development. I believe that we should be reading, and learning as much as we can and pushing ourselves to higher standards. I mean in terms of tangible or material objects (again, not books). In today’s world, with the availability of technology, we are consumed with social... Read more...
Crunch Time: The Busy Season For Entrepreneurs & How I Plan Ahead
Hi friends and welcome back! If you’re like me, and you have your own online business, you may have noticed that fall and winter seem to be a lot busier than normal. I notice that people are watching a lot more Youtube, most likely since they are home and inside more often. If you see your sales pick up, people are likely gift shopping for Christmas. This makes it a busy time for small business owners, especially if they are doing everything on their own. When I first started out,... Read more...
How To Keep a Clean, Organized Home & Everything In It’s Place
If you’re anything like me, you probably detest cleaning. Like I mean, really hate it. My worst chore is either cleaning the bathrooms, or cleaning the floors. I can’t really decide because they’re both the worst. LOL. The hardest part for me is getting the motivation to just get up and do those chores. When I am in the middle of doing them, I’m ok. Of course, once I’m done, I am so happy that it’s clean and that I’m done. Some people love to clean and organize. It makes... Read more...
Balancing Work From Home as a Full Time Mom
Hey folks! Welcome back to my blog. Are you ready to hear some helpful tips on how to balance work/home/mom life? You will notice how I said mom life, instead of parent life. There are two reasons for that: the first one is because this is my personal experience - I am a mom, not a Dad and I have a completely different view on this than would a man. The second reason is because in my experience, a mom does everything: balancing the full time job, looking after the... Read more...
Multi-Tasking At It’s Finest
Hi friends and welcome back! So, I’m going to start off with a little story. There was a particular Monday in December where I found myself cooking dinner. I was also putting away groceries, making something else for my son to eat because he’s super picky, emptying the dishwasher AND feeding my daughter, who was in a highchair next to me. Not only was it Monday, which is already a busy day of the week, but it was also December - cue the stress of holiday shopping and money management.... Read more...
How To Keep a Filing System
Hi friends! Welcome back! Today, I want to discuss how to keep a filing system. First of all, I have written mostly about keeping your life organized and being a productive person. That being said, it all starts with your home and managing your household. You may be a single person of one, or a large family. Regardless of how many members there are in your household, it’s important to sort and organize any paper that enters your home. This goes for digital files as well. It’s important to keep... Read more...
Productivity: Working from Home
Hey guys! So I was originally going to make a video on this topic, and it just didn’t fit. It didn’t feel right. Do you ever get that off feeling that something just doesn’t work? Well, for me, it was a Productivity video. Basically, it would be me, filming myself looking busy all day and sure, maybe someone would watch that video. But what would you get out of it really? Instead, I wanted to physically write down some solid tips on getting work done from home. You will find... Read more...