Tips and tricks for keeping organised

Being a student can be crazy and being in the working world brings its own kind of craziness and if you are one of those students who has a part time job or a member of the full time working world who studies part time balancing your schedule can be crazy.


So how do you keep your life in order and remember everything you have to do?


Here are some tricks and tips to keep your life in order no matter what you do:

1. A month calendar – I'm a visual person so I always like to have a visual overview of what the month ahead holds. I usually make my own using a sheet of lined folio paper and a range of coloured kokis and pens. I usually use a different colour to represent studies, work or social related activities. I usually pin it in my board at my desk or stick it in the wall in a prominent place.
   
2. A day planner – when I was overseas I bought a really useful one, although not pretty it had different tabs which divided it up into sections which I really liked and allowed me to see the week as a whole which worked well for me for this year. Now that I am both studying and working I went for a day by day view planner in the form of a beautiful red moleskine planner which I am really excited to start using.
   
3. A notebook – I am a list fanatic. I find that lists are the only way that I can really organise my thoughts and give me a direction for the day. I always like to carry a lined notebook with me to jot things down in and recently my favourite thing is to get anyone and everyone to draw pictures for me so I can practice my new found Play Therapy skills, hehe.
   
4. A fridge pad – I always like to keep a colourful magnetic pad on the fridge complete with pencil to write down grocery lists and occasionally recipe ideas. That way when I head out to run errands I can just tear it off the fridge and be on my way.
   
5. A giant white board – something I have always wanted is a giant white board. Great for jotting down things to remember, places to be, lists and inspirational quotes. Easy to clean and can also be used with magnets to keep recipes, notes or pictures.
   
6. A black board – similar to the idea of a white board, I saw the coolest idea on Yes and Yes, where the back of the front door had been painted with black board paint. Great place to have it as you will see exactly what you need to get done as you leave the house in the morning. I've also seen the idea used in loads of magazines where patches of wall are painted in kitchens or studies.
   
7. In and out boxes – something which I find really useful for my studies is to have in and out trays. The in tray has assignments, mail, bank statements, letters, to do lists, basically anything that still needs to get done. In the out tray are things completed assignments, things to be filed and anything that has been successfully completed and is ready to move on.
   
8. Large envelopes – someone recently gave me a huge pile of large white envelopes that where left over and they turned out to be super useful. The most useful purpose I have discovered is they are a great budgeting tool. I printed out 12 blank copies of my budget and pasted each one on its own envelope. Then, all month long I put all my slips and bank statements into the envelope and at the end of the month I have everything neatly together and I then make notes on the front in the budget and then fill in my excel sheet and I have an accurate record of my spending for the month.
   

So, how do you keep yourself organised? Got any great tips? Do share :)

*eLLa*

Ps. Do share your thoughts about the Blog Carnival so far, yay or nay?