Organization ideas to keep you from going crazy.

Last month I blogged about how April was just overwhelming, and it was. But May is just plane crazy. Both sides of my business are extremely busy. I have three weddings this week. One I did already, which was a blast and beautiful and I have two left. Three weddings with in 7 days, that is crazy. Though last year I had two 6 hour weddings in one day, that was nuts but probably the most fun I had in one day in my whole life. I have new web design clients, several this month. I have a growing list on my website, http://jeradhill.com. I love it, I love the challenge. I wake up every day ready to tackle a new set of tasks. I use OmniFocus to keep my thoughts in order as well as my mini journal notebook that I call my pen-pc.

Keeping things in order has became increasingly important to me over the last few months. As I get older I am becoming less and less capable of remembering every single detail of each interaction I have day in, day out. I have two strategies which I will outline in detail.

OmniFocus, a nice app from OmniGroup, that acts as life’s Inbox. As you have items come in you add them to the inbox, then you organize them into projects. I have projects open for all of my clients that I have not completed, a general box for the normal daily issues, a client communication box and a general thoughts box.

In the currently open “Client Projects” boxes I enter single sentence items into the box that act as tasks or reminders of things I need to accomplish. Having these items in the box helps me remember things like: “Contact client about issues with composition color choices.” Once I have completed the task I can check it off and create a new task if there is one.

The “General Box” is where I add tasks like, get the mail, or pay cell phone bill by friday. These are the simple life tasks that we all have that if we forget to make a note we might just forget. I usually don’t put anything that has to do with clients in this box.

The “Client Communications box” is where I add single sentence reminders of communications I have had with potential clients, old clients, or anything that could lead to some sort of business but is not currently contracted business and in an “Open” state.

The “General Thoughts box” is where I put thoughts and ideas that I have during the day. I find that if I do not record them then I have them on my mind all day and I get distracted from working on client’s work. The simple act of adding it to the box helps get it off my mind because I won’t worry that I will forget it. I also add quotes and other interesting things that I find to this box to later be processed or put away for future use.

My second form of organization is a little 4″ Journal that I picked up from Office Depot. Each day I start a new page and write my ToDo items in a list and number them. I also write anything that may come to mind or happen in the journal under the day. I am not always behind a computer so I need to have something to capture my thoughts on so I can get past them and move on.

If you are having issues keeping your busy day in line I suggest putting one if not both of the practices I have implemented into my life into place.

Do you have an organizational plan that works for you? Share it in a comment.

Jerad