Best tools to organize your life (and go after your dreams) -

Best tools ever

There are two working tools that I can’t do without in my life: an agenda and a notebook. They’re going to organize my time and compile in one place what I want in my life. Every year, I buy a new one of each (or a maximum of 2 years). They follow me everywhere. They’re always in my purse. I’m going to describe what I’m doing with them and hope it inspires you to do the same.

1. An agenda

An agenda is the number one tool to have when you have goals you want to achieve. Maybe you don’t need it and you organize your life very well without it. But if you’re like me, someone visual, who sometimes has memory lapses ( so many things on our heads!). I strongly advise you to have one. For my part, I like the one we see a whole week. Because I always plan my activities by the week. But there are also those 1 page 1 day.

Here are some good reasons to have one:

All your appointments in the same place (even those that are further afield in the year)
You can write down all the activities of the week ( sports of your kids, Birthday party, dinner at your mom’s house)
You can plan the steps of a goal
You will definitely going to be more productive with the time you have
You’re going to realize you have more time than you think
You will be able to better manage your priorities
We can’t always just rely on our memory

2. A notebook

This can of course be any lined notebook of not too large format – to give it the chance to fit in your handbag 🙂

Mine is 21 cm by 15 cm. I find it a perfect page size for well note my things.

So this famous notebook can be used to write a multitude of things. The great advantage is the fact of compiling everything in one place. I like to call it my life guide. I write in absolutely everything I do in my life: my dreams, my plans for the next year (but also for the next 5 years and more), my financial accounts (debts, goals, savings). We often have ideas that can appear from one second to the next: and this notebook is the perfect place to write the famous ideas that comes to mind. Usually, we would write in a piece of paper but, most of the time, we end up loosing it!

Here is a more comprehensive list of the things you can write down:

Books read
The books you want to read
List of podcasts you want to listen to
Activities you want to do with your kids/ with your spouse
The places you want to visit, explore (country, vineyard, museum, parks): Sometimes someone suggests us or we see on Instagram a beautiful place that we would also like to visit. Well, let’s note it!
Our finances (debts, savings, goals, money challenge)
New recipes to try
Websites to visit
Buy (a list of things you want to buy yourself one of these days: example: ukulele, paddleboard, etc., etc.)
New ideas/ Projects
Summer 2021 or Winter 2021 (for example: an idea for the next summer, for this winter,…)
Year 2020-2021: your projects/dreams for this year
Plans for the next 5, 10, 15 years
School ( if you are in school: you could write the name of your courses: the finished ones, the not finished ones)
Project idea: the planning: write all the steps (in this article here i talk about making a Dream a Reality)
Keep track of your habits (I do it for 1 month at a time: I write in the left side a list of all the habits I want to adopt and next to each one: there will be 1 box for each day of the month (28 to 31 boxes) and I just do the coloring at the end of the day when I accomplish this new habit. Note: A new habit is something really difficult to integrate, keeping this sheet within our reach every day, we can see at the end of the month, whether we did well (or not) to do it every day. As long as the habit is not integrated, you can put it back on the sheet of the new month.
Things you want to learn: a musical instrument, making a blog, sewing a pants edge, changing car tires. Write down everything you’d like to learn in your life!
Write down your successes too: have you learned anything new? Even if you don’t know everything about it yet. Did you start learning the piano? Are you learning to draw? Did you pass a test that stressed you out? Write on it. Remember that you have already taken the big step: You have started it! I don’t think we’re getting enough praise. You have to learn to value ourselves and appreciate the steps we take (no matter how small).
Note the ahah moments of the podcasts I listen to: I often listen to podcasts. When I listen to them sitting (because often it’s during my walk/jogging), I write down the phrases that I like very much. And I love coming back. In fact, writing down these sentences is like when I highlight passages I love in a book.
And plenty others.

Note: I divide my notebook by section: One section is exploration, adventures: anything i want to learn, visit, read. In the second one: It’s all the finance. Third part: Projects ideas, plans, habit tracking and finally, the quotes, the phrases that i love. You can keep a few pages for each section. Sometimes I realize that in a section I don’t have enough pages finally. Well, I’m shouting it in another section.

Please, tell me! Is that tools you already use? What are the reason you find it helpful? If you are not using none of them, which ones do you use? I would love for you to share your comments 🙂