It’s no secret that I love a schedule, calendar and a google sheet (ask anyone who has been on vacation with me) and that I often have a fully stacked plate in front of me (both of snacks and my schedule). I wear a lot of hats, and am often on the go and wanted to share some of my favorite tips, tricks and tools for staying scheduled, (mostly) organized and sane 🙂
My biggest piece of advice, which is not a norm for most people in 2024: WRITE IT DOWN. Use a pen (or fun marker) and physically write things down. I thrive on my calendar(s) and love color coding. I find the visual aspect of colors to be really good for quickly glancing and saying “Yes, red lettering, okay, super pumped to teach define downtown tomorrow” or “Blue: West Virginia has a basketball game tonight, I’ll watch while I cook dinner.” This is what I’ve been doing for years and it really works for me.
My favorite pens are Le Pen (found here), Amazon Basics (here) and Stadtler (here). All three last forever and give me the perfect color options. None of them bleed through my pages either (v v important to me). Yes, this is an aside but I do think having the best tools for you set you up for success.
Scheduling your calendar time: Whether you aren’t team pen+paper or you prefer your iCal (I use her too), I really believe that carving out time on the same day of each week to schedule your calendar for the upcoming week is the BIGGEST key to success. Every Sunday (few exceptions being big vacations), I like to sit down with all of my calendars and look at my week ahead. This can be anywhere from five minutes to 45 minutes (I really like to know what my weeks will look like)
Here’s a few of my favorite calendars: Italian Summer (I mean, have you met me? It’s my 2024 and I love it), Concealed Planner (this was my 2023 planner and while I LOVED it, it felt very bulky for travel . . . because my agenda does often go everywhere with me)
Consider multiple calendars: Hear me out: I use my agenda, my iCal, my dry erase AND an hourly time planner.
This one is my favorite, we’re in a four year relationship. I use it a little differently than the Amazon description: basically I write a short description of every appointment/all plans in the hour rows so that I can see how back-to-back my day is. I use one color for this calendar, instead of my multi-colors for everything, because this is a small snapshot I find the uniformity to be cleaner.
I usually have my Sunday planning and then fill in as things pop up. There are some regular standing blocks, looking at you pure barre :), that I usually fill out two to three weeks in advance. I really like how this lets me take a bird’s eye view of what my week looks like (bonus points that it starts on a Monday). This time planner is very beneficial when I’m meeting clients and scheduling showings; I always want to allot for enough time and to not feel rushed
Along with these organizers, I have a large monthly dry erase board in my office. I fill that out the last day of the month. My goal with the dry erase is to highlight most important scheduled events, year-to-date real estate numbers, monthly goals and yearly goals. Finally, I coordinate everything into my iCal. You never know when you are not going to have your planner with you, so I like to always have the ability to set eyes on my schedule. Using iCal also me to set alarms & notifications for key events (I hate to be late!)
I know this sounds like A LOT, and I get it. It is a lot. BUT, I think that having a good foundation for your schedule and how you structure your day helps to increase productivity and reduce stress (that part is definitely just my opinion).
What are your tips to staying organized? I hope these help you to kick off 2024!
