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The Passionate Voice

13 Ways to Maintain Personal Infrastructure

February 6, 2018 • Career, Lifestyle

We are 37 days in to 2018. Have you been able to keep your New Years Resolutions or goals, that you so keenly set back on Jan 1? Yea, its hard eh? We all have the best of intentions but once reality sets in, its hard to get out of our already-established routines.

I shared my 5 goals for 2018 in my first ever podcast. I’m happy to report that I at least kept the first one – take vitamins for 30 days – which I did successfully in January. Great goal right?! lol I keep telling myself its the small things! ha Now I can focus on my other 4 goals for 2018 😛

A majority of us hop aboard the ‘new year, new me’ train at the beginning of January. But by the second month in, most of that enthusiasm and willingness to hold ourselves accountable to new goals goes out the window. We tell ourselves, “At least we tried, right?”

One thing I’ve personally been trying to hold myself too, is a system that holds me accountable to executing both my personal to-do’s and professional goals, all in one place, in an organized (less chaotic) way.

Its what I’ve been calling ‘personal infrastructure.’ Its what systems, tools, resources, apps, etc I’ve put in place to help me execute my goals as best as possible. Take a look at the 13 ways I’m trying to maintain this personal infrastructure:

  1. Planner/Organizer – I shared a list of planners to use last year; this is the weekly planner I chose to use for 2018. I am a list-makin’ machine, there really is nothing better than crossing off your to-do’s once you get them done!
  2. Cozi calendar app – I recently discovered and downloaded this app to help manage one consistent calendar, so both Andrew and I can use and update all of our important dates in one place.
  3. Feedly – there are a lot of well-written and inspiring blogs out there. The Feedly platform allows me to read them all in one organized place.
  4. Pocket – I blame the overabundance of articles that I find on Twitter as to why I always have a million tabs open. I fixed this by downloading this app to easily store and read these articles at a later time.
  5. *To Read* inbox rule – I subscribe to newsletters that can sometimes fill up the ol’ inbox. I created a rule within my personal email inbox that automatically puts all of those newsletter subscriptions into a ‘To Read’ folder when they arrive. You can set up any number of rules so all of your emails come in and are sorted in advance of opening up your inbox #genius
  6. Evernote – I have this on my laptop to help organize random chicken scratch ideas and my writing.
  7. Tweetdeck – this platform is what I use to execute tweets on Twitter if I have planned content to send out in advance.
  8. Planoly-  this monthly subscription app allows me to organize and execute my Instagram feed.
  9. VSCO – the app I use to edit photos for social media.
  10. Canva – I have this website both as an app on my phone and open and readily available on my laptop, which I use to create images for my blog and social media.
  11. Unsplash and Pexels – two great websites to source free stock images when necessary (remember to give credit where credit is due!)
  12. The Bullet – my morning daily eBlast read to keep up-to-date with all the latest news, and all conveniently in one place!
  13. Notes in iphone- if everything else fails, writing down notes on my iphone has been a saving grace.

Hope you find some (or all!) of these ideas and tips valuable in helping to maintain your own personal infrastructure, whatever that may look like!

Leave a Comment Career, Lifestyle 2018, Apps, Blog452, Business, Canva, Career, chicken scratch, Christina Crowley-Arklie, Communication, Cozi, eBlast, Eccolo, Email, Evernote, Feedly, Food for Thought, Goals, Inbox, Instagram, iPhone, Job, Laptop, Life Lessons, Motherhood, Notes, Organization, Organizer, Passionate Voice, Pexels, Photo Editing, Planner, Planoly, Pocket, Reading, Side Business, Side Hustle, Social Media, The Bullet, The Passionate Voice, Tweetdeck, Twitter, Unsplash, VSCO

Take Your Goals Seriously – Get Organized

September 8, 2017 • Career, Lifestyle

We’re 8 days into September, our second New Years or as I’ve been calling it, New Years 2.0. Oh and Christmas is 108 days away. Crazy, I know.

I’m not sure if its the teacher in all of us but most of us appreciate the ‘reset’ that September offers. Places like Chapters tug on all of our organizational heartstrings and all the new planners come out on the display racks. I personally love it. I joke to Andrew that if I am ever lost, he can find me in the stationary/organizational section. The stationary lover in me fan girls over the latest planners every year when they are released.

If your actually serious about (finally) tackling your goals or getting your side hustle or daily work organized for 2018, a new planner is a good start.

As techie as I am, there is nothing like putting pen to paper to keep everything organized. I haven’t yet been sold on fully transitioning my calendar completely to my iPhone calendar or through an app. I have an electronic calendar but also manage my appointments, commitments and to-do’s through a hard planner.

One of the best feelings in the world is checking off your to-do items in your planner when they are done and accomplished #Check #Done #KickingButt

Here are 9 options (some of them I’ve tried!) to try and put on your  planner wishlist:

[1] Emily Ley’s Simplified Planner – I’ve heard rave reviews about this planner. Emily Ley is a #GirlBoss herself and many fellow #GirlBosses I follow have ended up choosing this planner as their go-too.

[2] Day Designer – I had this planner for 2 years and LOVED it, just didn’t think I needed a page per day but otherwise loved this planner.

[3] Plain Notebooks from Chapters – If you don’t need anything fancy, too expensive and want to just ‘do it yourself’ with your notes, you can always refer back to the good ol’ notebook where you can make your own planner like this one or this one (The message on this one is SO true in my world of too many tabs open on my laptop!)

[4] Danielle Laporte’s Desire Map Planner – I’ve never personally tried this planner but if its anything like Laporte’s books, I’m sure it is an amazing planner packed with tons of inspiration and kick a$$ motivation!

[5] Rifle Paper Co Planner – Love all the details in this one including its 17-monthly calendar year and the beautiful floral design typical of Rifle Paper Co. It also has so many delicate touches inside.

[6] Kate Spade Planner – I have tried this planner but needed more space to write down more to-do’s each day. I still loved the details though in this planner including how each month had tabs and the pocket included inside.

[7] Eccolo 12-month planner –  This is the planner I used for 2016 (a larger version) but this exact version is what I used for the majority of 2017. I actually didn’t purchase mine from Chapters though, I was introduced to Eccolo in the Winners’ check out line where I bought the first planner for $9 #score

[8] Erin Condren’s Life Planner – I love how much you can personalize this planner and how colourful and bright her designs are. How can you not get creative when you get to open up that beauty every time?!

[9] Bullet Journal – I contemplated doing this for 2017 but at the last minute, chickened out. It seemed like a little too much work for me, but I swore to myself that if my current planner failed, I was going to give it a try!

Leave a Comment Career, Lifestyle 2017, 2018, 2018 Calendar, 2018 Planner, Blog 452, Bullet Journal, Business, Calendar, Career, Chapters, Christina Crowley-Arklie, Communication, Danielle Laporte, Day Designer, Desire Map, Desire Map Planner, Dreams, Eccolo, Emily Ley, Erin Condren, Goals, Job, Journal, Kate Spade, Leadership, Life Planner, Motivated, Motivation, Notebook, Organize, Organized, Organizers, Passionate Voice, Planners, Rifle Paper Co, Side Business, Side Hustle, Simplified Planner, Stationary, The Passionate Voice, Whitney English, Women





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