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:
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- *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
- Evernote – I have this on my laptop to help organize random chicken scratch ideas and my writing.
- Tweetdeck – this platform is what I use to execute tweets on Twitter if I have planned content to send out in advance.
- Planoly- this monthly subscription app allows me to organize and execute my Instagram feed.
- VSCO – the app I use to edit photos for social media.
- 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.
- Unsplash and Pexels – two great websites to source free stock images when necessary (remember to give credit where credit is due!)
- The Bullet – my morning daily eBlast read to keep up-to-date with all the latest news, and all conveniently in one place!
- 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!
How is it the last week of August? I mean, really…. where has summer gone?