Keeping organised.

If you know me personally, you probably know that I absolutely adore organising in the most extensive sense of the word. I will organise everything in my life, from food to eat in a given week, through groceries that need buying, my wardrobe, paperwork, kitchen cupboards, to sorting out travel arrangements and coming up with trip itineraries. If I ever feel like I don't want to teach anymore, I will probably become a PA or wedding organiser, this the extend to which I love organising.

Some people want to go with the flow and be spontaneous all the time. This is not the way I function and, honestly, just thinking about not having even the most basic plan for the next 24 hours (and the next week, and next month) fills me with dread. Also, I need to write things down because otherwise the sheer volume of stuff I need to get done is overwhelming when it is left in my head. Get it down on paper. Free up your headspace.

I know that there is a plethora of apps available these days to help you get organised. You have calendar apps where you can put appointments, reminders, regular events, birthdays etc. You have list apps for, well, creating lists: to do lists, shopping lists, ideas lists. There are meal planning apps, exercise scheduling and tracking apps, you name it, there is probably an app for that.

However, I'm not a fan of apps. The thing is, if I need to use my phone too often to input all these bits and pieces to make the apps work for me, I will inevitably start browsing through my photo album, watch different videos on youtube and before I know it, an hour would have passed. 

So I use a paper planner to organise my life. The one I am using this year is actually The Catholic Planner that Mr Magic has kindly got for me from the US and it has all the bits I need to organise my spiritual life, but also is great for organising the other parts of my life.

It might be controversial, but I actually invest quite a bit of time into making my planner pretty and colourful, I colour-coded different events, got colourful stickers (yep, I did, no shame) and I use different coloured pens to jot down certain things. Some people don't like that and they think it's a waste of time, because you really only need to have a list of things to do and appointments to keep, but I actually don't do so much creative stuff in my life and also, I like the fact that a quick glance at a page is enough for me to know that there is a meeting that I should get to tomorrow (orange highlighting) or that there is some rather urgent house admin to get on with (Christmas green I call it). It's also really relaxing and I do most of my intense planner work on Sundays when I don't work and have plenty of time. Long story short, it works for me.

I have two levels of planning, a monthly overview and a more detailed weekly plan. The monthly overview is really there to stop me double booking weekends: I often have my Master's sessions on Saturday, or maybe conferences and this part of my diary is just to make sure that I don't promise somebody to do something or meet with them on that day.

The weekly view is really where most of the action happens. I don't plan my day to the minute, but I will write down any appointment and meeting times, including those regular ones like church on Sunday or an exercise class on Thursday. This helps me to organise other activities around those if I need to. I jot down things that need doing at a particular time or on a particular day. I also often write down a quick meal plan, i.e. what's for dinner and lunch during the week so I don't have to make those decisions when work is busy.

Keeping organised gives me a sort of safety net when life is hectic and unpredictable. It is both a necessity and a pleasure for me. I don't think I would be able to function without organising and making appointments, drawing lists, ticking things off... And I get so much fun out of it as well. I suppose some people crochet, some jog and I just make my planner look fabulous. That's just the way it is.