Numbered Days: How I Organize My Life

Lately, I've been realizing that each day we live adds up to become our life. In order to live life fully, we are called to implore our gifts, talents and move in the direction of our calling each and every day. These daily steps and efforts truly matter. After all, life is a gift.

However, life can be very busy and overwhelming. I find that I tend to have so many ideas, areas I want to grow in, things I want to make happen, relationships I want to tend to and a God I want to talk to that if I don't put some structure to my daily, then nothing ever happens. If I don't organize my life, my days quickly pass. When this happens, my heart never feels fulfilled because my time (or lack of it) is completely controlling me. This always takes away my ability to be present. With the loss of practiced intentionality, I end up not living my vocation.

One disclaimer: the aim of organizing it all is not so I can do everything. I practice this because it enables me to fulfill The Lord's call for my life. Truly, practicing intention & life organization is a catalyst that helps me live life fully alive. This is not about chasing perfection, this is about becoming the person God intends you to be.

Truly, practicing intention & life organization is the catalyst that helps me live my life to the full.

Many people say that dreams without a plan are just wishes. I would even say, that a calling without some structure leads to just a restless, unfulfilled heart & life. Stop saying you want to live and starting living, instead!

I would even say that a calling without purposeful structure just lead to a restless, unfulfilled heart & life.

Between school, friends, and goals, we all have a lot to keep track of. So, here are some tips & tricks that help me follow through on my goals and help me make the most of my numbered days. I hope they help you too!

My BFF: Google Calendar

This tool is quite literally my most favorite thing. It allows me to stay on top of everything, focused, and on task. I book appointments for myself for everything from phone calls with friends, workouts, morning routines, prayer time to what I call my refresh Sunday times - a few hours blocked on Sunday to go without my phone or a to-do list. I've found that putting a date & time to something is quite powerful.

What Keeps My Brain Straight: Trello

This is my latest, most day changing trick. I create a board for every big project or area in my life, this gives me a "bucket," to put all my tasks and thoughts associated with each area in. I also use one main "LIFE" board. Using a Trello power-up & bot, every dated assignment is automatically copied to the LIFE board when it is due in less than 8 days. This helps me assign each task to a certain day of the week so I can focus on a few tasks a day and spread things out throughout the week instead of starting a giant, overwhelming list every single day. It truly has helped me get 3 times the amount of things done in a day.

These are the boards I maintain that correspond to all the different sections of my life. All of their different dated tasks feed into my "LIFE" board which I use to set up my week

Lists, Lists, Lists

This is my "LIFE" board view that helps me assign myself to-dos a certain days, rather than staring at it all at once, on one giant, overwhelming list

I constantly have things and ideas running through my head. I'm always hearing good quotes, having moments of inspiration and coming across thoughts I want to keep. Actually, I can find it incredibly overwhelming sometimes. To solve this feeling of fleeting ideas (or losing track of things), I keep what I call my "core" lists. They live in my simple iPhone Notes app and they include: thankful list, curiosity list, talks to watch, book lists, quote list, routine ideas, people I want to reach out to, truths I need to remind myself of, etc. It creates a great place for all these things to live. Plus, it's very customizable and allows me to clear my head just by pulling out my phone.

Daily Necessity: Journaling

I journal every morning. Now that I've kept up this habit for about a month, I cannot go one morning without it. It's a place to dump my thoughts, track goals, talk to God, get focused and ask for miracles. It is truly the only way I can keep my brain, soul, and heart "organized." Plus it helps me stay in tune with myself, keeping me centered, focus and ready. Meeting God through journaling every morning is why I am able to launch into my day, confidently.

Habit Helper: Streaks

This is a little app I have been loving lately. It gives me space to track my daily and weekly habits. It helps me stay on track with daily growth and gives me a lot of satisfaction when I complete daily tasks. It helps me remember all the things that can be lost in the shuffle. Like, taking my vitamins, practicing gratitude and drinking enough water.

Monthly Goal Check In: The Powersheets

All of these lists, goals, and daily habits flow from one thing: The PowerSheets. I have been using this goal setting tool this year and I'm really loving it! At the beginning of the year, it helped me drill down on my big goals. These 8 big vision goals inform my monthly, weekly, and daily habits that I then build into these various systems talked about above. I schedule a monthly goal refresh in the last week of every month on my Google calendar. It gives me focus and helps me celebrate progress over perfection and there is great grace in that! It helps me to make what I want to happen in my life, happen!

Stop saying you want to live and starting living instead!

I know this seems like a lot, but this is truly how I continue growing as a person, manage everything and take full advantage of my days. Afterall, I think we are responsible for glorifying God through fulfilling our fullest potential and this is the one of the ways I manage doing that.

IN FULL LIFE,
CAROLINE

Ps! If you ever want some help organizing your life, I often meet with people to help them streamline their organization systems and empower them to make what matters most in their life, happen! Feel free to reach out, I would love to help you.