10: Organize Your Life with These Essential Lists
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Welcome to episode 10 of Permission to be Messy. I'm your host, JoAnn Krall and today I'm talking about lists. Lists that'll keep you organized and keep you on track. Now, before I go into this, I do want to mention that recently I was talking with my daughter who's in her twenties and she confessed to me that she doesn't like making lists and that they stress her out.
I was really surprised by this because she's super organized, but clearly she's found another way to manage all the stuff in her brain.
So as I go through these lists, if you're thinking the same thing know that you're not alone and that you may need to just find another way to get that stuff out of your brain.
Some of the lists that I'm going to be talking about today are more essential and that is subjective. And then some of them are nice to have, and then some of them fall in between.
You know, life is a never ending list of to-do items. And when we try to keep it all in our brains, that can cause a lot of anxiety, stress, and it definitely hinders us from being productive.
So the first list I want to talk about is the master to do list. And what this really stems from is an exercise that I really think most people can benefit from. And it's called the brain dump. It's when you just get everything out of your brain, in that moment and get out onto paper or computer, if you prefer to type.
But it's really all of the things that you need to do. Of course, I like to tell people just get whatever's on your brain out so that you don't stop and try and think of things.
For example, when you sit down and you start writing. Write down everything that's on your mind, whether it's I'm hungry, I'm cold. I have to call the vet. I have to make sure I remember this person's birthday, whatever it is that comes to mind, just write it down and free write.
So from this brain dump, you can create your master list. So you can pull all of the things off the list that you need to do. And if you want, you can also put the things that you want to do. It's up to you, what you pull from this list, but just know that brain dump is there. You don't have to throw it away.
So from a master to-do list, you can create a daily to-do list.
Now there's a lot of controversy over to-do lists these days. There are so many people out there I'm finding, they're saying that to do list just don't work and anytime somebody says something just doesn't work. I want to cringe because they do work for some people and they're very effective for some people, but it's important to know yourself, know whether you just enjoy creating lists, but they're not effective for you.
Or maybe you're like my daughter and they stress you out. We need to find another way to manage everything that's in our brain and everything we need to get done and sometimes that will all revolve around technology, which again, isn't for everybody.
When you're creating a daily to-do list some people say only do the top three items and other people will say, only work on the important things. This is where there is no cookie cutter solution. There are some things that are deadlines and they have to be done on that day because they're due that day. Those are given.
But when you think about other things that you're going to add on your to-do list, of course you want to be working on things that move you forward, but sometimes taking a low priority item and working on it will give you that boost to tackle those things that are a little bit more tedious and that you're dreading.
Okay. So the next three lists that I'm going to talk about, they're really not to do lists.
But I think they're essential list to keep. The first one is a list of everything that you pay for all your bills, whether they're weekly, monthly, quarterly semi-annually, or annually. A full list of everything that you need to pay for. Is really helpful. For someone who may need to take over the bill, paying for you, but it also can be helpful to manage your monthly bills. I personally have a list of everything that I print out each month. And I use this list as I'm paying my bills, because some things still come in paper form, some things come via email and some things are automatic. So I like to have that list in front of me. So I don't miss anything.
So the fourth list goes hand in hand with this it's listing out all of your accounts, your bank accounts, your credit card accounts, any insurance policies that you have,
All the important information that somebody would need again, if they needed to take over. But also for you, if, if you were a victim of identity theft, having all of that information in one place will really help.
And then the fifth list, which goes along with this too, is a list of all your passwords. I recommend that people, if they can use a password manager this way, you're not duplicating any of your passwords, your passwords can be complicated.
And you have them all in one place and you only have to remember the one password. And some of those services are One Password is one, Last Pass is another, and then Dashlane, there's probably more out there, but you can research that and see which one might work for you.
Some of these also give you the opportunity to store documents that you wouldn't want people to see. So these other lists, your credit cards and your bills and all of that. You want to make sure that wherever you're storing it, people can't access it.
So now let's move on to the next list, which is, I think essential, but It's one of those borderline lists and that would be the grocery list. Having a list when you go to the store to shop will prevent you from spending too much money.
It doesn't matter how you do this list. You could use pen and paper, or you could use an app. it's really, helpful to not forget anything, but also to not buy things that we don't need.
The next list is a cleaning and home maintenance list. Now this isn't about weekly cleaning. Although I do have that in one of my programs, because some people need that guide to get them through and make sure that everything is getting done but this is more of the things that are seasonal or once a year. Like cleaning your mattress pad, wiping down the doorknobs and the light switches and the outsides of your cabinets, changing the air filter in your heating system, changing the batteries in your smoke alarms.
Now, this doesn't have to be in list form. You could actually set this up on your calendar so that you get reminders to do them. I really recommend that when you're talking about batteries for your smoke alarms. the changing the filter, cleaning of your dryer vent, all of those things are really important. You don't want to miss them. So having that reminder on your calendar can be helpful.
The last three lists are lists that are nice to have. One would be a travel packing list. Everything that you need for travel. The next would be an ideas list. I actually have one for business and one for personal.
And this would be for any projects that you want to do, or if it's for your business, it's any, things that you want to do in your business or any products that you need to buy or any services that you want to check out.
The final list. Is a list of things that I want to watch and things I want to read a friend of mine and I joke all the time, she'll say, oh, this, have you seen this show? And I'll say no, but I'm going to add it to my list. And she laughs and says, there is no list. And I laugh. And I say, there is, I don't always update it, but there is a list.
So if I hear about a book or I hear about a show, I want to watch. It's really helpful for me to at least write it down and get it out of my head because I will try to remember it and I will never remember it. So having that list is nice to look back on.
That's just one of those brain clearing lists and really that's the way I look at lists. When you get it out of your brain and onto paper or into a project management system or a note-taking system. will help you be more productive and get things done.
So I hope I've inspired you to maybe create a new list or even revisit any list that you have and maybe tweak how you do things to make sure that they're working for you.
If you're looking to create a plan around getting organized, I do offer a course. Now it is part of my membership, but you can also purchase it al a cart for helping you create your action plan around getting organized, and we go through that brainstorming process and prioritizing and figuring out where you need to start and the process you need to follow to actually get organized.
So I was doing some spring cleaning of my own business. Like I talked about in the last episode. And I noticed that this offer is still only at $37 at the time of this recording. you can still grab it for that price for a limited time. And again, this is something that you can use over and over again. And I'm going to put the link in the show notes
So today I want to leave you with this. If lists work for you. Awesome and you'll know if you're making lists and you're crossing things off and you're getting things done. You'll know if they work for you, if you're not sure. And you want to chat about it, you can always book a free call with me.
I'll also put the link of that in my show notes.
And as always, I'm wishing you much productivity, peace, prosperity, and the permission to be messy. Thanks for listening.
