Hi everyone! I'm Erin and I'm a self-employed web designer, blogger, and I also run a subscription box service. Oh, and I'm getting married. If you're wondering why I'm telling you all of these things, it's because I wanted to share how I help keep track of everything going on in my life! I have a small apartment, but I created a little space for me to work in, and then recently updated it with a bunch of whiteboards that list my monthly, weekly, and daily to-do lists! Here's what I use each one for:
Whiteboard One
The first whiteboard on the wall next to my hanging folders is where I jot notes and stick things up. It's always kind of messy. I keep things like my blog schedule, postcards, and lots of random stuff on this board. I'm debating over making it a yearly-goal list.Whiteboard Two
The first whiteboard on the wall above my computer is for my monthly goals. I write them all out, and they generally include things like "make a WordPress theme" and "make two Blogger templates." These goals are pretty broad and kind of vague. One of my goals from a previous month was "move all websites from old server to new server."Whiteboard Three
The next whiteboard is for my weekly goals. These are a little more focused than my monthly goals, and often include things that came up during the past week (like client projects). An example would be, "follow up with client X about X" or "email all of next month's Indie Gift Box artists to confirm participation." One of my goals from a previous week was "move eef-etc.com to new server," which was just one of the sites but part of my monthly goal. I also put my check boxes for my daily workouts on this board. I just X out a box once I've worked out! Once I get 5 I can wipe them and start over (after a 2-day break!).Whiteboard Four
This whiteboard is for things that I need to accomplish on that day. I typically choose a few things from my weekly list and break them down into more steps (if necessary) and knock them out in a day. I also put date-specific items on this list, right now I have "send york-law.com their weekly website traffic report" on my list. I also frequently have things like, "list new Blogger template on Etsy" or something similar on this list. You can kind of see the huge list I have for all the steps of moving eef-etc.com in the above photo. This was a multi-day process and I broke it down into a few days.Crossing Off
I like to cross things off my list during the day/week/month and then wipe them off at the end of the day/week/month so that I can see everything I've accomplished. I find when I wipe them off immediately after completing them I actually don't feel like I got anything done. The visual reminder of what I've accomplished really helps! It also helps me keep track of what I've already done for multi-step projects like website server moves. I wrote down everything I needed to do, and some things had to be accomplished in a certain order, so having the list still visible helped keep me on track and the right part of the process. I also love having my monthly and weekly goals out and visible. I'm able to break them down into daily tasks and work toward completing them. Before when I would just write out my goals on my blog they wouldn't stay in my head and I would forget about them!What do you do to stay organized?
Thanks for taking a peek at my office! If you'd like to see more you can come and visit me on my blog!
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Thanks for stopping in Erin! You guys will LOVE her blog if you are interested in anything graphics related, design or lifestyle. She's supremely talented and I'm thrilled to feature her awesome BLOG today. Go check it out now!
