What do you do to help you stay organized, you?
 

You people of the planet are an enjoyable bunch, [as long as i dont go to deep into DCforum..] And you are collectively, very wise... and full of helpful tidbits of assistance, with moments of asshatedness. All in all, i would say this is a kick ass community...

so, i turn to you in confidence, and tell you that i am a slob. OK, not that i'm so much of a slob, as i am cluttered. im not unclean... i wash my legs and everything... heh... i'm just unorganized in some areas of my life....

i rarely use a day planner, however, i have created myself a daily planner to fit in my life and lifes activities, and to help me with my projects / and creative direction... of course, I will schedule in 'fook off' time... that includes a bit of CP, and a bit of online poker... i am going to be moving to a 9-5 gig, same hours as my wife, who works at a young children daycare/ learning facility... little dude gets to hang out there also, so that is mega... free learning with mom nearby... a nearly perfect scenario...

i have recently parted ways with the tshirt business...my business partner of the mispent some financials, and never recieved a paycheck... took his cash unaccounted from the register... wouldnt remedy the scenario... so I removed myself. A very frustrating thing for sure, when you partner in business is unorganized. i'm sure he means well, but its hard to rely on your good intentions. [i wont be going into a whole lot of detail here on an internet message board.]

Anyway, not being like Carl Peterson, and standing pat... I have been developing mediaThinkLab : a consortium of designers who work together on various projects. Each member is his/her own business... a group of freelancers... as there is power in numbers... benefits, etc.

http://mediathinklab.com/images/siteheader.gif


got an ad hitting the kc swb yellowpages in Jan... got an 888 virtual office, and have 7 designers, programmers, an autocad phenom, and one badass salesman.

So obviously, i need to be more organized. The site isnt full-on live yet. but it is getting there, piecing it together.

anyway... How do you stay organized? Any helpful hints would be...uh... helpful.

I write all my stuff on a notebook piece of paper and update it with different reminds, sort of like a daily planner. If I buy a planner, I wont use it...wierd I know.

I work in corporate America as well...everyone has briefcases and daily planners and take their laptops home with them...I could care less.

Its just easier for me to keep track of it on paper.

Post-it's. I have about a kabillion post it notes on my desk. It works for me.

Beyond that, I keep a journal of my daily phone conversations and a to-do list in the same journal. I mark off the action items as I get them done and make sure they don't go longer than a week before I get them done. Good luck with the business, I just started my own as well.

here is the planner page i created... to carry with me each day. maybe not the planner, but definately this page. then i plan to compile it, and use it as my journal...

should be interesting to document my life... i used to keep a journal when i was younger, i have... 16 journals full of my writings... heh. my kid will have a joy reading through thousands of his dads thoughts.
[i was smart enough to filter out most of the crazy shit...for posturity's sake.]

business time 9-5 will be in the journal area, and ON THE BACK of the sheet..... i need to organize 6-12 better also, and be to sleep by 12:30 1ish... 5:30 is new target wake up time... [although im finishing up a night hour gig this week...]

im looking to get as much done as possible before i start working... i.e. reading, working out, some occasional tai chi, walk, run, private p0rn time, etc... in the am.

piece of paper and post it's ... heh if it works for you, right on. post its are just additional clutter in my world.

the other day, i was driving up Nall, and i look over and see 4 wooden crates from Sound Warehouse, that used to hold albums in the stores... anyway, a sign that said "take me" so i brought them home and stacked them by my pc... oh, man... my work area is so much less cluttered now...

used the bottom one as a bookshelf... one for papers and bills and shit... one for the magazine and the book I am currently reading... one for my printers and speakers... and the top for my scanner, and chess set, with my sports scultures [ priest, tony g, george brett, don mattingly] on top of chess board... worked out beautifully.

I'm a huge believer in the PDA (i.e., personal digital assistant, e.g., palm pilot). That thing is a godsend.

How to get organized?

Get married.

well i am married and my wife is not the tidiest of the bunch... our three year old has to pick up after her.

i may get one of those in a couple of years... i just hate using that stylus piece of crap. plus you have to learn some funky PDA language to type.

A friend gave me one that is from 2002 or some shit... and totally annoying... cant stand it... say, what color is said PDA? fruity?

not "fruity", silly...

it's apricot... :p

I can't find an apricot PDA, but if I could...


Actually, the funky PDA language is only if you want to write. On my Dell Axim, I can "type" by pecking at a little touchscreen keyboard with the stylus. I've also got an almost-full-size keyboard that I can use with it. It folds up so that it's no larger than the PDA when you're carrying it around. Since the PDA has MS word on it, I can use it like a mini-laptop when I'm at meetings and stuff, and people think I'm really cool.

I like the FranklinCovey system. It looks pretty similar to what you have designed for yourself, though.

I think a better question is what can I do to get organized. I sometimes think I am until I see what I thought was a pile of crap until I realize it is suposed to be my pile of important documents, and I need to be in a meeting 5 minutes ago.

i have done real well today. i called 2 clients, 3 of my designers, done some design work, did a bit of tai chi, my web browser was down for 5 hours, and i had another revolutionary brainstorm. ill design fruity colored PDA's and sell them to wannabe eccentrics.
:)

well cadmonkey, maybe you need to implement a filing system... put trivial random shit in one pile, stuff you are dealing with that is on hold, and stuff that is important.

Plus, you need to get off of all the bulletin boards and actually do some damn work for a change.

You are probably still hungover from RedSox championship.

heh... apparently not a lot of organized planeteers. :shrug:

I use a PDA day to day to keep all my information together. The experience you had with a PDA was not anything like mine...I have a Dell Axim like Rain Man and love it.

I have a few places around my apartment where I keep broader messages or goals. I put them in places my eyes seem to connect with a lot without really thinking about it. Right now there are some formulas on there for an upcoming Math test. I find myself not as much being able to memorize the formula but being able to picture if in my mind. I guess thats sort of the same thing.

Just a few little things that keep my universe in order.

I make mental notes of some of the more important stuff to do in the day.

I find that using Excel to schedule my day and make task lists is very helpful. I also like to scan documents so that I can file them away and keep clutter down. That way you can set up seperate folders on your desktop for different things and if you need a hardcopy you can print them. Let's face it...men are visual the less clutter the easier it is for us to focus.

I carry my laptop with me everywhere. And my girlfriend is the queen of the organized... she pretty much keeps on top of me. the extent of my filing is "shit I will never need" "Shit I may some day need" "Shit that is prolly good to keep track of"

3 drawers and I'm solid.

great idea man... ill have to implement that...

Ask my wife, she keeps me in line !

Do you spell correctly in these mental notes?