How do I keep organized?

Another squirrel moment but have seen this question asked alot - how do I keep organized when I have so much to do and no time to do it?

I hate to say it but I will - "There is always time to do it - what we struggle with is priorities." Ok the elephant in the room has been said......but I'm not going to leave you hanging.  I'm going to provide some quick and easy tricks and tools that I have found useful.

1. If you have not heard the 12 week year - go buy the book or audio book - this one changed my life - seriously!  High overview - its not work detailing out an entire year, 3 year and 5 year steps - come on we can't keep a single new years resolution - what makes me think I can keep a year of stuff? And then when I fail the first one - boom the rest goes out the window ALONG with the 2-3 weeks spent planning it.  So the 12 week year says this is what I want to have accomplished in 3 months - and the functional groups of items I need to handle each week to get there...and then each week you write the tasks you need to do with those goals in mind. So now I've spent 30 minutes to write up the week (not 2-3 weeks) and I can shift priorities without changing an entire year - just the week.

2. Microsoft Tasks - yep I have lists and I get to click them off when I'm done - not only that Tasks let me set up due dates and sort them by that date so I can write it once and focus on tackling the task in order. I more often use this to manage my shopping lists (grocery, wholesale, craft store) anything that I need mobile.

3. I also have a nice magnetic white board with magnets hanging on my wall.  My week of tasks (from step 1) are up here - I cut index cards in half and put the pertinent information on them.  I have three "swimlanes" ToDo, In progress and Done this week.  I get to move the cards forwards and yes even backwards as I get these done.  One of the pieces of info I have on them is the time it takes me to accomplish it (or one of them) - this also helps with my prioritization!  I get to tick off my bubble whale card first since they take me the least amount of time and I only need a small number of them this week (did a lot more last week). If you have an interest in the magnetic pins i use - https://a.co/d/5IlkqQE from Amazon.

4. Notions - I'll be honest I haven't tried this one but have heard lots about it and reminds me of my happy planner / franklin covey days. But a good planner whether paper or electronic helps track what you have done!  Its a good reminder that yes with any planning things do get accomplished.  I have both a paper planner and a nice desk calendar (doubles as my computer pad) with my monthly agenda - what shows are coming up, where I am needed for church activities and what birthdays and anniversaries should I be buying cards for?

I hope these help and as always, I love crocheting and have given one-on-one sessions for those interested in learning or just learning more and love sharing any knowledge I have collected over the years.