How to Stay Organised | Adult 101

Hello friends! Today I thought I'd share my top 3 tips of how to stay organised as part of a new series I'm calling Adult 101! I'll be focussing mostly on how I manage my To-Do lists and stay on top of all those pesky emails that adults seem to always receive. This may not be the be all and end all of how "real adults" stay on top of things but for an introductory adult (as I like to think I am) welcome to Adult 101. 

1. From To-Do lists to Today lists

I am a sucker for a good to do list and you should be too. It's one of the easiest ways to sort your shit out but also one of the easiest ways to stress yourself out and make you feel like you'll never get your life together. What the fuck, amirite??? It's a bit of a paradox, but it's nothing you can't get around. 

The way I keep my to do lists sorted out is by keeping them all in one place. If you're like me, you've probably made a billion to do lists in different places all about different things. Now continue to be like me and stop doing this. Grab yourself a notebook that can travel with you and jot your to-do's down in there. 

Now, the first thing you oughta do is write down everything you've got to do and then have a good cry at how disorganised you are. Then once you've wiped away your last tear, start a fresh page of priority tasks. This is the kind of stuff on your everything to-do list that needs to get done NOW or within the next 8 hours (think a typical, traditional work day). 

Now start working on your to-do list, and realise that it is less of a to-do list and more of a today list. Congratulations, things are looking less disorganised already! 

The next day, take a look at yesterday's to do list and move over any remaining tasks. Now head back to your everything list and do what you did yesterday for today. Repeat indefinitely... kind of. Eventually you'll get to a point where your everything list has been done and instead of a massive to-do list of things that aren't always important, your to-do list will focus you on the present. 

2. Decluttering your Inbox

So this is blatantly stolen from one of the first tips a colleague from work shared with me (thanks Vicky!) The tip is pretty simple: create folders. It's a function that I literally never thought to use to organise my inbox because "hey I can just flag anything that's important and find it later". Yeah, this can work if you need to pull up something on the same day as you receive it but when you order your RTX tickets months in advance and then need them on the weekend, it can be hard to find. 

My new and improved inbox! Pay no intention to the fact my railcard needs to be renewed... it's on my today list.

Also if physical clutter stresses you out, then chances are digital clutter stresses you out too. So this weekend, do yourself a favour and create some folders to organise that inbox. You might find that you're getting a bunch of mail you don't even want. 

Your end goal should be an inbox that is empty apart from things that either need to be replied to or need to be read. By tidying your inbox up, you've also created yourself a handy little to-do list (and you know how much we like those!) Once you're done with your new to do list, just move those emails into a folder and BAMN. Clear inbox, clear mind - you're welcome. 

3. Calm the fuck down

Adulthood is hard. I don't even really know what I'm doing but I know I'm doing better than I was yesterday. The biggest thing that keeps me disorganised is my constant worry (thanks, anxiety). Anxiety aside, I know that sometimes all I need to do is take a deep breath and calm the fuck down. A twix, a cup of tea, and a little cuddle and encouraging word from George is sometimes all you need to bring you back to reality and remind you that everything's going to be okay. 

If you find yourself being overwhelmed from tips 1 and 2, then at least tip 3 is here to remind you it's totally normal to need to set your to-do lists aside, and take a break from that light emailing, and go stand outside and take a nice deep breath. Tomorrow is another day, and all of you things will get done. I promise.

I hope this was helpful to some of you out there who might be struggling to assimilate into this world as a so called "adult". I sure as hell am going to try and do it better and I'll share my findings with you weekly. 

Until next time friends, 
Soph x

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