Feeling Overwhelmed and Unorganized? - How to Use Index Cards to Organize Your Life

Feeling Overwhelmed and Unorganized? - How to Use Index Cards to Organize Your Life

Are you still looking for the perfect organizing tool? Is your Filofax too bulky and heavy to fit in your purse and carry with you? Tried a Palm or other Handheld and found it awkward to use when you're on the run?

Ta Da!! - Try simple 3x5 index cards, you know the litle ones you use for kitchen recipes.

Why? They are affordable, easy to find and they fit in your pocket or purse. They come in pretty colors so you can code your projects by color. e.g. one for Family, Work, Personal Goals, Home Projects, Hobbies/Crafts etc. Note: If you can't find coloured ones, use a coloured marker to outline around the outer edge of the card . This is enough to help you quickly sort them into groups if you need to.

Here are some examples of how you can use them. (I use one for each project but you can combine as many as you want onto one card)

Daily To Do List

Grocery Lists
Personal Goals - one for weekly, daily, monthly yearly, life goals Your Life Mission Statement

Favourite Prayers
List of Books on your Wish List to buy (or those that you want to read/look for at the library etc.)

To jot down your Hot Ideas when you are on the run.
Record notes from books and meetings.
Phone Calls - work, business, personal etc - jot the phone number down too so you don't need to look it up before you call.

Keep some blank ones in your pocket, purse, car, by your bed to record dreams, ideas that wake you up in the night. Keep a stack by the computer to keep track of your passwords, favourite sites and keyboard shortcuts.

Examples:

I have one with my Credit Card Balance and I record any new purchases on it as I make them so I can check off the transaction when my monthly bill arrives at month end.

Right now I am in the process of setting up a new Bank Account and I have made a list of all the utility bills that we pay by automatic payment from the old account and which I now need to notify of our new account data. I have this all on one card and can check off each one as I complete it. With a separate card for this project, I feel organized and can see immediately, how far along I am in this process. When I complete the project, out goes the card.

Oh, and by the way, don't forget to use them to record your favourite cooking recipes

I have a little plastic folding cover for my cards with two flaps inside that hold them from falling out. I picked it up at my stationary store and it protects my cards from getting bent and out of order in my purse. This isn't necessary as you can just pop them in any bag but it is handy for me. My daily To Do List is always on the top so I can just flip the cover open and see my list.

I would love to hear from those of you who already use index cards to stay organized. If you try them for the first time after reading this article,I would love to hear how they work for you.

Lorraine Peltier is a business owner, wife, mother, and owner of two black cats. She runs a successful home-based business. One of her goals is to help others succeed in living their dreams. She can be reached through her website at http://www.gourmetcandlebiz.com or via email: wahm@homebizrecipes.com

Baltimore Sun (blog)

Contractors propose to organize Grand Prix, pay some debts Baltimore Sun (blog) Sharon R. Grinnell, president of sGrinnell Enterprises LLC of Owings Mills, and Gregory K. O'Neill, vice president of BMW Construction Specialists of Curtis Bay, approached city officials early last month about organizing the city's Indycar race. and more »

Organizing Matters: A Lesson From Outside the Beltway Huffington Post When ordinary people get organized they can still do extraordinary things. But the key here is getting organized. The media likes to lift up singular "heroes" who are "making a difference." But political change is not made by individuals on their own.

Organizing committee of Dutch ice skating marathon gathers for first time in ... Washington Post AMSTERDAM — The Netherlands' state broadcaster NOS says the organizing committee of the country's traditional Eleven Cities Tour natural ice skating marathon is gathering for the first time in 15 years to consider whether the race can be skated next ... and more »

digibet.info

Sochi starts recruiting volunteers for 2014 Games ESPN AP SOCHI, Russia -- With two years to go before the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics, Sochi organizers have begun recruiting volunteers. The organizing committee said Tuesday it expects to receive more than 200000 applications from people between the ... Sochi 2014 Launches the VolunTour Advertising CampaignSki Channel all 14 news articles »

Get Organized: Clean Up iTunes (Part 2) PC Magazine The most important thing to understand about this article and others in the Get Organized series is that neither you nor your iTunes collection has to be perfect. If you follow the advice in this article, your iTunes library will be much improved, ...

Organize Your Paper Documents Efficiently The Ledger Having an efficient system to file and otherwise organize these documents can save frustration and time. Here are some tips: Prioritize. Think about the pieces of paper you most often need and build your filing system around those items, ... and more »

The Atlantic Wire

Organizing Occupy, Without Occupations The Atlantic Wire As the movement fades from the headlines, these bits of activist shorthand have remained, and Occupy is counting on the shared culture they represent to carry it through to bigger actions this spring, organizers in New York said on Monday.

Organize Your Apps by Action Instead of Category for a More Intuitive Find-and ... Lifehacker If you're having trouble remembering where you've filed away an app on your phone's home screen, you may want to consider organizing your apps by action. By default, when you drag one app onto another to create a folder, iOS suggests a folder name ... and more »

Azim Premji University and Jamia Millia Islamia University to organize Dr ... India Education Diary Bangalore: Azim Premji University, Bangalore & Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University), New Delhi will be organizing Dr. Report by Santanu Ganguly; New Delhi: Om Books International, in association with Taj Safaris, announced the launch of On ... and more »

Get organized at work San Antonio Express By Melanie Warner If the piles on your desk are so out of control your co-workers are convinced it's the hiding place of Charlie Sheen's dignity, it might be time to get organized. "One client, once we organized her financial papers, found $40000 that ...