Get Organized and Rule Your Household with Evernote

Get organized with Evernote using these three tips for household tasks. Let me show you how to get started.

Today I want to share with you how I get and stay organized with Evernote.

If you are new here, just let me give you some background on where I come from.

Getting organized

I decided that 2015 was going to be the year when I was going to get organized at home once and for all.

You can read my monthly accountability posts for my progress.

The thing I realized is that getting organized means something different to each person.

I’m not saying that organization is something different because it is not!

You are an organized person, or you are not. There is no mid-term.

But how one reaches the point of organizing their space and staying like that may vary. And in my case, I was almost another persona at work and home.

Get organized and rule your household with @Evernote. #EvernoteCommunity Click To Tweet

So I decided to make my geekiness my organization ally.

I have been trying all this time to be like those amazing people who simply put things in the right place naturally.

OK, I know they built a habit first.

But, at least in my case, I needed first to figure out what habits worked best before investing in them.

I had to find a way to get organized that fit my personality and made whatever crazy plan I came up with, sustainable.

It was then that I discovered Evernote.

Yeah, Evernote!

I’m pretty sure you have already read tons about how it can be used for blogging, expense tracking, planning, etc.

What I found out, though, is that I could also use Evernote to bring organization to my home as well.

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My goal

Throughout the years, I bought a collection of books about home organization.

Well, lucky me they are e-books. Otherwise, there would be even more clutter for me to go through.

I also followed sites and challenges that helped me get a better understanding of what had to be done, when and how.

From that, I’ve been slowing building a list of to-dos on my Evernote.

Note that it is a work in progress. I’m in no way close to an all-year-round planning yet. But the reason I am already sharing it with you is:

• Accountability: by writing it here I am reinforcing my commitment to stay on track and post my findings and progress.
• Knowledge sharing: I am the kind of person who loves to share whatever I learn. Knowing things, but only sharing half of the information (and sometimes even wrong information) is not for me.
• Growth: I write about what is working for me right now. Maybe you will read it and add your best-practices or suggest me other sources of information. This way we can help each other improve.

References

For starters, I picked the “Flight Plan” from FlyLady.

If you have no clue where to begin, I highly recommend that you check her site.

I used to sign up for her newsletter, but it felt a little spammy after awhile, unfortunately. Still, her tips are amazing.

Another interesting source is the Declutter 365 Missions from Home Storage Solutions.

I’m not following their challenge to the T, but I’m learning a lot from it.

Finally, my favorite book about organizing: Organize Now!, from Jennifer Ford Berry.

It’s divided into weeks, and you have goals to accomplish within that time frame.

Do not let the size of your first list overwhelm you.

The more detailed it is, the better.

It’ll give you an idea of all the things that need to be done.

The more specific, the easier to prioritize and set realistic goals.

Check these organization ideas for home using @evernote. #EvernoteCommunity Click To Tweet

Getting organized with Evernote

Let’s get started with my three tips.

Build up

As I said, I am still getting my list done. It will probably take me another year to get things fully set, ready to reassess.

Why do I say one year?

Because the same way as I did not become a Mrs. Chaos-at-Home overnight, I cannot expect a miraculous solution.

Besides, getting organized is one of my main commitments for this year, but it isn’t the only thing I’m working on.

I cannot say that I’ll fix my list in one month or two because it isn’t realist with my schedule.

Mainly because when I originally wrote this post, I still needed time to recover from surgery, (crawl my way back to) be in shape and do the tasks on my list.

Therefore, first, I’m consolidating the goals from the references I mentioned above according to my own needs.

For example, these lists include school related activities, summer camp, family vacation, etc. I don’t need to include these in my planning.

On the other hand, I have tasks that may not be relevant to others. That one week at a time.

Give yourself time to get organized. No need to stress out about it. #MindfulPlanning Click To Tweet

Put into practice

Every day, we have recurring tasks.

You can choose even to add having breakfast if you have the (bad) habit of skipping it.

To me, it starts with “Checking My Calendar”.

Unless I know what my day reserves for me, I will not able to get anything done.

I’m not going to go too deep into planning here because I have enough posts about it.

But what you can do is adding not only your appointments to your Evernote and calendar but also your home organization tasks.

Remember that I declutter for 15 minutes a day. Because it’s something that is really that important to me, I have one hour blocked for it in my calendar.

You may be thinking:

ONE HOUR?!? But isn’t it a 15-minute declutter?

Yes, but I merge my decluttering with other household tasks.

It makes more sense to me to play “housewife” at the same time than doing things here and there. It’s like writing a blog in one sit.

Merge similar tasks to optimize your schedule. #coaching #MindfulPlanning Click To Tweet

Stay realistic

After a couple of days, you’ll come across certain patterns: the things you can do as planned and the ones that you cannot.

You’ll find out you overlooked some important tasks in your original list, and you will have to add them.

You’ll see you don’t need to do certain things on a daily basis while others you will have to perform more frequently.

This is the point where frustration makes room for productivity.

You’ll compare the time you really have in your hands with your wish list. Then, you’ll be able to trim your list down and organize your tasks in an efficient and realistic way.

When you use a tool such as Evernote to get organized, it’s easier to rearrange things.

You can have a master list for the entire week and another for each day.

You can also have one for the less frequent house maintenance tasks. It will free your mind for the long term responsibilities as well.

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Why using Evernote

Maybe you’ll say that all this electronic thing is not for you (yet). That is OK.

But try to make an effort to declutter slowly all the agendas, stickers, and post-its you have everywhere.

Having it all in one single tool like Evernote will make your life already much simpler.

You can download it to your favorite device(s) or use the online version.

I lived months with the free version of Evernote. It does have limitations, but if you just want to give it a shot, it has everything that you need.

So my three tips to get organized with Evernote are:

1. Build up
2. Put into practice
3. Stay realistic

If you want to know other ways you can use Evernote to become more productive, just ask! I’d love to help you out.

Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. However, when you order through my link, it helps me to continue to offer you lots of free stuff. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. Thank you, in advance for your support!