Organization Tips

One of the most frequent questions that I get is how I keep everything in my life organized. I have always considered myself to be an organized person, but I had to step up my game in a whole new way when I started freelancing a couple years ago. I love being my own boss and having a lot of projects going at once. However, it also takes a lot of discipline and daily effort to keep it all going. I don't have any magic answers, but there are a number of things that have worked really well for me that I'm going to discuss today.

Daily To Do Check List

I have a daily check list of work related things to do each day from reading blogs to working on at least one HubPages article. I have one list for weekdays and one (considerably shorter) list for weekends. Recently I've also designated a few tasks for specific days of the week (i.e. Monday, Wednesday, Friday). I don't have a specific order for completing them. It largely depends on my schedule for a given day. I also find that I do better if I mix up my routine frequently and don't stay too regimented.

Weekly Task List

Under my to do checklists for the week, I have space for keeping track of freelance writing work, Etsy treasuries, and additional reminders for myself (which can be everything from scheduling blog sponsor promos to picking up cat food at the vet). Lately I've also found it helpful to leave a blank page on the backside of each week list for further freelance organization. When I have a huge work list, particularly large quantities of short assignments (i.e. 40 product descriptions, each 250-300 words), a quarter of a page just doesn't cut it.

Blog Calendar

If you blog more than 2 or 3 times per week and don't already have a blog calendar, I highly recommend starting one. Free printable monthly calendars are readily available online. Typically I print out a new calendar a week or so before a new month starts and outline 80-90% of my content before the first day of the month. Of course none of this content is set in stone, and I do change a few things throughout the month. Having a rough outline in advance is still a huge help.

Lately I leave a blank page after my calendar page for keeping track of my color combination inspiration suggestions and general brainstorming for the next month. Paper is really cheap. There is no reason to cram all of those lists into the calendar margins.

Outlining

Sometimes I get large batches of freelance assignments on specific topics (i.e. 10 landing pages for a car dealership), and I find it helpful to create a handwritten outline that I can refer to throughout the assignment. Of course you can type your outline, but I don't like having one more tab to click over to when I already have three or four windows and documents open. I also like to outline the majority of my HubPages articles before I start the writing process.

Brainstorming

I stress the importance of brainstorming all the time. I keep lists of ideas for blog posts, HubPages articles, jewelry pieces, and photography shoots. It is important to keep in mind that you don't have to use all of your ideas. Believe me, I definitely don't. Writing down the possibilities as they come to you is a great way to keep the creative process flowing.

A few general tips

• Keep your lists organized. Some of you may remember that one of my 2012 goals was to organize my lists. I used to keep the vast majority of all of the above lists in a single notebook, and it got cluttered really quickly. I completely changed that in 2012 and have stuck with it. It's made a huge difference for finding what I need when I need it.
• Find a system that works for you. I love writing by hand and enjoy having these lists and notes in spiral notebooks. There are numerous options for list making and calendars both on and off the computer. There is no one system that works for everyone. Figure out what works for you so you can stick with it.
• Don't be afraid to make changes. Even the best system is not going to work forever. I have tweaked the format for my daily to do list and weekly task lists a number of times over the past two years. There are things that I used to keep detailed notes of offline, such as Etsy listing information, that I have since streamlined in some sort of digital form.
• Don't beat yourself up over things that don't happen. Do I accomplish every daily to do list every single day? Absolutely not. Does this mean that I've failed? No. Sometimes I get a huge batch of freelance work all at once and have to let other things slide like HubPages writing. Sometimes I'm really busy with non-work commitments and have to double up a couple days worth of work. As long as I'm getting through the majority of the tasks every week, I don't sweat it.

If you're looking for even more information on this topic, I wrote an article about time management on HubPages a while back.

Time Management Strategies, Techniques, and Tips: How to Find Time For Your Hobbies and Personal Goals

How do you stay organized? Share your input!

update: house organization

I took a few more pictures of things that we've been working on around the house lately.  Enjoy!

One of our fans had a snapped blade.  Of course we didn't realize this until we moved in or we would have pushed for a replacement one in the contract.  We bought a new one, which my father-in-law helped Jake install.  The fan worked, but the lights didn't.  For now we have no lights or fan.  We bought another one, but we're waiting until my father-in-law can come back up to help us with it.

I promised that I would share a couple more pictures of my china after I finished unpacking all of the plates and bowls.  Yes, there is a lot!  My cousin has the same pattern so we could throw a huge party if we ever wanted.  As it is, Jake and I can serve 14 people.  I have no idea what the little covered piece in the front of the second shot is or why I have two of them.

Also, as I mentioned in the last house update post, I ordered new chair cushions for our dining room table.  I am really happy with them.  I had a very hard time finding something that I liked in a size that would fit these chairs.  The size works pretty well and the color is perfect in the dining room.  Jake likes them, too.

We have central air, but it doesn't cut it upstairs, so we installed a window air conditioner.  So the new cool air doesn't travel right back downstairs we put the door back on the bottom of the second floor staircase.  A few doors in the house were taken off and put down the basement at some point.  They're all in great shape.

Finally, those of you who are friends with me on Facebook might remember my final shot of our fridge in Iowa before we listed our condo and I had to take all of my photos down.  This was really sad as I love all of my kitchen photos.  They were not my first priority when we moved in, but of course I did get them up again.  I didn't put everything up from before and put a new photos up like the photos from Match Day that never made it on the old one.  Also, you'll notice that I can put photos on the side, too!

Of course I had to include a picture of Angel, too.  Yes, we are allowed to sit on the coach with her.

There are still lots of things that we're doing around the house so I will probably have another one of these updates later this month or sometime next month.

another house update

This post won't be quite as detailed as my house update from last week, but I've gotten a few more things accomplished that I thought I'd share.

This first thing actually isn't something I did, but I thought many of you would appreciate it.  I don't know who put this in and if they made them or bought them, but it's a cute idea and would be very easy to make yourself.  These are the door jam for the purple bedroom.

I've washed and put away almost all of our china.  My mom's mom had a huge collection.  When she moved into a retirement community a few years ago, she split it and gave half to me and half to her other granddaughter.  Several members of her family had bought the same china pattern so all of our stuff matches.  This is just a look at most of the cups/glasses and some of the bigger pieces.  Some of them are more modern pieces that we got for our wedding.  I'll have to photograph the plates and bowls some other time.  You may have noticed in the last update with the dining room table that we have a built in china hutch, which is where all of these pieces are stored now.

I have my computer desk area mostly arranged now.  I know that between this area and all of my purple bedroom storage, I have a slightly ridiculous number of desks/tables.  Hopefully this will help me stay organized and reduce the amount of clutter that I create, though.  And yep, that cord hanging down is a cable dropped through the ceiling.  I use wireless Internet in the basement and we don't have cable TV so it isn't doing much.  I'll brag again about the amount of light in our house.  I took this picture during the day with all natural light.  In the basement.

Finally, Angel would sleep on our coach sometimes in the condo.  Now that it's in the basement in this house, she sleeps on it almost every day.

I do my best to post my newest craft hub links on my group forums, but if anyone has missed them or hasn't checked the sidebar list lately, here are my newest crafty hubs.

Beaded or Beadwoven Rings: Different Uses for Jewelry and Accessories

Czech Glass Dagger Beads: Patterns and Stunning Jewelry Inspiration

update: house organization

It's been a while since I posted any pictures of what we've been working on around the house lately.  I thought that everyone would enjoy a little update.

When my mom was in town earlier this month, we painted the living room and main floor bathroom.  The living room was Packer yellow and terribly done.  Whoever painted it didn't tape the woodwork and painted right over the light switches and whatnot.  The bathroom color somehow escaped me when we were first looking at the house.  It was the most dull shade of light purple that I'd ever seen.  I'd been thinking about painting the purple bedroom first, but the bathroom had to change.  Secretly (or not so secretly anymore) I love the purple bedroom so it's staying.

We were promised this dining room table from my in-laws 3 years ago or so.  Now that we have a dining room, we made a big push to get it.  I just ordered some new seat cushions.

The previous owner left this candle holder behind.  I got a tip to look for candles at a dollar store.  Normally I don't shop there, but it is an excellent place to find very inexpensive candles.

For now, I'm using the purple bedroom for my craft storage and photo staging.  When we have kids, I can transfer a lot of this to the basement (where there will be tons of room when we've finished unpacking the remaining boxes).  I say storage because I do the vast majority of my jewelry making while sitting on the sofa.  This room is large enough that I may get motivated to do some of my other craft projects like button magnets and card making in here.

The previous owner left all of these wire storage units behind in the second and third bedroom closets.  Can you believe that there are empty spaces in them right now?  I may try to transfer some of what is on the desks right now into these units so I have some real work space in this room.

The previous owner also left a computer desk behind so this spare one is in this room.  I'd like to use this space for my other crafty projects.  Right now it mostly has my future project ideas as well as one of my my button gluing trays. Both desks in this room have slide out keyboard trays so I can move a lot of this stuff onto those.

This set up isn't too different from the condo.  Isn't it great how much light this house has?  I shot these pictures in natural daylight with no lights on.

This is the one corner of the room that I haven't done much with yet.  I'd like to get a bookcase for the empty space.  Jake is using the small table that I used for my keyboard for something else right now so I haven't set it up yet.

These final cubes have my card making supplies as well as a few other random craft supplies.  I have a lot more stamps, stickers, etc. elsewhere, but this is what I'd organized before we left so it's what's here now.  I'll keep adding as I keep unpacking.

Finally, in case anyone was wondering, Angel is pretty relaxed here now, especially in the basement.

organization

This is slightly off topic, but you all get to see all of the hard work that we've put into organizing our second bedroom the last few months.  Honestly this is the best that this room has looked the entire time that we've lived here.  It's too bad that we won't be able to enjoy it a little bit longer.  But it gives me hope for our organizational skills in our next place.

The one corner that you can't in these photos that's by the window just has some more plastic drawers and a big plastic storage stuff (which of course has more crafty supplies in it).  I move the tripod right next to the desk so it doesn't stick out like that anymore.  Otherwise this is pretty much exactly what it will look like when our realtor photographs our place today.

You get one more look at my light box/finished jewelry/other random supply storage.

Plus you can see my bead storage on the shelf again.  It feels so good to have all of that organized!

new light box set up and a St. Patrick's Day treasury

As promised, here are some pictures of my new light box set up.

The new desk is in exactly the same spot in our condo as our old desk.  The room has a west facing window so it gets a decent amount of light during the day.  Obviously one of the reasons for having the light box is so that I can shoot in less than ideal lighting conditions, but it's nice to use the natural lighting when I can.

I wasn't happy with the light angles when the lights sat flat on the desk so I put some books under them.  It's almost exactly the same angle as before now (when the lights were positioned above, pointing down at the box).  I've been happy with it thus far.

Jake had a whole bunch of his Warhammer stuff stored on the desk, but he hadn't painted there in over two years.  So I'm using this desk now for my business cards, small stash of jewelry boxes (which I can add to as needed whenever from the box of them in the closet), finished jewelry (in the Tupperware), and some other supplies in the basket on the right back side.  The fake drawer in the front slides out for more storage which will be great for stashing "in progress" stuff away when we have company.  The two drawers under the desk are now much more organized with Warhammer stuff.  I got some more drawers for some of the other "not currently in use" Warhammer items, too, so they won't have to sit on top of the drawers like they are now.  The bigger stuff like scenery supplies will fit into some crates that we recently cleared out.

This desk is smaller than the old one so we have room next it for some other things like the shredder and garbage can.  And of course, Angel still has her little kitty bed under it, which works well because I don't sit at this desk nearly as much as I sit at my computer desk (which I'll also have to post pictures of sometime because I've put a lot of work into organizing it recently, too).  Like the little angel she is, she's already adapted to the change perfectly.

You can see some other areas of progress in this last picture, too: namely one of the bookcases and our luggage (with my tripod leaning against it...I do have a storage spot in the closet for it).  You don't want to know how all of that has looked for the better part of the last three years.

This room is still a work in progress, but the new furniture additions have been a HUGE improvement.  I'll have more pictures over the next month as the rest of the room comes together and continues to look more like a room that we actually use than like a storage closet haha.

And finally, the newest treasury that I'm in is a St. Patrick's Day treasury called Wearin' O' The Green from Mary (MaryTDesigns) with my Beaded Bracelet - Petite Garden.  Thanks Mary!

weekend happenings

As promised, I did take a picture of my bead organizers in their new home.

I've added some more stuffed animals to the top since then.  You get a little glimpse at some of our dorky/nerdy books, too.  Half of Jake's fantasy and sci-fi books are on the top.  All of the classics books that I'm keeping (for now anyway) are on the bottom along with a few random medical books/materials.

I got a custom order on Friday for a couple of my button embellished designs.

You can see the original versions that are still available in my shop as well as the buttons that I'm going to use for her longer versions.  I've been planning to make another rainbow version at some point anyway so this is the perfect excuse to use some of those tiny buttons that I've been hording.

I'm also in another treasury.  Jillian (CreativeLily) included my Beaded Bracelet - Jade Elegance in her Etsy Bloggers Team: Spring is on Its Way (I had to correct the grammatical error there.  Hopefully you can forgive Jillian, too, because this is a beautiful collection.)

bead organization finale

As you know, I've been organizing my beads, buttons, and findings the last few weeks.  You can read about the first couple steps of this project here and here.  This is the final installment.

This is most of my Czech glass as well as my small collection of Swarovski beads and buttons.  I know that this just looks like an ad for Art Beads.  A lot of my Czech glass is from Art Beads, but I've purchased some locally as well.  I have components that I have a lot of grouped together like leaves, daggers, and hearts.  I sorted the rest by color (except for the Swarovskis which all fit into one compartment).

I've been using these containers for a while.  I pretty much left what was already in them where it was, so there is some other Czech glass in here.  I grouped my shell beads and filled in the other spaces with random components like lamp worked beads and handmade ceramic beads and buttons.  I'm keeping the plastic letter beads but de-stashing the rest of my plastic beads.  I haven't worked with them in years.  I'm de-stashing on eBay.  If anyone's interested, let me know.

I know that some people would have a heart attack or, at the very least, would scream if they saw my seed bead organization.  But this is really all that I need at this point.  I've only been doing beadweaving and button jewelry work for three years.  My collection of beads isn't that big.  If I need delicas for a new flower garden cuff, I don't have to sort through 40 different greens to find the shades that I want.  I can simply sort through the 40 or so total shades that I have.  I have my Tohos and delicas on the left, my cube beads on the top, and my size 6/0 Czech seed beads on the right.

I have more size 11/0 Czech seed beads than anything else for seed beads.  Not all of them fit into the container so I left the ones that are in the little screw top plastic containers as is in that storage box.  As I use up other beads that I've stored in the screw tops, I'll continue to sort more 11/0's into them.

We just got a new bookcase over the weekend.  All of the boxes, along with a bunch of books, now have a new home.  I'll have at a picture up of that at some point in the near future.

working with green and more organization

I've been working on several green projects lately.  I'm sure that I'm not the only person in the midwest who's very ready to see some green outside again.  Unfortunately, it will still be a while so I'm getting my green fix through my beads.  One of these projects was a new version of my Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Fringed - Silver Accented Green.  This was another piece that was in desperate need of new pictures.

I was planning to write a pattern for this design with pictures of this piece, but I made a really stupid mistake pretty early on in the process...and didn't realize it until much later.  I fixed the mistake in the piece, but it was too late to go back and re-shoot the pictures without taking apart the whole thing.  And I didn't want to do that.  So even though this is one of my first original designs, there is no pattern for it yet.  I'll get the motivation to come back to it again soon.  For now, you can still enjoy this newly redone version of it.

I've made a lot of progress on my bead and button organization in the last week.  I took pictures of my button organizers right after I finished them.  I'll get some pictures of my bead organizers soon.

The first organizer is mostly new buttons.  Some of the color sorted ones on the top have new and vintage buttons mixed together.  Most of the mixes are themed by shape or holiday.  I have maroon and white together because I collected a whole bunch of maroon for this design and coordinating button magnets. 
All of my metal buttons (most of which are vintage) are in the right bottom corner.

I have so many blue buttons that I made an overflow section in this organizer.  Most of these buttons are vintage or are from random sewing/craft store button clearance bins or destash cards.  Some of the vintage buttons are from my grandmas and great-grandma's collections, too, that were passed down to me through my mom.  I haven't cut into my buttons cards from Christmas yet that I blogged about here, but once I do, I'll sort them in as well.  I have a small overflow of vintage neutral buttons that I'm keeping with some other craft supplies that I can add as needed (it will be a while).  I also have everything from my button magnet tray bagged separately for whenever I return to that endeavor, but ALL of my other buttons are in these organizers now!