Michelle is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the
Colette Louise Tisdahl Foundation. This organization helps families in crisis due to high-risk & complicated pregnancy, NICU stays, or loss.
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This week was pretty busy on the job front, but I felt a little lighter, so I’ll take the win. And answer another reader question:
Q: How do you keep organized? How organized are you?
A: I guess you are probably curious about how I manage two jobs, a business, caregiving, and living life? I wish I could say that I knew the answer. Some days I can’t even figure out how it all works myself. 😂. I will say there is coffee involved and the occasional tequila shot. But I will share some things that help me keep it all together.
📓. Bullet Journal.
I’m not even sure I can call it that since I only use the daily task/meetings page spread and the symbols. It’s my version of bullet journaling, I guess? 🤔 I love technology but have never been able to stick with a task management tool. Early in the pandemic, I started with the bullet journal (
this article got me started) and have been using it ever since. It works better to be able to write my tasks down by hand and check them off.
While I keep day-to-day tasks in my bullet journal, I like to keep less time-sensitive things here. For example, I can capture ideas for pages or posts I want to create and pieces of training I want to review at some point. It’s a straightforward app, with a “this week” section and a “later” section. If the task doesn’t go in my journal, it goes here.
📆. Google Calendar.
Appointments, meetings, and anything with a set time and place goes here. On my phone, I use the Google Calendar app, combining all my different calendars to get a sense of what’s happening on any given day.
💪🏾. Virtual Assistant.
Hiring my virtual assistant to help with graphics and social media has been a game-changer. I feel like I have more mental space to focus on some bigger-picture thinking.
🎗. Calendar Reminders.
I tend to take on too much (hard to believe, right?), so I’ve set up some daily calendar reminders that pop up at good moments for me to pause and take a breath:
- 7 am - What is the most important thing for me to do today?
- Noon - Don’t do more today than you can recover from tomorrow.
🧘🏾♀️. Self Care.
I couldn’t do much of anything without taking care of myself. At a bare minimum, I realize that I need to get 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Rest does a lot for me, including helping me focus while juggling all the balls in my life. Aside from that, I try my best to get to my BeMoved dance class every Wednesday night. Exercise, yes, but dancing is so good for my mental health. So if I can get those two things every week from a self-care perspective, I’m good.
🚫. Saying No.
This one I struggle with, but I’m getting better at it. I try to say no if an opportunity is anything other than a firm “uh-huh” from my gut. I don’t always honor that, but I’m working to improve there. Baby steps!
🤗. Grace.
Sometimes different things will have to take different priority. And sometimes balls will drop,
even doing this newsletter weekly. So when that happens, I want to try to have grace with myself and prioritize rest and self-care in those moments.
Let me know if that answers your questions or if you have follow-ups on any of these. I love doing these, so if you have more questions, just reply and let me know.
On to the picks!
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