How To Get Your Life Organized In 5 Simple Steps • Keri Ann Baker

Last Updated on July 29, 2020 by Keri

If you are here, it is likely because you want to get your life organized! You’re tired of chasing your never-ending to-do list, feeling defeated and un-productive, and desperate to find the solution.

Being a modern-day woman is hard work. You are the one that is required to balance all the things. Your family. The household. Work. Volunteering. Appointments. This list could go on and on. And to top it all off, you probably have goals that you have been trying to work towards for who knows how long, and really not getting any closer to accomplishing them.

Ladies, I get it!

More than ever before, we live in a distraction economy, filled with different people and tasks demanding our attention, and it is literally exhausting.

The Dangers of Burnout

Burnout is a real thing, and I have experienced it myself many times. Some of the most common symptoms of burnout include:

Tiredness
Irritability
Loss of Motivation
Anxiety
Decrease in Self-confidence
Giving Up
Depression

Take a second to think about it, which of these symptoms have you experienced yourself?

For me, it usually takes form in loss of motivation and/or depression.

And it is so FRUSTRATING!

One of the biggest dangers of burnout is your own mental well-being.

This is definitely cliché, but if you don’t take care of yourself, you are doing more harm in the long run for you, your family, your friends, and even your colleagues.

So, how can you keep it all together while avoiding burnout? This is the million-dollar question!

You need a good strategy!

How I Started To Get Results In My Life

I have always loved a good strategy, but for many years, I never thought about how a system could help me overcome one of the biggest challenges I faced in life.

Yea, I heard it all the time. On podcasts. In books. But I never found that hook. The one you need to get all your attention to this one thing.

That was until I discovered the Bullet Journal. (I will be talking more about this system further down!)

I personally believe that one of the benefits of using a planner is having a strategy laid out in front of you. All those pretty, pre-made pages give you a guideline as to how you should be living your life. You open to a goals page, so you start writing down some goals. You get to a monthly layout, so you plan for the month. It is a guide without you even realizing it.

But sometimes, those guides just don’t work for everyone. We all have different circumstances, and this was the case for me.

But with the Bullet Journal, all those blank pages allowed me to build my own strategy without even recognizing it until I was already deep into the trenches. And it was once I started fine-tuning that strategy that I started to see results in my life.

So, What Do You Need to Do to See More Results In Your Life?

Well, simply put, you need to create your own strategy. But don’t worry, I am going to help you!

My entire strategy is based on 5 different steps. But first, we need to address a couple of things.

Do you need to use a planner for this strategy to work?

100%, 10 times over, YES!

For anyone who does not love the idea of planning out your life, I want you to stay with me for a second.

When I say you need to use a planner, I am not saying it so that you can start planning out every second of your life. Not even close. I am all about intentional planning, which is planning just to a point of organization that works best for you, and this is going to look different for every single person.

If you have ever used a planner before and hated it, it’s because that strategy or guideline didn’t work for you. If this sounds like you, I highly recommend you try a Bullet Journal.

Simply put, a Bullet Journal is where you use a notebook to create layouts that help you plan out different areas of your life. The best part of a Bullet Journal, you can plan and get organized in a way that works for you, because it is completely customizable

Do you have to use a Bullet Journal for this strategy to work?

Absolutely not!

The Bullet Journal is not for everyone. If you enjoy using pre-made planners then their guidelines are likely a sufficient way for you to plan.

What we instead need to focus on is the exact strategy that you use to plan within those guidelines. So, it is slightly different than using something like a Bullet Journal which is customizable.

Is there a way to combine the two planning methods?

Yes, there is!

As you start to learn more about the Bullet Journal or see it in action, you might start to see things that you really like about the system. However, you may not be ready to ditch your planner quite yet.

If this sounds like you, I recommend you start a Bullet Journal Planner Hybrid. Essentially, you are taking the best parts of both systems and merging them into one.

The 5 Step Strategy To Getting Your Life Organized

Like I said before, my entire strategy is based on 5 steps which I am going to break down here. Each of these steps has played a very important role in me being able to get my life organized enough that I have finally started to see real results and momentum in my own life and goals.

The best part of this strategy is that it can be completely customized to suit your own circumstances, so you are truly creating a strategy that is going to work for you.

Step One – Getting Intentional

Before you can start taking action, we need to stop for a minute and be mindful or intentional about what we want and need. This can be done in a couple of ways.

You can ask yourself some very thought-provoking questions.
1. What is your main purpose this year?
1. Why do you want to achieve a certain goal?
You can evaluate where you are in your life.
1. Are you happy with your job?
1. Are you happy with your money?
What essential parts of your life are extremely important to maintain?
1. Your home?
1. Your relationships with family, friends or even your colleagues?
What are your goals?
1. How are you going to narrow down on your goals?
1. How are you going to accomplish them?

By getting intentional, you are immediately setting yourself up for success by having a standard in mind. You know what you want, and now you just need to develop and take action on the strategies that are going to get you there.

Step Two – Getting Your Bullet Journal or Planner Set Up

Once you know what you need to do, your next step is going to be getting your planner of choice set up so that it is in line with what you want and need from step one.

This step usually pertains to the layouts or collections you need to include to help you organize your essentials, become insanely productive, and what you need to accomplish your goals. For some, this may also include the monthly and weekly layouts that you will use to plan your time.

Step Three – Organize The Essentials

In this step, you are going to develop systems to help you organize and maintain the non-negotiables of life. This includes:

Paying Your Bills
Keeping Your Family Fed
Finishing Your Projects For Work
Maintaining Self Care

It is important that you start here because until these things are organized, you are never going to be able to work towards anything else. Essentials are the things that currently eat up all your time.

It is important that you learn how to better manage these things. Some useful things that you can do to get more done in less time include delegating certain tasks to other people, automating things that waste a lot of your time, and eliminating things that just aren’t as important.

Step Four – Become The Master Of Productivity

As you work to get your essentials organized, the next step is to learn how to master productivity.

Once you start putting these systems in place, you are going to look for ways to be more productive with your time, hopefully freeing up even more time in your schedule!

There are so many ways you can be productive, making it super easy to find systems that work for you. The process of trial and error will help you find them!

Batch like tasks together.
Start small when working on a big task. Break it down.
Follow the 2-minute rule.
Try your hand at time-blocking your calendar.
Do a time audit for the week.
Block out time for yourself.
Keep your work area clean.
Follow routines.
Wake up 15 minutes earlier.
Keep your mind clear to focus on the task at hand.

Step Five – Plan Your Goals

And finally, now that you have more time on your hands, you can finally start working towards some of those goals you have been chasing!

It is when you start working towards your goals that you will start to see different results in your life. Change can’t happen unless you have the time to put in the work. And no different than getting your essentials organized, you need to be just as organized with your goals!

Create a goal-setting strategy that works for you and stick to it.

To get started:

Break down your different goals.
Narrow down to one big goal, and no more than two very small goals to focus on at a time.
Turn each goal into a SMART goal.
Create an action plan.
Start doing the things you need to do to achieve your goal.

And that’s it!

The great thing about this strategy is that you can come back to it anytime and modify it whenever necessary. If something isn’t working, switch it up!

Introduction to The Planning Workshop

The information in this post will give you a great starting point! But, if you are anything like me, you might want more information regarding the strategy and how you can get everything set up.

I created a 5-day planning workshop that goes into a lot more detail on each of the five different steps, some of the exact strategies I use in my own life, and a couple of other great bonuses to help you find amazing results.

Throughout the five days, there are videos and workbook exercises designed to help you customize your own strategy.

If you want to learn more about the workshop, click here to be re-directed to the enrollment page.

Click Here To Learn More About The Workshop!

Not Quite Ready To Join The Workshop?

I hope you found this post extremely valuable, and I hope it has given you a great starting point for getting your life organized!

If you aren’t ready to join the workshop, check out my productivity-focused monthly layout guide for your Bullet Journal! This guide is FREE, and will help you create a Bullet Journal layout that will help you get your entire life organized on one page!

In the comments below, let me know which of the five steps you are most excited to dive into!

Until next time!