As I prepare for the New Year, I am filled with inspiration. The New Year always feels like a fresh start, a chance to make specific plans for adjusting the way that I do things so that I can have more of what I want in my life. Since I work from home, it is a good time to think about adjustments that I could make to the way that I do business.
A few days ago, I took the time to give myself “annual reviews” for both of my businesses. Based upon both of those reviews and how I feel about my work in general, it looks like I am going to have an enjoyable year of work ahead in 2013. There are the same, great opportunities that I have been working on in 2012, as well as new challenges and opportunities. The question now becomes, “How will I keep everything organized so that I get to do all of the things that I want to do at work and in life in 2013?”
My gut feeling is that organization and good time management will be the things that help me the most as far as balancing my work with the bigger picture of my life, and keeping me moving in the direction of my goals. As I was thinking about organization today, I realized that it is about time to buy new pages for my planner. Shortly afterwards, I realized that there was probably a free planner app for my Android smartphone that I could use instead of buying new pages for my paper planner.
A quick scan of the Google Play Store revealed quite a few choices. After looking at a few of them, I chose one called SchedulePlanner. Within minutes, it was installed on my phone and I was able to try it out. I started out small, by putting in entries for the things that I hope to accomplish this evening. One feature that I really like about this app is that you make your plans for each day on a list of “planned” tasks. Once you complete a task, you get to mark it as complete and move it over to a list of “actual” things that you have done. Other features include marking tasks by categories and analyzing what percentage of time you spend on each category of tasks, such as housekeeping and work. I have only been using SchedulePlanner for a couple of hours, but I am pleased with it so far and think that it is going to be a great way to stay organized without toting around a paper planner.
Disclaimer: The makers of SchedulePlanner have not given me anything of value in exchange for mentioning their product here.
Photo by mensatic on morguefile.com.