Being organised, falls firmly into the rare spot of being something I enjoy, something I am good at, and something which is essential for me to get through my days and weeks. As someone who juggles at lot and who doesn’t have a “typical” week (yoga teaching and cat rescuing are not known for their stability and predictability), being organised saves my time, energy and sanity.

I wanted to share some tips which are super easy but really effective for making life feel more organised, especially if being organised doesn’t come naturally to you…

1. A phone contact-saving trick

When adding a new contact into my phone, I don’t just save their name. Either because I may have 10 contacts with the same name (hello Sarahs and Saras) and even if I save a full name, when I receive a WhatsApp it may take me a while to figure out who is messaging me, and which one of my multiple hats I was wearing when I met them.

So that I can quickly place someone and respond, I save my contacts by:

“first name” + place/hobby/setting/where they work/the context in which I met them.

For friends whose apartments I visit from time to time, I save their apartment number next to their name so that I don’t have to ask them for the 5th time which number they are when visiting… I started this trick when in halls of residence at university and yes, some of my university contacts are still saved as “”Friend Name” 411″.

2. Befriending “mark as unread”

While in an ideal world, I’d have my phone on airplane mode and not turn wifi/data on until my morning routine is complete, as a yoga teacher teaching early morning classes it’s not realistic to do this. Instead, when I first check my phone any messages which are non-urgent, from friends in different time zones and which don’t need an immediate response I “mark as unread” meaning that they won’t flash up again as notifications, but that I can read them properly, and respond, later in the day.

This has saved me SO much time and energy in the mornings, by only responding to what absolutely needs to be dealt with before 9am, and leaving everything else until after breakfast (and coffee).

3. A weekly photo edit

I have a habit of taking so many photos, mostly of my cat. I will also sometimes take the exact same photo 3-4 times. Once a week I will go through my camera role and delete all the photos which I don’t need to keep, including ones of where I have parked my car. Doing this weekly means that it takes 5 minutes, acts as a little summary of the week and means that my phone memory doesn’t get full and I don’t have to then spent an hour deleting items I don’t need.

4. Using phone alarms

For those tasks which need to be done but which I always forget (mine are taking vitamins and remembering to leave out my recycling on Thursday mornings), I set a daily/weekly recurring phone alarm to pop up as a notification only. The list of alarms on my phone also serves as an end of day to-do list if I forget to do anything or ignore the alarm throughout the day.

I also use this for when I am busy but realise that something needs to be planed or done, rather than disrupting my flow or making myself late, i’ll set an alarm for when I know I’ll be having coffee after a yoga class, or if I have a free evening, and that I can deal with the task at that time instead.

5. Restocking household items

This is something I’ve only been able to do in the last few months. I used to only be capable of grocery shopping for the next meal but since I started making sure that items I use daily are stocked up, life just feels so much more organised!

Once a week before grocery shopping I check off all the items which I know I’ll use in the next week (hand soap, detergent, almond milk, basically anything non-perishable) and make sure I restock so that I have multiple back ups. I realise this is not ground-breaking at all, but it’s something I never used to be able to do because I just couldn’t think ahead of my next meal/snack. Now when I use the last of the almond milk or have only one coffee pod left, I know there are back-ups, and that I don’t need to go to the store that day to restock. Life-changing!

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What helps you to feel organised?  

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