How I'm trying to keep on top of things

 I suck at sticking with things.  I always have.  I have dozens of journals and notebooks and planners with a few days filled in and then nothing.  I alternate through apps trying to find what works for me, having something that works for a little while and then find myself stopping using it before I know it.  Being a non-organized person can really suck sometimes.  But I'm trying to change it and, once again I'm trying a couple different things to keep me mentally together.  Here are some of the things that I'm currently using (and if my readers have any other suggestions of things that have worked for them, please feel free to comment with your suggestions.)

The one planner I've been using for the last couple of years is the Simple Elephant Undated Planner .  I like it because it is undated.  This way, if I miss time updating it (and I have forgotten more than a few weeks), I'm not left with a bunch of empty spaces.  Each day has a small amount of space where I write down different things - sometimes what I have coming up on various days, sometimes notes about something that happened on a particular day.  It has blank monthly pages, which I keep updated fairly well with appointments, when the kids are out of school and things like that.  It gives me a non-digital location to look at what I have going on  The back of the book is lined pages that I use for various notes about things that are catching my attention. The elastic keeps everything inside without me worrying about the book flying apart.  And there's a pocket in the back where I can keep sticky notes for things I want to add.

The only problem is that it's out of print.  So when my current journal finishes at the end of February, I'm not sure what I'm going to start using.  There are a lot of similar ones out there, but I don't know which ones have the features I want.  I'm going to have to do some research.

For my Bullet Journal, I use an Exceed Dot Journal.  My local WalMart had several of them on clearance a few months ago so I picked up a couple.  I wasn't sure if I was going to try another BuJo, but I figured it couldn't hurt to have them if I needed them.  This time around, I'm trying not to be as ambitious in my journaling.  I still have a lot of the stencils and pens that I used the last time I tried to BuJo, but I'm going to try for more simple layouts and not trying to keep it as my everything.  At the moment, I'm using it to track several things: my 101 in 1001, my daily mood, a few habits that I'd like to keep in mind, and the reading challenges I'm participating in this as I go through it.  I'm also using it for a look back at the month, writing down the good and the bad that happened in the month, the number of books I've read, things like that.

Mainly, I use a Sharpie fine point to do the writing.  I've got several colors but as you can see in my picture, black is my primary color.  I want color, but the black is easier to keep up with.  I'll also use generic colored pencils and Frixion erasable pens to write as well.  I'm hoping that paring down what I'm doing with it will keep me doing it.

I have a small notebook (which, sadly, I don't have a picture of because it's upstairs and I am not) in which I keep a list of things I've done each day.  I call it my Today I... book.  Since it's just a regular small notebook, I don't have to worry if I miss days, weeks or months between updates.  I started doing it to look back, during the times of the deeper depression, to see that I'm not just wasting life laying in bed.  I put things as little as "played Animal Crossing" to the bigger "Reorganized my closet". Some days I have only two or three things written.  Other days, I fill a whole page.  It's been good for my mental health.

Electronically, I have a few apps that I use for both keeping on top of things and for helping with my sanity.  I've been a Google Girl from the early days.  I use Google Assistant to make notes of things as they come to me, as well as setting up my nighttime and morning routines, listening to a bevy of news bites, and speaking up when I need to be reminded of something.  I use Google Calendar to keep track of mine and the family's schedules.  With the boys in virtual schooling, it helps me to have their classes times in my calendar so I know where they're supposed to be at various points.  I often cross check it with my Simple Elephant to make sure I'm not missing anything.  Google Keep is probably one of the biggest helps for me.  Our family keeps a shared grocery list on it so we don't have to rely on someone telling one person of something we're out of.  I keep track of important things like my library card number in one file.  I have an entry for recipes I want to try, one for Christmas ideas, one for a To Do list - just about anything that comes to mind.  

Outside of Google, have one other app that I use all the time: Calm.  Primarily I use it for three quick things every night - my mood, three things I'm grateful for and a daily reflection.  It helps me wind down at the end of the night and slough away the stress.  I use the meditation and the breathing exercises occasionally (especially the breathing - they help when Pete is having a rough time, or when I'm having a rough time because I'm getting overwhelmed).  I haven't purchased the full version, though I may at some point.  Even the free aspects help me, though.

I'm hoping that these things will be the perfect storm of things to keep me on track again.  Well, these and starting to blog again.  I'm trying to keep the pressure low, yet still keep my expectations to do things.  Keep wishing my success, because having people in my corner helps just as much.

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