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The Next Big Thing in Productivity …!
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. ~ Aristotle
By now, it’s really no secret that the productivity genre has been really hitting it hard over the past couple years. Everyone has a podcast, blog of Facebook live series that is tapping into the not so new trend of ways to de-clutter your brain, organize your workflow and find work-life balance (myself included).
While I’ve always been a tech geek at heart, with my attention span mainly living in the online world … I too started to investigate different emerging trends, as I was curious about fun new ways that I could incorporate in my current day-to-day business life that would increase my productivity level sky high. I’m already and organizational, productivity nerd and people compliment me on it all the time which I just love. It’s really a true honor … However, I knew there had to be something more, something I was missing.
Long before my side-gig became my full-time lifestyle, I’ve been into planning and lists. And I just couldn’t understand the lifestyles of others who weren’t actively using these forms of reminders to make their life more efficient as less brain busy. Yes, it takes some time to get the initial set-up going and into some sort of groove but once the ink is flowing it becomes second nature and your brain has more space to think about the things at hand rather than thinking in the background about things one may need to remember for later … tomorrow … or next week!
Planning isn’t for everyone, even though I truly believe it can be a true, life saver. And while doing some research on the next “big thing” in productivity-land it dawned on me … Maybe individual struggling to “untangle” themselves (both business and personally) need different types or organizational tools to get them there.
And then I found this …
*Click above image to follow to sourced article.
There are plenty of digital ways to get organized but sometimes ink to paper just works better … Gets those thoughts out in a more solid, free-flowing form. Yes, apps and gadgets can jump-start your productivity, but if you’re really looking to buckle down and make the most of your time this year – and every other year for that matter – it is really time to invest in a good paper planner. (I’m a real bookstore nerd and already bought my 2020 planner last week!)
However, it’s all about having the right plan for yourself – even if this paper planner idea doesn’t get you excited but digital ones do. There isn’t just one option for everyone. In order to figure out what the best solution is for you, you need to decide what you want your planner (or digital app) to do.
Here is a quick guideline of questions to ask yourself:
- Does it offer strict scheduling (e.g. daily, weekly, monthly, etc.)?
- Is there a place for me to write down my daily/weekly to-do list(s)?
- Is there a place for me to write down future goals and ideas? Can I track them?
- Is there efficient space for bullet journalizing or to keep important notes?
- Is there anything else that’s truly important to my day-to-day that I would like included?
Once you know the functionalities you want your planner to have, you can then investigate the paper or digital options that offer these solutions. Or both – I use a paper planner, my business email calendar, Wunderlist on my phone and Asana. But I’m a keener (as you already know, LOL!) and I feel the need for multiple options depending on where/how I’m working. I feel a paper planner with ease of access on my desk helps for those quick moments, then Asana and the other options I mentioned are good for building long-term productivity. This way I don’t have to shuffle from one application/piece of paper to the next and everything I have planned for myself or with my clients stays on track!
Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade! ~ Tony Robbins, Life Coach and Author
As I said before, no one size fits all. Chances are, you have more than likely already established some sort of routine for yourself.
However, you probably wouldn’t be reading this post right now if you felt it needed some refinement.
So, let me ask you …
- Have you been carrying around a paper planner all these years?
- Or do you prefer to manage all your business goals and responsibilities up in the Cloud?
- Or are you mutli-passionate about paper vs. digital, like me?
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Crystal Kordalchuk
Crystal is an artist, a writer, an organizer, a dreamer, a doer, and down-right proud of it NERD!.
Struck with a love for #AllThings creative at a very young age, Crystal dreamed of a life fueled by her passion for creating and bringing the stories and images in her mind into reality.
As she worked toward her dreams, she earned a diploma as a Computer Applications Specialist then another in Graphic Design and from there began to develop her extensive background in multimedia and the arts. She began her worked in the magazine industry as a layout designer and had a succession of design jobs thereafter. It was her role as a graphic/web designer that gave her the first real glimpse of her future. Soon she began a side job as a freelance designer while keeping one foot in the corporate world. A spark was lit! She turned her freelance gig into a full-time business combining design work with her other passion: creating organization from virtual chaos.
Crystal is one of the most organized individuals on the planet. She is by all means a Zen master of her crafts. She excels at helping others become “untangled” and provides her clients with tools to run their businesses smoothly while she takes care of the details behind the scenes. Thus Virtually Untangled was born. A successful business where her work as a top notch creative in graphic and web — with a twist of virtual assistant — married into one amazing place where clients can come with their virtual messes and become magically untangled. Crystal can always make sense of even the most unorganized chaos and offers a virtual detox of order and peace, so her clients can get busy doing the work that they love the most.
