How To Stay Organised With A Full Plate

It is safe to say I have a lot on my plate. I study part-time, work part-time, I’m a mum to two little girls, treasurer for a charity and I try really hard to provide value here on my blog and corresponding Instagram and Facebook pages. So here is my take on how to stay organised, even when you have a lot going on!

How I used to stay organised

Life used to be so much simpler. Before kids, before studying. My time was my own and I was free!

I pride myself on having a great memory and I rarely needed to write anything down. Well, I also didn’t have as much to write down.

Even after I started studying while working full time I found remembering important dates easy, so I didn’t really need anything to remind me.

To be fair, my job as a waitress didn’t add anything to the mental load, no deadlines, not much thinking. Just show up and work, then go home.

Then when my eldest was born I wanted to be a person who uses a planner and writes things down.

But I just couldn’t stick to it. I still didn’t really need it, so perhaps that’s why.

What changed

I decided to start this blog! But I just couldn’t find any time to work on it or write blog posts, for months even after I bought the domain and set up the site.

Then I decided to try time blocking as a time management option.

Time blocking is where you reserve certain times of the day for certain tasks, kind of meetings and work times as well.

I would decide a time when I would work on the blog, when I would garden, when study and so on.

I’m of course flexible because I have kids. That means I can’t always just sit down for 2h to get something done without interruptions even if I have time blocked it!

But time blocking gives me the feeling that I should be doing something, which helps me start.

It also gives my days structure, shows when I should be studying and when should work on this blog and so on.

I usually also schedule dedicated time to spend quality and focused time with the kids. Of course I tend to their needs through the day scheduled or not, but this scheduled time is meant for a specific activity that I join to do with them, no other distractions.

How do I do time blocking

When I decided to give time blocking a try, I knew I needed a specific type of planner in order to do that.

For time blocking you need to have the days so that they are split by the hour. The time range should cover your wake time.

I found The Key Planner, which is a small New Zealand company and their signature planner was exactly what I needed for time blocking.

I bought one for 2022 and have used it all year, which I love! My planner usage used to fizzle out by March/April.

When 2023 pre-orders came available, I ordered straight away.

In The Key Planner the days are split half an hourly, which makes it really easy to write down appointments and all sorts.

My Monday routine is to time block my week. First I check for appointments and such and block those out, then put work times in and mark down kids’ activities.

If the university semester is on-going I will allocate time for studying, depending on the course load.

Then I will re-read my goals for the month and allocate the remaining time to work towards the goals, keeping in mind that I’ll need some time for cleaning (I like the “power hour” mentality where you put a timer and just clean until the timer beeps), spending some dedicated time with the kids, time to do my duties as a treasure and some no expectations at all time as well.

I feel like this time blocking has really worked for me, I look at my weeks as a whole and allocate things to do, rather than trying to do everything in one day, everyday.

It also helps me to stay organised and not to forget important things (like those treasure tasks!).

If you wanted to give time blocking a go, or were in need of a good planner for 2023, at the time of the writing, The Key Planner 2023 is still available for pre-purchase for December delivery.

This is not an ad, nor am I affiliated. I just really love using mine (which both I bought with my own money) and wanted to share a great planner supporting a small local business.

The Key Planner also comes as a digital planner if you would prefer that by the way, and there is an app too.

Do you have any tips on how to stay organised? I’d love to hear in the comments!