How I Organise My Life
In this blog I will go into details how I organise everything happening in my life. From travels to work and everything in between. I will talk about what apps I use and various methods of keeping things organised and in check.
I use the default mail app that comes with Apple products. I’m sure there are many other email apps that are better but this has worked perfectly for as long as I can remember. In total I have 3 email addresses. One is public for my photography, one for signing up to random things such as online shopping and one for various bank accounts and important things. I also have a couple hidden emails that have nothing to do with me for social media accounts. This practice is more tiresome than having just one email however it’s very secure and in the long run more efficient too. To organise my emails I have a bunch of flags that group specific emails together.
To Do - I need to take action
To Follow Up - I am waiting for a reply
In Progress - Open project I am working on and keep the email for reference
Reservations - Bookings for hotels, activities etc
Tickets - Tickets for flights, trains etc
Info - Useful information just in case
All the emails which have been flagged will live in the archive folder and either kept or deleted once I no longer need them. Anything that comes in and looks like junk but hasn’t been filtered, will be marked as junk so in the future it will not come into my main inbox. With emails my philosophy is keeping it as simple and straight forward as possible and after much trial and error, this system is the best for me.
Calendar
I use the default Apple Calendar app as I find it integrates and syncs the best. Inside I have 3 calendars
Personal - For my own stuff
Work - For work stuff
Shared - Shared with family
Tasks
For task management I use Apple Reminders and inside I have 3 main buckets. Work, Travel and Someday. The work bucket is broken down into admin, products and content.
Admin - Website updates and other generic business admin tasks
Products - Anything relating to my products / services
Content - Anything specific I need to make that is not a normal video such as ad reads
The travel bucket is broken down into specific trips. This is where I will keep tasks related to that particular trip. The someday bucket is for anything I need to do but it’s not important or urgent. It’s more of a reminder than a task for whenever I have spare time.
Second Brain
I know the title of this section might sound strange but it will make perfect sense soon. A little while ago I came across the concept of a second brain. Our main brain (the one in our head) is excellent at processing but not the best at storing information and recalling it. The purpose of the second brain is to create something that allows you to offload ideas, thoughts and tasks into a structured system that is easy to navigate and recall information as and when needed. I tried various apps for this and the best one for me is the default Apple Notes. There are 4 main buckets. Quick Notes, Snapsbyfox, Travel & Everything Else.
Quick notes is for jotting down an idea in the fastest way possible as and when it comes to mind. All apple devices have a shortcut that can open a new quick note right away. Think of this as an inbox for random ideas. Once every so often I will go through it and either delete the note if it’s no longer relevant or move it somewhere else.
Snapsbyfox is the bucket for everything to do with work. This bucket is then split into 4 sections. Youtube, Blog, Reels and Products. Each section is further split into an “In Progress” and “Ideas” section. Under ideas I create a new note with whatever idea I have for a YouTube video, blog or reel. I will give it a title and write down anything I have in mind. Every month I will pull a few of these ideas I want to focus on and move them to “In Progress”. This is where I will work on that in detail. Once the video / blog / reel is done, the note is deleted. Finally the Products bucket will have a new note for each product I have available. This is where I will jot down any improvements or changes that need to be made for future updates. This is also where I will write down ideas for future products.
Moving to the travel bucket, this is where I store all my notes and information for various trips. This is also a good backup for my travel maps that I compiled in Apple Maps. I don’t use this much and it’s more for information dumping.
Finally there is the everything else bucket. Here I keep random notes that are more personal. It could be a list of my favourite coffees, what wines I tried and liked, my gym routine, health research, notes from the books I read and much more. As for backup, I use an app called Exporter for Mac which exports all my notes as text documents just incase.
Brainstorming
When it comes to brain storming, I use Apple Freeform which is a blank canvas app. I can use it to brainstorm videos, product ideas or anything else. Don’t use it too often but very handy to have.
Files
I store all my files on iCloud Drive so that I can access them on any device anywhere in the world. I also keep a local copy at my home on a drive for physical backup.
