- Just trying to keep all the pieces together.
That's what organization means to me.
That's actually accurate.
That is a very accurate depiction
of my idea of organization.
(laughing)
(upbeat music)
What's up socials?
Welcome back to Amy TV.
You know I recently had a birthday,
and you know how you have a birthday
and every time you turn a year older
people come up with the same question to ask you
that they ask you every year?
How does it feel to be old?
Or how does it feel to be older?
Or how does it feel to be 30 or 20 or 40 or whatever it is?
It's like the same as yesterday.
Thank God.
What if I did feel different, uh?
That would be jarring.
That would be really, that would not be good for humanity.
So even though I kinda hate this question a lot,
it does do something positive at the end of the day.
I'm always sitting there reflecting on,
okay well if I'm supposed to feel different today
then how did I feel previously?
Whether it was yesterday or a year ago or 10 years ago.
And I always come to the same conclusion.
I actually really love, like love,
getting older.
Now let's get one thing straight,
I don't like aging, okay?
There's a difference.
I enjoy getting older.
When I think of myself in a previous life
or a younger version of myself,
I'm always realizing God I still had so much to learn.
And Amy, you little know it all,
you don't know it all.
(laughing)
Still don't, still trying.
And I'm just always thinking, man you had so much to learn.
And that excites me because I know still
I have so much to learn.
And that's what makes every day so exciting and so amazing.
So even though I'm not an organization expert
I feel like being organized in your life
is you growing older gracefully
and doing it in a way where you're learning how to adult
and you're doing it as well as you can.
And these are some of the things that I do
in order to organize my life so that I can be
a better version than I was of myself yesterday
or 10 years ago or when I was a little baby,
and how I am going to best approach continuing to get older,
being another better version of myself down the road.
Which is so exciting, I can't want to get there.
But we can wait.
We can wait a little bit.
So I want to share what's worked for me
in terms of how I organize my life
to continue on an upward trajectory
of growing older gracefully and being able
to organize all things as we go.
Before we get started make sure
you subscribe to this channel.
I make new videos every Wednesday and Sunday,
and I would love to have you back for the next one.
We have to have a conversation about one thing first
if we're gonna get all areas of our lives organized,
and that is the concept of saying yes or saying no.
This is something we all have to work on, right?
How do you say no in the times that you
want to say no but don't?
Or feel like you can't?
And what determines whether or not you would say no?
Better yet, what determines when you say yes?
When are you excited to say yes?
When do you feel like you have to say yes?
When do you say yes because it's something
you said you would do and you're continuing
to make good on that.
Kind of weighing all of this stuff is very important
because anything that should be a no should be a no,
and those things should not be a part of
this organization process just because somebody else
is making you feel like it's a part of your process
when they left it for you,
and you're like I don't want this,
why has this been gifted to me?
It is not a gift.
Is this a white elephant?
No, it's June, okay.
I have no idea what I just said.
So you really gotta get good at saying yes or no.
And one thing that could help is I like to think of things
as how excited I am about them.
And let's say it's on a scale of one to 10.
Well I've heard this theory that my favorite number,
my lucky number, seven,
should be taken out of the equation all together,
because usually if you rate something a seven
you're kind of indifferent about it,
maybe a little positive,
but not like absolutely yes.
Like seven is sort of in that neutral area.
So on a scale of one to 10,
not using the number seven,
how would you rank this thing that you have to do,
you're going to do, somebody's asking you to do,
whatever it is.
And if it's actually a high score then it's a yes, right?
But if it's not, if it's anything below that seven,
because you can't use it, then is it really a yes?
Like that kind of sounds like it's
gonna be a waste of your time.
There's probably a lot more elements to figure out here.
But that's just one thing for you to think about.
If you really want to get organized,
it's gonna feel a lot better for you
if you're organizing things in your life
that you actually want to be happening in your life.
Not organizing a bunch of stuff that got left for you.
So from there I just want to dig into all of the tools
and tactics and things that I use
to organize my entire life.
I think the most relatable thing for everybody is
the email inbox.
We all have one.
We're all avoiding one or we're all checking it
and not quite sure what the heck
to do with everything in it.
I think of this area as a place where people
can leave me those things that we were just talking about.
Requests and anything that anyone else wants me to do
and I will decide when it is convenient for me
if they are going to become a part of my life.
So obviously with an inbox or an email address
people can just get in contact with you.
And this is a lot of different mediums for people.
It could be texts as well, phone calls,
your mom could tell you what to do.
Everyone sort of has their inbox of their life, right?
Mine is pretty literal.
Now I actually don't think that this is a dumping zone.
I keep it as organized as possible.
I just have to have other things in place
in order to be able to do that.
So when people do want me to do something
I say send me an email.
As a matter of fact, it's kind of difficult
when people do send a DM on social or send a text
because I'm not as good at looking at those places
and going hmm, do I have any work to do here?
Because I don't have time for that.
So if somebody actually wants me to do something
or is requesting something of me,
I have them send me an email 'cause
I know there will be an organizational process for that.
So now if we're talking about the email inbox,
getting to inbox zero means deciding
are these things a priority or are they not a priority?
Archive is my favorite button in the whole world,
because it's not deleted so I'm still
paying Google for space for it apparently,
but it's not in my inbox and I'm not dealing with it
and it's probably, it's either getting
a response from somebody else because I forwarded it
to my assistant,
or it is not getting a response at all because it's generic.
But then anything left that is not archived
is going to get dealt with so there's another step in that.
And I have to make time to actually go through emails
and do the things that need to take place in those emails.
But then once I've kind of pared it all down
and I have actual real things that I want to do
that are in my inbox are things that I need to do,
mostly admin a lot of the time.
But if it's bigger than that we'll
talk about those processes.
But I'll schedule time to go through some of that.
If there's just emails I have to respond to
and that's the only task attached to them,
there's a time and a place for that.
Speaking of scheduling time to reply to emails
and check my inbox and make sure that it is manageable,
you probably know if you've been here for a while
that my calendar is my whole life.
So when we talk about organizing my life
it could pretty much all be taking place in Google Calendar.
So I talked about this a little bit
in a recent tutorial about calendar blocking.
I highly recommend you check that out
'cause you'll really get to see what I'm talking about.
But the biggest thing when it comes to
organizing my life on my calendar is this,
if a task needs to be done by me
it needs to be on the calendar, period.
Am I going to coffee?
Am I doing something?
Do I have to be somewhere?
Do I have to film something?
It's on the calendar.
And the second piece of that is me
being aware of what my day has in store.
I try to batch as many similar things as possible.
If I'm coaching my clients there's a period of days
that I'm coaching clients
and I'm trying to refrain from doing anything else,
because I want them to have
the best version of me as a coach when that happens.
If I'm in the middle of traveling or I'm
in between coffee appointments and have
to take a coaching client appointment,
that is not effective.
So batching is important,
and batching is helped by having a color-coded calendar.
Like I said, go watch that video to see what it looks like.
But essentially I have different calendars
for different things,
if it's travel related, if it's just do work related,
if it's call related,
here's a bunch of calls you have to do,
things like that, every single type of appointment
has its own calendar.
Some of the only notifications that I get on my phone
are those 10 minute advanced notice
notifications from Google Calendar.
So let's say in 10 minutes I need to start
filming another video I'm gonna
get a notification on my phone.
Here's the video you need to film.
You should be camera ready.
There's like a bright color on my calendar
when I need to have makeup on.
Like, you need to let me know.
Those notifications are pretty much the only ones I like
because I know that they're telling me
what I should be doing with my time next
and that I should be finishing up
whatever the heck I'm doing right now.
So if there are things that I've said yes to
that are a part of my life that I need to do
that aren't on the calendar yet
they are in a project manager sort of software,
and the one that I use with my assistant is called Trello.
I might talk to you about this software in the future
in a little bit more depth,
but you just need to know about this that
if let's say I sign on for a speaking engagement
or I sign on to work with a partner or anything,
anything that's bigger than just like
a little appointment on my calendar,
takes some logistical planning.
It's gotta have a card on Trello
so that we can go through all the logistics there
and we can communicate different things
like negotiating contracts or just any details
that need to get worked out in order
for the thing to be successfully done.
We also have like a business development board.
So if there's something that I'm working on
in terms of getting more business in
or working with more people
there's a space directly for that.
So it's very organized on Trello.
Like I said, I want to dig into that
in more depth at a later date,
but I think that that has been a huge help for me
because it's now, it's much better than a to-do list.
It is very much a task manager,
but somebody else is managing it with me
so that's what makes me understand,
like there's things I have to do,
which are on my calendar,
and there are things I'm managing and going to have
to help with that are on this task manager.
And so those things really help me
be able to separate where my attention should be.
The first priority is going to be what's on the calendar.
So if something in Trello is a priority,
I'm either a, having a scheduled appointment
with my assistant so we can go through it
or there's scheduled time on the calendar
for me to just go through all of the cards
that are sort of having things popping up
that I need to deal with and I'll deal with them.
But it all comes back to having
an appointment on the calendar.
So there's lots of normal things that I think people do
in their lives that sometimes I don't have time for.
I kind of romanticize the idea of going to
the grocery store on a Sunday and just like
strolling through with my Starbucks
and shopping for groceries.
But that doesn't actually end up
happening every single week.
It does happen sometimes.
I do kind of like just listening to a podcast
and just aimlessly wandering through the grocery store
just pretending like I know exactly what I'm getting
but just like filling the cart with
whatever I think is good,
but there are some lovely online services
that keep my head on straight when I
don't have time for silly things like that.
That includes things like Instacart.
I will totally do grocery shopping on an app
and have somebody bring it to me because it's amazing.
Like who invented that, I love you.
Amazon, we have to get a lot of things shipped from Amazon
like big things you don't want to have to bring
from the grocery store like toilet paper and paper towels
and dog food and water bottles.
Those are the things that I'm like so excited
to just have on repeat from Amazon.
We also still love Blue Apron.
You guys have heard me talk about that in the past.
I'm cooking some dope meals on a regular basis
because Blue Apron is sending me these things
with all of the groceries I need and it's just perfect.
So we actually end up eating really well
and I don't have to outline that extra time
to research recipes and go shopping and all that stuff.
If you want more details on Blue Apron
and that meal prep thing,
oh my gosh, go watch that video because I'm a huge fan.
My husband is too.
I've convinced him that I was lying when I saw I don't cook.
I now cook.
So when it comes to working out
this is important for me to organize,
because otherwise I'll just skip it all together.
(laughing)
I just would.
Of course it's gotta be an appointment on the calendar.
I've gotta work out every single day.
But if I just put like go to the gym,
I'm not that excited about it.
I'm just like, well what will I do there?
Can I just like walk around the gym and not do anything?
I try to stick with workout programs.
So whether it's I'm going to go to
a spin class x number of days per week,
that's like a program to me.
Or if there's a literal program.
I've actually found a really amazing home workout
called Pvolve I'm completely obsessed with.
And so they have like a 30-day challenge
and a six-day challenge,
and so I will follow those so that
when I schedule it on the calendar it says,
you should be doing day one of Pvolve
at this time on this day.
And then four days later it would be day four.
So I know what the curriculum is of my workout that day.
I'm much more likely to feel purposeful
and present in that moment.
When it comes to organizing travel,
I've just actually talked about this in a recent video.
I highly recommend you go check it out.
It's called Travel Planning Essentials.
I really have a few moving pieces here,
but the one biggest one that just saves me is TripIt.
And TripIt is a fantastic organizer
of all things itinerary on your travel.
All I have to do whenever I get my flights
and my hotel and any of that stuff
is forward it to TripIt and TripIt adds it to my app
and just tracks everything for me.
It'll let me know when my flight's gonna be late.
It's gonna let me know if there's any problems
or if I'm gonna have a tight connection at some point.
I just absolutely love TripIt.
I feel like my whole travel life is put together.
And mostly love it why?
I told you this before.
Because you can add it to your Google Calendar seamlessly.
It just autopopulates.
I love it.
When it comes to packing I use the same stuff every time.
I have the same carry ons every time.
I have the same personal item,
or purse for those of us who carry one.
My roller bag is the same every time.
I just change up the size depending on
how long my trip is going to be.
But that way I know when I pack usually at the last minute
like today I'm gonna have to pack at the last minute,
I know where everything's gonna go.
I know what container my makeup goes in,
I know where my skincare goes.
I know I gotta bring extra shoes in my carry on
just in case something happens.
I need to bring pajamas so that I can
change on the plane if I'm having a moment.
I bring a mask so that I can moisturize my skin
while I'm on the plane because things go crazy there.
My skin is so mad at me right now.
I need a sheet mask today.
So the packing process has basically become autopilot for me
because I just know where everything goes.
And when you have those designated items
and you realize what you need on a plane
and what can't come on a plane and what you need to check
and all of that kind of stuff,
packing is a lot easier.
I also credit packing cubes for that
because I can just throw a bunch of stuff in each of those
and throw them in my luggage and we're still
doing pretty good on the organizational front,
because if you're just looking at it
nothing is just like flying around
or gonna get damaged in the luggage.
It's really protected by those cubes.
Highly recommend that.
I'll link to those in the Amazon, in the Amazons,
in the Amazonian.
Highly recommend that.
I will link to that on Amazon in the description.
And when it comes to international travel
or any like really important personal documents
like social security cards, passports,
any medical documentation,
that is all kept together in a safe box
so we know exactly where to grab it every time.
So random ideas and things pop up every once in a while
and it's important to keep track of that stuff, too.
I love to be able to write something in my bullet journal
whenever I have an idea so I can start
to brainstorm around it a little bit.
But usually if I'm just like on the go
and it just pops up and I don't have my
bullet journal next to me that's not really convenient,
but the likelihood I have my phone on me is good.
So I have Siri set to add my reminders to Any.Do.
Any.Do is my little in between task manager
for little things that don't actually matter
but I wanna be able to look at it later
when I'm thinking of it.
Maybe like random grocery items in case I forget.
So I'll just talk to Siri and tell her,
hey don't let me forget to check the dryer in 10 minutes
and that kind of thing.
That is so useful because I'm the
most forgetful person of all time.
Even those Google Calendar notifications
that tell me I have to get on a phone call,
the max I could be notified is 10 minutes
because that is the space of time that I will
completely forget I was supposed to get on a phone call
and I will work on something else.
It is so easy for me to get distracted
with the really tiny memory that I have.
And when it comes to everything else,
and when I say everything else,
I say the things that matter to you
that should be a habit at this point.
You still need some kind of reminder.
So let's say you wanted to get better
at taking care of your skin.
Well, keeping all your skincare products
in a cabinet somewhere that you never look at
but every once in a while when you go to grab a Band-Aid
is a great way to forget to do your skincare every day.
So my skincare is out, it's ready.
I know everything I have.
I know when I'm exfoliating, when I'm not,
'cause I just have it there to remind me.
I know where my makeup is and where I always do it.
I know Lucy gets an evening pill but I will totally forget
if I don't have it set right next to her bed
when I tuck her in to give it to her.
My workout gear is sitting right by the TV
where I do my training three to five times a week
so that I don't forget it's time to work out
and here's your stuff.
Make habit building easy so that you don't have to have
a little strategic list or calendar
for every single thing that you wanna get
more organized around in your life.
Even something as simple as a lazy Susan for your spices
can totally change your life.
I can actually now go to the cabinet
and have a clue what spices I have.
I think I showed you that in a video, too.
God I love that thing.
So that is mostly everything when it
comes to organizing my life.
There's lots of other things but I feel like
those are the main items to touch on
that might apply to you.
But I wanna hear from you.
What do you do in your life to get organized,
to stay organized?
Something that's sort of different
or maybe just keeps you on track
and if it weren't there everything would fall apart.
I want to know that from you because I'm always looking
for things that I should be optimizing in my life,
and I think we could help each other.
Leave that in the comments below.
And I just want to take a moment right now
because I haven't,
I don't think I've done this yet on the channel,
but I just want you to know right now
how much I appreciate you.
Thank you so much for subscribing to this channel.
I never thought that we would get
to the point that we are today.
It honestly never crossed my mind.
I swear to you.
That milestone has been so crazy to wrap my mind around.
So I just want you to understand and just hear me say
how much your time is not taken for granted
and how much I appreciate it and the fact that
you do spend a few moments of your week with me every week,
every time I upload.
Especially those of you on that notification squad.
Oh my gosh, I can't even thank you enough.
So I just wanted to sit here and say that to you
because I wouldn't be uploading twice a week
and sharing all these little things that I'm doing
in my life that I feel like are making the difference
if I didn't feel like it was helping you,
and because you watch and because you tell me
and because you're subscribed and you keep coming back
I just feel like we've got a good thing going here.
I really appreciate your friendship,
and I do think of it as that.
So thank you.
That's all for today socials.
Thank you so much for tuning in, I appreciate it.
As always make sure you subscribe for good vibes
and remember to continue to go after the life that you want.
Cheers.
(light music)