Organise your life: Moleskin agendas

By now I guess it’s clear to everyone that I lead a pretty busy life. Between writing blogs I work in education 3-4 days a week and I am enrolled as a full time student on top of dance classes, gym workouts and social activities. To keep track of it all, I make sure to keep an agenda and I have found the perfect one that can handle listing all different occasions without it becoming a mess: the Moleskin Weekly Notebook.

As you can see I have two: a red one and a black one. Both have a hard cover and one is a 12 month agenda, while the other covers 18 months. I just started using the red one by the way. The black one used to be my agenda. The reason why this agenda in particular is handy is because it comes with the days of the week on the left and a page to take notes on the right. Like so:

Notice how there is a lot of space for writing things down. What I usually do is write my appointments on the left page and my time table/ schedule on the right. I also use it to write to do lists and sometime add post its whenever I shouldn’t forget something that has nothing to do with work or appointments. So after a while the pages become something like this:

I will spare you the craziest weeks that are on these pages, but this gives you a rough idea of what I do with them. Social appointments are also listed and I just stick those in with my regular appointments. I try to keep them as neat as I can, but that doesn’t always work out, as you can see in the picture below.

I had to use arrows and more than one page several times during the week. But still I think it works. Another very handy thing these planners come with are a couple of pages for note taking in the back and in the front you will find your regular agenda stuff: calendars, a ruler, time differences, measurements etc.

What makes Moleskin planners extra handy is that they come with a flap in the back that holds another customizable notebook or an address book. The best part is that these extras can be removed from the planner and reused whenever you buy a new one because they are detachable. Here’s the customizable notebook and below you can see the address book.

Now how handy is that?! I know for a fact that this is the one thing that ensures my ability to keep track of what it is that I’m doing. It fits EVERYTHING I have to write down: from to do lists to exams, from time tables to appointments, to meetings, social events and vacations. I keep my entire life in these things and can’t live without it. Before I struggled with separate calendars or agendas: one for work and one for my social life, but by adding school into the mix it just wasn’t going to work anymore.

Conclusion: These aren’t the cheapest agendas, but they certainly do what they should do.

How do you keep track of your life?

How do I stay focused

With a busy life like mine, you have to stay focus. You lose focus and things will not work out. It’s not only important to focus on what you have to do and when, but it’s also important to focus on the task at hand. Here’s how I organize my busy life and stay focused!

Source: weheartit.com

1.) Agenda, notebooks, post its

I keep an agenda, a notebook and I use post its to keep track of what I’m doing. Appointments, classes, meetings etc. are in my agenda. Ideas for blogs are in a notebook and to do lists, wish lists and things like that are on post its as I can throw them out the minute I’m done with them. My agenda is by Moleskin and I love it! One page has the week and the page facing it has lines. That way I can write down my work and uni schedules on the right and my appointments and meetings on the left. Works like a charm!

2.) Switch off your phone

Not entirely, but switching off the sound of your phone will help to keep you sane. That way you can check your phone for messages when you want to and you cannot be disturbed by messages popping up all the time when you’re trying to do something that requires all of your attention. You can only stay focused when you stay in charge of your processes for work, studying etc. If you’re disturbed too much you will not be able to get anything done. This works for me anyway.

3.) Listen to music

I don’t know about you, but I can focus a lot better while listening to music. I simply need something that will eliminate other sounds when I’m trying to work or study. I live right in the city center, which means it’s always noisy and I also like it on trains: it allows me to cancel out people’s conversations and I can really relax. I even brought my own set of headphones to work so I can use it when I’m at my desk. Working with 7 other people in one office is all fine by me, but when I’m reading articles, grading papers or w/e, I need to be able to focus on just that.

4.) Stay hydrated, well fed and well rested

This could very well be the most important: eat right, drink enough fluids and get plenty of sleep. I have experience with writing papers and studying for tests on a sugar rush, but it is only effective for a short time. Another thing is that you shouldn’t forget to eat or drink. I used to when I was busy. But now, I always try to take an actual lunch break at work, away from my computer. It’s a great moment to socialize with others and do something completely different for a little while. And sleep. Sleep is my holy grail. If I don’t sleep right everything just seems to go wrong: I forget things, am easily distracted and I get extremely cranky.

5.) Relax

If you want to stay focused, you should take enough moments where you can just chill and do nothing. There is nothing more deadly to focus than stress. Stress will make you rush, give you a feeling of unrest and this will effect the time and effort you are willing to put into your daily tasks. So take your time and do nothing from time to time, or at least do something completely different. Something that makes you recharge your battery and help you not think about whatever it is that you’re doing. I have a few ways to relax but I will write a post about that some time in the near future.

Q: How do you stay focused?