Select the Right Personal Organizer to Take Back Control of Your Tasks and Projects

Whether you use a basic planner or an expensive leather personal organizer, choosing the right one can boost your time management skills and personal organization.

Do you get to the end of the day and wonder where the hours have gone?

Have you ever forgotten to do that important task?

If so, then you're not alone!

While we cannot get an extra hour in the day, an organizer can help you to use your time more effectively.

That is why it is important to find the right organizer for you!

Take the time to find the right personal organizer

Whatever organizer you choose, spending the time and money to get the right organizer for you is important.

After forgetting an important event and promising myself not to forget such things again, I made the plunge and purchased an organizer.

That was several years ago.

But which one to get? What was the right price? Do I get a day to a page or a page for one week?

These were all the questions that were swirling around in my head as I pondered the type of organizer to purchase.

My first one was a small paper-bound organizer, one with a week to a page and the cute pictures in the top right-hand corner.

Then I brought another one and another... Finally I found the perfect organizer for me!

What works for me is (and you'll want to change this to suit your own needs):

• two pages to a day but obviously a daily organizer needs to be tailored to fit into your bag, brief case or large purse.
• hourly appointments down the side of the page to schedule tasks and activities.
• a pen holder - as I can never seem to find a pen when I need it..which is so frustrating!
• sleeves on the inside covers to hold lose papers/notes that have not been entered into my daily organizer. I also use this to keep the annual planning and quarterly check-ins from these time management exercises.
• a page set-up that allows me to use my weekly planner.

Have a system to keep your information organized

I take my daily planner just about everywhere and definitely use it and LOOK at it every day.

The type of information that I keep in it is:

• Appointments. As a psychologist I regularly have hourly appointments which are scheduled into my diary.
• Birthdays. There was a time when I used to keep this information in my head - but it was so easy to forget! I have not forgotten a birthday since using my organizer
• Work. I block my work hours and transport time to and from work. In this time I set my work's to do list.

  Blocking your time for work may not be so important if you work to a fixed schedule, as it could be for contractors or casual workers, it is a good habit that can allow you to set up a time management schedule and boost overall effectiveness.

• Exercise and social life. I schedule my exercise and social life. These are things that are important to me and scheduling them in my daily organizer allows me to make time - rather than have other activities (usually work) crowd out these activities.

How many personal organizers to use?

At one point I was using multiple daily organizers...one in Microsoft Outlook and another on my phone, in addition to the paper daily organizer.

It didn't take long for me to get very confused about where to look and my time management schedule got very messy.

The right thing to do is to have one daily planner.

In my daily planner I don't include too much information - just the bare essentials as I want to protect my privacy in the event that my personal organizer is lost or stolen.

If there is ONE major benefit of having personal organizer software and password protecting your data and having the ability to back up your data.

However, a personal organizer need not be the traditional paper and pencil exercise.

There is plenty of personal organizer software that you can use for various applications. Some of these include:

• smartphone software for use with smartphones.
• palm time management software to use on iPhone, BlackBerry®, Palm®, Windows® Mobile, and other devices.
• other time management software that can be uploaded to your device or computer.

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