How I Stay Organized

As a Mompreneur, I have to keep my business ventures as well as my home and family organized. This is no small feat because everyone and everything pulls you in multiple directions. At times, this may leave you feeling overwhelmed, undervalued, and incompetent. Trust me, I know I've been there. Over the years, I have finally figured out what I need to do in order to stay sane. I have learned from many different gurus; I have read many different books and I have used multiple resources. In the end, I needed to figure out what works for me.

There is no guarantee that what I present herein won't change again in the next year or even in the next six months. All I know is that it's working for me right now, at this specific place in time. I am sharing with you hoping that you can glean something from my experience thereby discovering something new that can work for you.


At the moment, I am using a 1917 Leuchttrum Journal that I purchased from Goulet Pens. These notebooks are made in Germany and they are of high quality. Prior to the Leuchttrum, I used the Erin Condren planner for about 3 years.

What I really enjoy about the Leuchttrum is that I can customize my planner to my needs. There is hardly anything preprinted in the Leuchttrum other than the Index and the fact that the pages are numbered. As a result, if I miss a day of writing in my journal, I don't have wasted or blank pages as I do in my regular planners. Also, these personal journals allow me to create the pages that I want. For instance, I have a monthly goals page,  a budget page, a bill tracker page, along with personal and business habit tracker pages.At the end of every month I create pages for the upcoming month.

With the monthly goals spread, I can remain focused on what I deem to be important for that month. Also, I can at a glance write down upcoming appointments and or events. I use pencil on these pages so that I can easily change things around as needed.

For my budgeting page, I write down paydays and the amounts of money I am expected to receive each pay day. Then I Itemize my spending categories and create a budget of what I expect to spend in each category. In my budget, I have both an estimated and an actual column. At month's end I place the actual amounts spent and assess the differences so that when I create a new budget for the next month, I am better informed.

My bill tracker page has all bills listed for both business and personal. Prior to my doing this, I was always wondering whether or not I missed a bill. Now, as soon as a bill is paid, I check it off and place the paid date next to the item. This strategy has kept me quite organized. As a matter of fact this past Friday, I sent my bookkeeper an email asking her for her November invoice because there was not check mark in my journal next to her line item. She sent me the invoice right away with the remarks "You're so organized, I love it!"

My habit trackers keep me aligned with what habits I need to focus on creating for the month ahead. My business habit tracker is really a compilation of my business Daily To Dos. In business, there are just some things that must be done each and everyday in order for one to stay on top of all obligations. I list them in my business habit tracker along the top of the page and I number the days of the month along the left side of the page. So I literally check off or mark an x next to each item in order to remain on target.

After my habit trackers, I have my Running To Dos or what I also ℓᎥƘƎ to call my Daily Dos. Herein I just list my tasks for the day usually the night before. These pages are also a catalogue of my feelings or emotions. At times, I doodle on the pages. I just have fun with it.

What is significant is that I can index my pages so that I can find what I need. With my old journals, which I have kept since 1995, I can remember that I wrote something in a journal/planner but I would have to flip through the entire book to find what I need. With the Leuchttrum, I no longer have to do that because of the indexing. Thankfully, Leuchttrum transformed their journal to accommodate the Bullet Journal method which was popularized by Ryder Carrol. Even though I used and enjoy the 1917 Leuchtrrum, keep in mind that you can bullet journal in any notebook.

I hope my sharing how I stay organized has helped you in some way. Find what works for you and make it your own.  Please share with others; Life is good! :)