A general focus for me so far in 2024 has been to work on FIXING and SIMPLIFYING things that are persistent problems.
I’ve had this nagging feeling for a long time now that many things in my life are mildly “out of sorts”. Some areas just need a good declutter, yes. But others are minor issues that seem easy to ignore, except they keep coming up again..and again… and again. And wouldn’t it just be easier to fix them?!
This concept fits in nicely with the whole Second Brain thing, too, since many scatterbrained type issues can be solved by digitally saving info or taking a note.
The Lazy Genius podcast ironically touched on a similar thread this week, too, (Episode #349 “10 Small Changes I’m Glad I Made”); it was funny because I listened to it after I had already checked off several wins in this department – and some of mine exactly mirrored some of Kendra’s!
Some recent Life Fixes:
1) I saved a link to Asher’s upcoming High School Handbook in my Google Keep (i.e. my choice for my digital “Second Brain”) under the Kids label. I know I’ll need to reference this eventually, and now it will be right there. No more googling the school district, trying to find the link, etc. when I want it.
2) I made a Note titled “Personal Care Items Inventory”. I always lose track of which items I have backups for (e.g. my face lotion, shampoo, hair products, contact solution, etc.). So when an item I’m using gets low, I never know for sure if I have another one waiting in the wings? Or if I’m legit really out….Like, how urgently do I need to replace this?? (My master bath is small so I don’t keep the extras in there; maybe this is why this felt more important for me. I can’t just glance in the closet and see…). So I went through my back stash and made note of how many, if any, extras I have of each item. My goal is to build a backup stockpile of EVERYTHING I use consistently, so that when one thing runs out, I can just grab the new one and instantly add that item to my grocery list to buy a new backup. (Heard this idea on Organize 365 podcast and loved it.)
3) I bought an extra of my shampoo and conditioner for our basement/guest bathroom. Now and then I shower down there if Ivan is hogging the master bath and I need to shower at the same time. I always keep (slightly cheaper…) “guest” shampoo/conditioner there, but I like to use my stuff. It’s always been a production of grabbing my special shampoo, conditioner, face wash, etc from the master bath and then lugging it all downstairs with me. I have flashbacks of heading to the college dorm showers wearing flip flops and carrying my little bucket. LOL. This always feels like a Hassle. Why not just keep another set downstairs?! Duh. Done.
4) I moved my exercise to the morning. Already talked about this, but p.m. exercise was creating a cascade of other issues. I finally decided to take action and move this, and it’s made a HUGE difference. And you know what? It hasn’t been a big deal!!
5) I bought another pair of scissors. I laughed because Kendra on The Lazy Genius mentioned this one too. But seriously, it’s like we have a Scissors Monster in our house, because they always disappear. So, I bought more. Also done.
6) I saved a photo of Ethan’s temporary driver’s license in my Google Keep. I always need the DL number to log into the Driver’s Ed portal (to check for Behind the Wheel session openings or sign him up for one). But he keeps his DL in his phone case. And I’m not always with him. So, this became a whole annoying thing anytime I want to log in to the portal. Inspired by the Second Brain idea, I saved a photo AND a copy-able version of his driver’s license number in Google Keep. Easy peasy, problem solved; it’s now always at my fingertips.
7) I bought an additional toothbrush holder for our bathroom. Since the boys’ bathroom remodel is still not done (my “contractor” AKA my Dad was away for over a month over the holidays… work will resume soon…), they’ve been sharing our bathroom. Which is annoying enough, but they also each have big, clunky electric toothbrushes that they leave sitting around on my small pedestal master bath sink. And these things are oddly…. top heavy. I swear to all things that are holy, every.single.time I reach for anything in the bathroom, I somehow manage to lightly brush one of these toothbrushes. And they then lose their balance and topple over into the sink, making a very loud crashing sound on their way down. I couldn’t take it anymore!!! Every damn day. So I finally spent $8 at TJMaxx on another toothbrush holder that their two electric toothbrushes can stand up in. No more toppling toothbrushes!! So simple, yet I dealt with this annoyance for probably 2 1/2 months before I did anything about it.
I think that’s all for now! I’m actively looking for other ongoing issues that I can nip in the bud and solve. It’s so worth it!!
By the way, these are my current Google Keep Labels/ Sections.
One negative of Keep is that you can’t do subfolders!!! So that makes Tiago Forte’s PARA idea (to organize notes by Project- Area- Resource- Archive) really challenging. Now, I am planning to use Google Drive in conjunction with this, which does allow subfolders.
But I’m not honestly sure I care about organizing in the PARA format anyway. I’m still thinking on this.
Whenever I quickly add anything to Keep from my phone, I’ve just been defaulting it to the .Unlabeled label. Then later I go back and review the .Unlabeled folder and clean it out and decide where I want to move any recent notes to, or if I really need to keep it. This takes the pressure off and allows me to just randomly save anything that sparks my fancy. I don’t have to decide in the moment which label is best. Or I can just delete it if it’s a bit “meh” after I come back to it! (An example might be a screenshot or clip from an article, blog post, etc. that seemed inspiring, but maybe on second thought, it’s not worth saving.)
Have you solved any small but annoying nagging issues lately? Do you have any sort of “digital brain”? I am using a combo of Google Keep, mostly, but also Google Tasks for certain things. Google Drive is backup for longer term, more permanent storage, plus of course Google Calendar + Gmail!! It’s a whole Googleverse over here for me. LOL. As one post I read said… “I’ve officially drunk the Google Kool-Aid.” 🤣
Bonus: Here’s a snip from my “Fun/Smile” folder! I’m just dumping screenshots in of things that make me smile. I love having it!
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for Friday rest day/ yoga day. I like this new schedule. It’s something nice and gentle to look forward to now on Friday mornings. A sweet end to the week.
GRATEFUL KAE 
First of all, I highly approve of a fun folder for your digital brain. Second of all, there are times when I can’t get to “our” shower AND of course the thing that stops me from using the boys’ shower is that I don’t have my shampoo…HELLO I always have a spare bottle of shampoo in the hall closet because of my own personal care inventory so you’ve made me realize that this is a problem that already has a solution.
You can never have too many pairs of scissors. Offhand I have my kitchen scissors, a pair of non-kitchen scissors in the kitchen, a pair in two desks downstairs, a pair in the living room, a pair in my bedroom, and a pair in my office. I live with three Scissor Monsters, so even with this system I have to be alert and keep taking scissor inventory.
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Right, the shampoo issue is NOT that complicated… it’s not like shampoo costs a million dollars and I can’t invest in another bottle! Besides, I don’t use that bathroom too often, so it should last a long time in there.
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How many times have I run out of contact lens solution??? Too many!! I need to get better at keeping it in stock.
Second brain… Keep, for sure. Paper journal and drive, too. I hear you about not being a o me to folders in keep just labels.
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Yes, contact lens solution is another one. I often buy the 2 packs, and I keep the extra one in another closet.. but then I’m not good at keeping track of if I’m on the first bottle, and still have a reserve, or am I on the 2nd bottle, and about to actually run out? I loved the idea of being strict about as soon as you grab the “reserve” of anything, immediately add it to the grocery list. Makes total sense but I know I haven’t done this religiously.
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All brilliant stuff. When my 4 kids were young I was always searching for the kitchen scissors. I tied them with a long shoelace to the handle of the drawer where we kept them. They never disappeared again – I knotted it a few times so they were not easy to untie and no one was ever brave enough to use the scissors to cut the lace. They were like that for years!
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Ooh, smart! Like when businesses tie the pen to the counter. I should think about trying something like this for our main scissors in the kitchen.
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I bought a second scotch tape holder and put it in the gift wrap box with a pair of scissors!
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Also so smart! We have a wrapping paper/ gift bag box in a little storage room under our basement stairs. I should totally stock it with a scissors, pen, gift tags and tape. Would be even better if I picked up some generic birthday cards and kept them in a folder there too!
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I use apple notes, which allows to create folders. I like PARA concept but feel like it’s more for project management which is not the case for household tasks.
it’s a good reminder to do the nagging task once, just need to remember which ones are those.
glad to see you’re making so much progress to start the year. I feel like my January has been more stressful than usual.
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Right. I can think of some things in my personal life that I could categorize into the project area… planning our Hawaii trip, for example, or some household things like photo management, or yard projects, etc. But I don’t know, I feel like my brain works better by thinking of the different areas. I’m not sure I’d like having “household” stuff sort of scattered across the various folders. I get it, but also feels like it might confuse me a little.
Sorry you’re having a stressful January!
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Yes! This! I’m reorganizing my house and finally tackling old, persistent problems in new ways. I have a post about it in drafts, I hope it will be up next week.
I just started Second Brain (because you and SHU both mentioned it – thanks!) so I haven’t started doing anything suggested yet, but I’m sure I will be writing about that soon too.
And I’ve wanted to thank you for sharing your Mexico City trip. I’m going next month and I wrote down a bunch of places that looked fun from you blog! It was super cool to see the city a little before I go myself.
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Will look forward to checking out that post! This is such a fascinating concept to me- it’s one of those things that makes a huge difference, yet it’s so easy to just keep on trudging through those persistent problems! I’d love to see what ideas you have on all of this!
And so exciting about Mexico City! I feel like we barely scratched the surface, but our trip’s main focus was to see family, so we had limited time for sightseeing. What will you be doing there specifically? Just travel for travel or do you have anything else on the agenda?
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Love all this! I like hearing about what you’re tackling!
I have Second Brain on hold. I guess it is making the rounds because there is a long wait list.
Not being able to create sub folders on Google Keep bugs me. I feel like it would be my lynch pin in how I’m already using Google calendar, tasks, drive and photos. I also wish I could get Siri to add an item to Google tasks.
I just recently added my shampoo and conditioner to the guest bathroom. We kept having little sample bottles there and it was annoying. We’re about to “room hush” (from The Nester) our home office to figure out what we really need in there versus what has become visual white noise. I left an empty medium size box in a common area for a week so anytime I saw something I’d been meaning to purge or realized we didn’t need anymore I tossed it in and we move that box out last weekend. Big New Year energy going on here!
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Yes, I don’t know why they don’t allow subfolders!!! I “think” maybe they have intended for Keep to be primarily used for quicker, shorter term notes, and then Drive for longer term, more organized storage. I think that’s the direction I may attempt to move in eventually- so I’ll use Keep more as a temporary note storage area and then periodically review it and see if there are things that I can then transfer to Drive (and remove from Keep). I could see, for example, taking snips from some articles, or notes from a podcast, or takeaways from a book getting tossed into Keep in the moment, but later organized into a more permanent Google Doc on Drive. (Since Drive allows all the subfolders)
I also wish Siri could add to Google Tasks. I have found though that it’s still pretty simple if I just say “Siri, Open Google Tasks” (or Open Google Keep) and then I can either just type directly in quickly or hit the microphone button and record an item instantly.
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One way I get around the sub folders issue is to use numbers at the beginning of the tag so theyre ay least in order. So all projects would be 1kitchen or 1patio, areas get a 2 as in 2workouts or 2recipes, etc
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That’s a good idea! I actually played around with labeling things like “P-Hawaii Trip”, “A- Kids”, etc. But then I felt like it was visually cluttering up my list. Your numbering idea is better since A comes before P, so doing it how I tried doesn’t keep them listed in PARA order! haha. I’ll have to play around with that. I’m still deciding if I even want to really attempt the PARA thing or just keep organized by my general areas, as I had been. I can see advantages to PARA but have a little hard time wrapping my head around it I think.
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Why do scissors constantly disappear?! I remember this being an issue when I was a kid, too. We now have many pairs of scissors… and they are still sometimes difficult to lay hands on. Same thing with scotch tape and masking tape.
One small thing that made my life easier many years ago is having a small toilet scrubber in each bathroom. I also buy a giant pack of toilet paper from Costco when we go, and I put an entire package in each bathroom — even if they are rarely used (like the guest bathroom). Seems clear from this paragraph that I have too many bathrooms.
I use Google notes a LOT as a digital brain. And my husband and I share a lot of lists — grocery, Target, packing lists. So that we can add things from our own devices and always have a central list.
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Haha, you can never have too many bathrooms! We have 3, but have been down to 2 for a couple months as this bathroom remodel is underway (slowly). Let me tell you, that 3rd bathroom is crucial!! The boys are always too lazy to go downstairs to use the guest bathroom (since it’s their bathroom which is out of commission). So then they want to be in my master bathroom all the time! Argh, go away! haha.
I love the shared notes thing. And that I can add things from my computer to the list if I think of something while I’m working and have it show up!
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I need to check out this book and see what I should be organizing differently? Or maybe because of my kids’ stage of life there is just not much to keep track of? I have to keep track of a lot of things at work but I have a pretty organized folder system with a lot of hierarchy. But I don’t have all that much to keep track of otherwise. We use apple notes since I can share the note with Phil and we can both edit it. That is where we have our shopping list and then I have a section below the grocery stores for target and we both add things to that when we discover we need them.
We have pedestal sinks on our bathroom too and I hate them. But luckily we have a storage cabinet in the bathroom too. I would never put pedestal sinks in a bathroom if I was designing it. I think they are so impractical – you lose the below sink storage and not much fits on the top of the sink since space is typically pretty constrained!! We have his and hers sinks and I also think it’s unnecessary. We are never in the bathroom at the same time like brushing our teeth or washing our hands/faces. I would love to completely redo our bathroom but I doubt we ever will as it’s probably not worth the hassle.
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I think the things you have to keep track of will certainly change over time. I feel like some of the things I’m working toward organizing are not necessarily “crucial” items, but just things that would make my life easier. Things like my Christmas document (we did a belated Christmas with my parents last night, and I was going shopping for food yesterday and was so glad I could just pop that document open on my phone to see the list of what we normally always buy for Christmas food!), keeping a document with the kids’ doctors, dentists, addresses, etc on it. (always needed for forms….like, why do I have to list my kids’ dentist’s address? Is the school going to drive him to the dentist if he chips a tooth at school? I do not think so…. ha), and just generally having a place to jot things down. I feel like more and more recently I will hear something/ see something/ think of something and think, “Oh, that’s a good idea” or “I should remember to do that”. But then I wasn’t taking any action, just sort of assuming that I’d remember or think of it again. Realistically I know I probably won’t! So I’m now making a note in Google Keep anytime I have that little thought. Might be something totally random, like if I see a product on a commercial or read on a blog about some cute boots I’d like to consider checking out, etc.
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Scissors! We have scissors in most rooms. Kitchen, living room, downstairs bathroom, guest room (this is where our gift wrapping station is), sewing room, upstairs bathroom office. The only rooms without are the dining room, master bedroom, and basement. We are never without!! Is this too much? Who knows?!
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No, I think that’s very smart! I don’t understand why my family has the need to remove the scissors from where they are to use them all the time. Like, can’t some of the things be cut or snipped right there in the kitchen?! I think one of the biggest uses here would be to cut a tag off a new item, or help to open a package, etc. Can’t they do it in the kitchen?!
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This is awesome, making these little changes can have such a huge impact on things that gave you headaches before. I love it.
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Exactly- such minor things but make a big difference!! I think I just get on autopilot sometimes and don’t even consider where changes could be made. I’m trying to pause and analyze different areas more often now, looking for those small opportunities.
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I want to listen to that Lazy Genius podcast! I like her, and this sounds like a good one.
Yes, I know this feeling well. The “quick fix” that comes to mind was buying my daughter new socks. I spite of the fact that I do laundry almost every day, clean socks were always an issue. DUH. I just went out and bought another package. It makes life so much easier!
Why are scissors always an issue? I’ve bought extras in the past but once again I can never find them-time to buy another one.
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I have SO many pair of scissors in my house. I literally do not think one can own too many pairs of scissors!
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I love finding better ways to organize and am even happier when you try it out and it works!! I am also a Google user, and Keep has been so helpful over the years. I use tags and also the pin, I don’t know if you use that. I generally pin the things I am currently working on or are more important in the moment and then it keeps them at the top so that I don’t forget about them. Also if I am just clipping a link to a pair of cute boots I do NOT pin that as it is not important and would otherwise go on top of my important stuff if I did pin it.
I have been experimenting with Monday.com lately too. There is a free version and it DOES have subfolders and you can drag and drop files and notes in, or add more notes and even the free version lets you collaborate with one person. I will probably write a review on it once I get more used to it but so far, I am liking it!
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I started a “backup” closet a few years ago because I was the same way: I kept running out of things and it was so annoying! It was an investment to suddenly start buying TWO of everything when I was building up my backup closet but now it’s so nice to not worry about running out of things! Once I take an item out of the closet to use, the backup gets added to my Target cart immediately. It’s so helpful!
I need to figure out a better way to keep track of my digital lists. I just use the iPhone Notes app and it’s not organized in ANY way so it’s really messy.
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Yes, that’s exactly what I’m aiming to do!! I agree it feels like an investment especially when some products are $$! But I think it will be worth it to just always have those extras waiting in the wings. 🙂
And I hear you- I used to just randomly and very sporadically use the iPhone notes app too… I’m so glad I switched to Keep! I mean Apple Notes can absolutely work too, but for me it has been key to have the quick easy access to Keep from within my Gmail (on the sidebar). I am much more likely to organize things better on my laptop – but I am more likely to ADD things from my phone. So having easy access on both ends has been so helpful for me.
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So funny because my goal is to have NO backstock, so much so I’m doing a use up 24 in 2024 project.
I have at least one pair of scissors in each room and some rooms have several (study, kitchen and our bathroom)
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That is funny! I can understand not wanting extra clutter and backstock, but for me, I was getting so annoyed with constantly running out of things. Of course I never run out of anything at the same time, so I was just feeling like I constantly needed to be running to the store or worrying about picking things up. So I think the backstock option will allow me to relax and still have what I need, and then just casually add it again to my grocery list to pick up a new back up at my leisure (instead of stressing over rushing out to get it, making sure I don’t run out, etc.).
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