I’ll share my system in case it’s helpful as a reference point.
Mint.com does a great job of tracking expenses, if you primarily use a credit card. (Which you should for the 1% discount on everything, unless you have bad self-control issues with money). It also lets you set budgets, which are fine for rough estimates but it’s strength is in recording all your transactions and I just use Excel for planning out a yearly budget. For tax record keeping, all my pay stubs and tax-deductible donations go in a ‘Fiscal Year 2014-2015’ folder on my computer, which I keep backed up on google drive and on a hard drive every two weeks.
I’ve had great success with google calendar for managing my schedule, since it syncs with my phone and I get alerts 15min before an event happens. (For example, the biweekly backups are on here as an event, as are yearly ‘time to set a budget’ reminders, work schedules, gym visits, etc). A tip if you’re overloaded with work and constantly busy is to block in some relaxation or ‘hang out with friends’ time so that those do not get pushed to the wayside.
For notes and to-do lists, I carry a small notebook and pen in my back pocket, which works well for me. (I use something similar to the getting things done method for the lists).
A lot of household supplies and food are totally fine to get as ‘just in time’ inventory, and they just go on the to-do list when I run out of the stored supplies (toilet paper, etc). The exception of course is a plunger, a fire extinguisher, and a first aid kit, which you should always have on hand. Every weekend I usually go on a grocery/supplies trip, do laundry, and clean the apartment.
For emergency preparedness, it’s not something you have to constantly think about—you could take a day this weekend and figure out how much food and water you’d need for 3 weeks of power outage, go buy that, and forget about it. You might also want a ‘go bag’ in case you need to make a flight quickly.
I also feel like I’m fairly organized compared to my peers, but I don’t actually know what their personal management systems look like. In general though, a lot of life is take-it-as-you-go, and I would not feel comfortable with a system that I can’t afford to totally ignore if I need to.
I’ll share my system in case it’s helpful as a reference point.
Mint.com does a great job of tracking expenses, if you primarily use a credit card. (Which you should for the 1% discount on everything, unless you have bad self-control issues with money). It also lets you set budgets, which are fine for rough estimates but it’s strength is in recording all your transactions and I just use Excel for planning out a yearly budget. For tax record keeping, all my pay stubs and tax-deductible donations go in a ‘Fiscal Year 2014-2015’ folder on my computer, which I keep backed up on google drive and on a hard drive every two weeks.
I’ve had great success with google calendar for managing my schedule, since it syncs with my phone and I get alerts 15min before an event happens. (For example, the biweekly backups are on here as an event, as are yearly ‘time to set a budget’ reminders, work schedules, gym visits, etc). A tip if you’re overloaded with work and constantly busy is to block in some relaxation or ‘hang out with friends’ time so that those do not get pushed to the wayside.
For notes and to-do lists, I carry a small notebook and pen in my back pocket, which works well for me. (I use something similar to the getting things done method for the lists).
A lot of household supplies and food are totally fine to get as ‘just in time’ inventory, and they just go on the to-do list when I run out of the stored supplies (toilet paper, etc). The exception of course is a plunger, a fire extinguisher, and a first aid kit, which you should always have on hand. Every weekend I usually go on a grocery/supplies trip, do laundry, and clean the apartment.
For emergency preparedness, it’s not something you have to constantly think about—you could take a day this weekend and figure out how much food and water you’d need for 3 weeks of power outage, go buy that, and forget about it. You might also want a ‘go bag’ in case you need to make a flight quickly.
I also feel like I’m fairly organized compared to my peers, but I don’t actually know what their personal management systems look like. In general though, a lot of life is take-it-as-you-go, and I would not feel comfortable with a system that I can’t afford to totally ignore if I need to.