How to Stay Organized in LIFE and MONEY with 4 Simple Habits

I'm a busy Millennial I'm a mom to a toddler I'm a full-time business owner running YouTube I am a wife I'm a friend I'm trying to do all of the things and so trying to stay organized in my life and in my finances can be very overwhelming until I discovered these four simple habits that you can practice and put into practice for your life that helps you manage it all and stick around to the end of the video because I'm going to be sharing one secret that changed my organizational habits for good hey guys it's Justine your host of the debt free Millennials channel here we talk about all ways to Achieve Financial confidence Crush debt that leads to more fun and fewer payments if you're into that lifestyle be sure to subscribe we're growing the channel to over 100k this year I'm so stoked about this goal one of the things that really when I think about personal finance is organization once you become organized in your money you become organized in in your life the first tool that really helps me stay organized in life and money is my planner and I am obsessing over the cafy and Conquer weekly planner by Cali Brans for she runs the YouTube channel but first coffee and I absolutely love this planner how it helps me is it takes me from figuring out all of my to-do list and if you're anything like me you just write down all the things that you have to do and do a brain dump and then you start kind of just slowly going through that checklist rather while she does have that as a functionality in her planner she helps you figure out when are you doing these tasks by assigning them into time blocks I love that about this planner this is something that I've not seen in any other planner by allowing you to use time blocks inside of your planner to start taking those tasks and moving them over into sections of your week you can also add bill due dates throughout the month so that you're keeping track of your financial progress along with whatever life tasks admin tasks or work tasks that you might have inside of that Weekly planner it just gives me so much flexibility and functionality because this planner is not dated so I can pick and choose and pick this planner up if I skip a week or we have vacations I can get right back on track and no page is wasted in addition to my weekly planner which I love having something physical to help me just brainstorm brain dump all the things that I need to do or get done throughout my week I also obsess over my Google Calendar now I really use a digital calendar to help me book appointments throughout the month whether I'm meeting with one of my one-on-one coaching clients or I'm meeting with one of my corporate clients we're talking about me coming in to do a facilitation for them as a personal finance educator I want to make sure that I have those appointments blocked on my calendar also personally I want to make sure that I have any dates blocked off for things like Quinn might be at off from daycare or I want to think about Vacations or days that I'm going to be traveling I Mark that in my Google Calendar because I live and Breathe by it and many of my clients have access to book appointments with me through my calendar I want to make sure I don't overbook myself using the Google Calendar for appointment setting has been so great because it's on the- go it's digital I can quickly look it up look up my schedule especially if I'm talking with friends about planning an outing or meeting up with them I can quickly take a look at my calendar whereas the physical weekly planner this guy this guy actually really helps me think about what my days look like and I have more flexibility of how I'm structuring those time blocks okay so the first two the the planner and the calendar are really tools but they are also habits in which I'm actually physically using both of these things but I think the biggest thing for me in getting organized with life and money are routines no matter how small they are incorporating routines into your life is tremendously going to help you stay organized for example I know that I really like to work out during the week and so I make it a routine to have a habit of working out at least three times per week ideally I like to take that time in the afternoons between 2:30 and 3:30 before I pick up my daughter from school that is a routine even if things get a little crazy and trust me I don't stick to this habit every single week because life happens but I always try to make sure that this is a routine that I stay on most of the time just like I do with budgeting every single month Kyle and I are setting down to look at our monthly income and expenses and see what happened for the month I may not be completing that budget by the first of every single month but I'm for sure completing it sometime before we meet for that budgeting meeting so that we can make sure we have that time set aside to talk about our finances and one routine that really helps me is keeping everything organized inside of my budget spreadsheet you know that I love this thing I've been using it for over a decade now to track my income and expenses and you can pick up the exact same template that I use by using the link below downloading that for free it also lands you on my newsletter where you get weekly advice tips and stories from me to help encourage you on your financial Journey can pick that up using the link below another thing about routines no matter how small they are is that they are predictable and consistent I know going back to the workout example I know that 2:30 to 3:30 is kind of my workout time and that is going to be very predictable for me to fit it into my schedule and say no to appointments during that time alternatively you could think about this for um conversations you might have with your partner for example my bestie told me about Tuesday talks that she has with her guy and I was like that's amazing so Tuesday talks is where you sit down and you talk with your partner about whatever with no electronics no TVs no gadgets no nothing it's a chance for you guys to reconnect with each other when life in your week gets really busy you can talk about things that are happening within your relationship maybe there's something uh an issue or problem that you want to address with your partner maybe you want to take that opportunity to talk about finances or just planning out your year together Kyle and I have been doing Tuesday talks for close to a year now and I have to say it has really strengthened our communication and just simply our bonding time especially now that we're a parent of a young toddler and then lastly what I want to mention about routines is we know what's flexible and what's non-negotiable routines are really important especially for toddlers and babies and so we know what's non-negotiable for us we will not keep her out past 8 p.m. because her bedtime is at 8:00 p.m. and when we're flexible on that is things like holidays or maybe the weekend when we want to stay out a little bit later for dinner we know what's flexible and what's non-negotiable and I think if you can think about routines in that regard you're going to go a long way one of the best habits that I've made to stay really organized with life and money is intentional planning I do intentional planning on a yearly quarterly weekly basis to make sure that I know exactly where I want to head next I'm I'm such a planner this is super type A if you're like type B you're like she's nuts but hear me out because I want to know what I want to happen in that particular month or year if I can visualize it and stick to that Vision then there's a likelihood of that Vision becoming a reality because I'm going to take baby steps to get there and here's how intentional planning helps me I can prioritize my personal life by taking a look at 2024 and figuring out what are the vacations that I would like to take what days do I want to have off how can I go ahead and block that off in my calendar now so that I don't have appointments or work rated things overtaking my personal time with my family what are some things that I want to achieve personally that I want to make sure that I prioritize by planning ahead for the future on the professional side I definitely have revenue and profit goals and thinking about okay what is the amount of Revenue that I want to earn from coaching versus brand sponsorships versus YouTube ad Revenue what are some of those metrics that I can start really mapping out and make that Vision become a reality and with intentional planning also comes intentionality with your finances I talk a lot about intentional spending which is to spend on the things you love and cut out the rest if you want to know more about intentional spending then you definitely have to check out my spend more debt L workbook where I'm talking about spending and loving to do so while paying off your debt you can do that by clicking the link below to get the workbook for sale right here and it has been such a valuable tool in helping me figure out okay what are the things that I actually love to spend money on and what am I spending money on that's out of habit like for example I would spend money on Starbucks out of habit because I was just lazy or bored bored or sad or just confused about my day so I needed more caffeine when all reality it wasn't something that I was truly loving because at the end of the day I would be feeling like I drank too much sugar or I had too much Dairy so now I've been working on making my own coffees at home which has been really really helpful for me to say like this is what I love and every now and then I can treat myself to a Starbucks and not feel bad about it so if you made it to the end of the video then I want to share my one secret that has helped me just keep keep everything on track and that is small habits keep it small keep it incremental and what I mean by that is I had this goal of keeping dirty clothes off of my bedroom floor and my bathroom floor all the time I would change to get in the shower and I would just put my clothes on the floor or I would change out of my pajamas and get dressed for the day and my PJs would just be on the floor and it would be like that for days and I would get suddenly overwhelmed because I saw all this clutter on the floor but I didn't know how it got there so small habits for me is I wanted all of the clothes off of the floor but how could I like break that down into little micro steps and the littlest step that I made and this sounds so weird but it actually really worked was once I got undressed from PJs in into my regular day clothes I would fold up my PJs and put them back into the drawer or I would take my PJs and put them in the the hamper that was a very small change so there's only one task that I'm doing instead of thinking like I've got to do I've got to keep my clothes picked up all the time and how am I going to manage it it was just like no after you get up in the morning and when you get changed for the day just put your pajamas instead of like putting them on the floor take them fold them and put them away in the dresser heck don't even fold them just put them in the dresser drawer and that is going to help you just keep that clutter out of your mind cuz I find when I have a clutter fore home and things are picked up off of flat surfaces my brain just operates much more smoothly and I have a more productive work day because I'm working from home let me know in the comments what are some habits that you take on to help you stay organized in your life and your finances I find just having something written where you can write things down especially with budgets and planners and calendars is really going to help you stay on top of household admin tasks your financial tasks that help you stay more confident in in control with life and money if you enjoyed this one give it a big thumbs up don't forget to check out that workbook and I'll catch you in the next [Music] one