I’m determined to be more organized in 2014. I know, everyone says things at the start of a new year that they mean but don’t achieve. I think this year it is a matter of do it or give it up entirely. So here goes.

I. I broke the things requiring my attention into categories. I figure my span of control is about five categories – there’s that MBA piping in again. So far I’ve used four and they are, in no particular order:

1. Speculative projects – Queries, Blogging, Platform, Freelance
2. Contracted projects – Client1, Client2, Client3, Client4
3. Continuing education – Certifications, Conferences, Reading
4. Family/Household – Kids, Household

…
II. I have one marble notebook that has all the ToDos. I’ve been using it since August and it is working better than any ToDo scheme ever.

III. I’ve created labels with an icon for each of my four major writing projects of the moment. The labels are fluorescent colors that are hard to miss. All the books that go with a project have on on the binding. I’ve cleared three shelves in my office and the books are all on the shelf, yet easy to identify and find.

IV. I’m trying several tracking products this year. Assignmint, seems especially promising. It’s online and I wanted to be sure the data is mine -and the details are mine. Within four hours of my email to them, Jeff Koyen of Assignmint responded via email to me, “We do not comb through your contacts. We don’t look at your pitches or assignments. Nothing in your account will ever be seen, grabbed or opined by us or other members (or our eventual advertisers and publishing clients).”

V. To deal with the amount of paper that is generated by working multiple projects with tons of research, I’ve:

1. Started to use several online products to cut down on paper and access from various devices – Pocket, Evernote, Pressfolios
2. Set up a stacked file trays for the four major research areas. 

…
Hopefully this will be a great way to go. I’ll have future posts and updates about writing tools like Assignmint, Pocket, Evernote, and Pressfolios.

-Gina