Are you drowning in sticky notes, notebooks, and apps, trying to stay on top of everything? It might feel like you’re doing everything right, but what if those habits are actually making things harder? In this episode, I’m sharing the two most common organizational mistakes I see (and have made myself) that keep us stuck in overwhelm. The good news? There’s a simple fix, and it’s easier than you think.

If you’ve been trying to stay more organized and grounded this year but still feel like you’re spinning your wheels, this episode is for you.

We’ll explore:

• The two organization habits that sound helpful but aren’t
• How to simplify your systems without sacrificing effectiveness
• The “one notebook” solution that changes everything
• Why organization is about reducing stress, not just getting more done

Join the One Notebook Challenge:
https://www.megansumrell.com/onenotebook

Listen to the episode here!

Or watch the episode here!

I’d be honored and grateful if you would head over to iTunes to leave a review and let other female entrepreneurs know what you learned! While you’re there, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss an episode.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Are you completely overwhelmed trying to manage, organize, and remember all the information coming at you all day long? There's a good possibility because most people do this, that in your effort to stay on top of it all, you've got notebooks, journals, and apps everywhere, right? 

[00:00:16] you're writing things down so that you can remember them. Well, guess what? While your intentions are fantastic, it's actually going to cause more overwhelm and usually not aid in that remembering of things. So today I'm going to be sharing with you what you can do instead that is a complete game changer.  

[00:00:38] Hey friends, welcome back to Work Life Harmony podcast. And wow, we are, you know, right here kind of at the beginning of a new year. So I thought that this topic would be pretty timely. A lot of us step into a new year with a desire, an intention, sometimes people even say a resolution to be more on top of things and to stay more grounded. 

[00:01:23] Organized. All right. And this typically, I see it with women quite a bit, right? We are juggling a lot of things. We tend to be the I, I like to call it the COO of our household or the chief operational officer, also the CIO, the chief informational officer of our household. We're the ones remembering all the things, all the information is coming at us, right? 

[00:01:46] And it's a lot so, you know, have you ever walked into a room? And then you sit there for a minute, you're like, wait, why did I come in here? Like, I came in here to get something. Five seconds later, you arrive in the room, you walked in to get something out. And then you're like, I can't remember why I walked in here. 

[00:02:01] Right. It's because we're just like a lot of stuff. Now, this episode is also going to be particularly helpful If you are in any of these, set stages of life, if you are in perimenopause, friends, it affects our cognitive abilities. All right. So this will resonate with you. If you are someone that has been diagnosed with, you know, lots of different things that can actually affect your executive functioning, this is going to be great for you. 

[00:02:28] If you are in the, you know, in what I call in the trenches stage of life, dripping with kids, you've got a lot of young ones you're responsible for. All right. We tend to struggle with this. It's even more because there's just more on our plate and in our brains that we are trying to absorb. So what most of us do, and I see a lot of people doing, I'm seeing all sorts of social media content around this, this time of year, what we do to help us get more organized is two things. 

[00:02:56] All right. And today I'm going to be sharing with you why those two things actually aren't helping you, but don't worry, I'm going to give you a solution instead. So what are two things that we typically do to make sure we don't forget anything and that we're keeping that information more organized? 

[00:03:14] Well, one of the first things that we do is we're like, okay, we recognize that holding all of this in our brain is not the solution. So we're like, okay, you know what, I'm just going to get notebooks to write all this stuff down in, and maybe even an app or two for our, for our mobile devices and guys, I get sucked into this. 

[00:03:34] I mean, you walk down the aisles of any OfficeMax, Target, Staples, et cetera. They're just there, all those gorgeous notebooks with their pretty colors, they're great saying sometimes something that makes you laugh, inspirational, whatever it is. And we're like, okay, if I can just have somewhere. to write stuff down and have that readily available in all the places I typically am, that's going to help. 

[00:03:57] So we end up with the notebook at our desk, the one in our car, the one in our bag, the one by our bedside, the one in the kitchen, right? And this often bleeds into, you know, sticky notes, right? We end up having sticky notes everywhere. And our intent is great. We're like, I know I can't retain all this information, so I'm just going to go write it down. 

[00:04:19] So that's the first thing that we do is we start to get lots of notebooks. And again, our reason why is great, but I need to help you understand why it's not serving you. Now, the second thing that we will do to help better organize. That information overload is we think, okay, well, when I think about organizing, my brain oftentimes goes to like the kitchen pantry, right? 

[00:04:43] And you see images everywhere out on social media and Pinterest, even the home edit show of showing these gorgeous pantries where the organizational solution there is to have a labeled bin for every type of thing going in there, right? You've got your labeled bin for each cereal. You have five different containers for the five different nuts or snacks and they're all labeled. 

[00:05:05] So we think, okay, well, I'm going to apply this to organization of information. If I just get a different notebook for everything that I am trying to stay on top of, it will help me be more organized. Organized, right? And it sounds like a great solution. But now let's shift into talking about why these two things actually lead to more overwhelm and, and really don't help us solve the problem. 

[00:05:36] So first let's talk about the, the notebooks. everywhere, right? Okay. If I just put notebooks everywhere and I have an app on every device, this is going to help me make sure I'm not forgetting anything as long as I have places to write everything down. we do this so that we have information every, you know, we can write all this stuff down, but then here's what happens. 

[00:06:00] When the time comes for us to, there's two things that are gonna happen here. When the time comes for us to go, Oh yeah, I remember I jotted down, you know, when that dentist appointment is, and then we have to go find it. We don't remember which place we wrote it down in, right? Like, was I in my car when I did that? 

[00:06:16] Was I at my desk? Was I in the kitchen? Maybe it's on a post it note. Did I jot it down on the back of a napkin? Right? when we go to look for the information that we've written down, we end up spending way too much time searching in multiple different places. wondering where it is and we can't find it. 

[00:06:38] Now, the second thing that can happen is we completely forget about that notebook that we keep in the glove compartment of our car because this is a, you know, maybe a new one that you've added and we never go back and look at it. maybe there was important information there, or you miss an appointment, or you forget to bring that thing to work, or you forget about the snacks you signed up for at school because you wrote it down somewhere, but because there's stuff everywhere, you're never really going back and looking at it. 

[00:07:09] So things fall through the cracks, right? So if we have this, if I just get notebooks everywhere, it's really hard for us to find what we're looking for. And we often find. that things fall through the cracks. So again, our intent was really good, right? We, we, we were doing this for all the right reasons, but it doesn't really help us not forget things. 

[00:07:32] And all we end up doing is spending more time even trying to find them. Now let's talk about that, that second one, right, where we're like, I'm going to over organize my information. I'm going to get notebooks for every type of thing. So then what we end up with is we've got, you know, the gratitude journal, then we have a different book or a different app for task lists, then we're like, well, I'll write down Ideas somewhere else. 

[00:07:53] So that way I'm not, you know, merging ideas with tasks. And then we think, okay, I'll have one at work and one at home. But then we're like, oh, I wanna have a place for creativity. So then we get a different one for that. Right? And then here's what happens with that. One of two things happens. First is, maybe you all of a sudden remember a task, but that particular notebook isn't handy right now, so you grab your gratitude journal and just plop it in there, and you're like, yeah, that way I won't forget when I open it up later, I'll remember to transfer the task. 

[00:08:24] Well, nine times out of ten. We don't remember to do that, right? Now, the other thing that can happen is We start to overthink where to put stuff. Ah, I just had this great idea Where does that go? Do I want to make that a task or does that belong in my idea journal? And now we have so much organization that we're stuck we get paralyzed by figuring out what? 

[00:08:50] What goes where, right? So in an effort to organize this information, now we're stuck on going, Oh, but it could go here, but it could go here. And now I don't know where to put these. Right? So again, our intent was great. Getting all these notebooks, having things plate, you know, in all the different places that we may be. 

[00:09:10] downloading all the seven different apps, one for journaling, one for tasks, one for ideas. Our, our intent is really good. We're trying to get more quote organized. We realize there is an onslaught of, of information, but then the fact is we are still forgetting things and it's really, really hard for us to find what we're looking for when we have all of that in place. 

[00:09:37] So what is our solution? Now, here's the good news. I'm not going to tell you to throw out your notebook, right? We love them. And a lot of people are like, well, I'm going to do this because I love a good notebook. I love a good journal. I like the way they make me feel. I like writing all of that. Friends, me too. 

[00:09:56] And I still have a notebook, but notice what I just said. a notebook. So part one of this solution is for you to pick one central place, just one. All of that stuff goes in, whether it's an idea, whether it's a task, whether it's a to do, whether it's that phone number you don't want to forget, right? Think of any time you grab a scratch piece of paper and write something down. 

[00:10:30] What you are going to do is have one and only one place to do this. I call this my one notebook system. Now you get to pick what that notebook is. All right. I'm not going to tell you what type to use because that's, that truly is personal. I always use one. If you're watching the video, you'll see the size I have up here. 

[00:10:49] I have my word of the year on mine. My word of the year for 2025 is fearless. And I typically am using the kind of five by seven. Coil bound lined notebooks. That works for me. There are people that do not like lined. They want, you know, white paper without any lines on it. Some people need bigger books. 

[00:11:07] Some people want hard bound. Again, there is no wrong notebook to use for this. Now before you're like, but Megan, I've got, I've got, Like seven that are so pretty. Here's the good news. If you are using one and only one notebook to put all this stuff in, it means that you fill them up quicker than usual. So you still get to, you know, I typically go through about three notebooks a year. 

[00:11:33] All right. So a lot of people are like, but I love them all. You'll get there. You will get there. I promise. Now I'm sure you're thinking about, okay, well, what am I supposed to do? Like glue this notebook to my body. So it's on me all day long. Like, how can I, how can I just have one notebook? when I'm not always in the place where my notebook is. 

[00:11:52] And that comes to part two of this solution. So remember, we're going to have one and only one notebook that everything comes into. All right. And then part two is deciding what is your personal system going to be for What you do if you are not near your notebook when something pops up, whether it's a task, an idea, you know, whatever it is that you don't want to forget, what will be your solution for where those things go until you get back to your notebook? 

[00:12:30] So I will tell you what mine is. You know, I'm, I'm considered quote old from a technology standpoint, I'm 51 and I like email. There are people that hate email. Email works for me. I have a great email processing system. Things don't get lost in my email. I, I check it three times a day. I have a system that I do it. 

[00:12:50] So if I am out and about, you know, 99 percent of the time I'm gonna have my phone. So if I remember something or if an idea comes to me, I will whip open my phone and I can do it all with voice commands and I will email myself. that thing so that I don't forget it. And that works for me because I have a system of processing my email. 

[00:13:13] So the next time I have my email processing session, sometimes I'll open up my email and I will have sent myself like four emails of things that, that would have been jotted down in my notebook. Now you get to pick what that system is for you, right? Some people are like, Oh, if I send myself an email, it's going to get lost. 

[00:13:31] But ask yourself, what are you? I'm already using what are you checking regularly, whether it's, you know, a paper, whether it's some app, whatever it is for you that you can leverage for your, where those things go if you don't have your one notebook with you. All right. So the idea is. All of those things are being funneled into one and only one notebook so that when you need to find it, you know it's going to be in that book. 

[00:14:02] Now, this system, this one notebook system works because of what I do. I personally do it once a week. It's what I teach other people to do as well, is there is a way in which I process. this notebook. What do I mean by processing it? Well, I'm shoving stuff in that book all day long, all week long. And at the end of every week, I have, I have two like little bookmarkers in my notebook. 

[00:14:31] I have a bookmarker of where I last processed, meaning reviewed it. And then I have a bookmarker on the page I'm currently jotting stuff down on. So at the end of the week, I go back and look at all this stuff that was written down over the course of a week. And then it has various categories of types of information, right? 

[00:14:49] There's ideas, there's things to reference for later, and there's tasks. And then I, I go through the notebook and I am pulling out the relevant stuff from there and putting it in its. ultimate home. All right. Now that is a very kind of, it's much easier for me to teach that visually. And that's exactly what I'm going to be doing in the upcoming totally free one notebook challenge. 

[00:15:18] I love this system and it's a great thing to share at the beginning of the new year. And that is why I'm going to be doing this here at the end. end of January. Again, there is zero cost for you to come and learn this entire one notebook system, including the most important part, which is how do we process that notebook to help us not forget things and have our information organized. 

[00:15:45] So if you want to come learn this complete one notebook system, just head over and I've got a link in the show notes, but you can just go to Megan, some role. com then do forward slash. One notebook, spelling out O N E. All right, I'm going to be teaching the system over the course of three days, and it's going to kick off on Monday, January 27th. 

[00:16:08] It's only 30 minutes a day. All right, I'm going to be doing this live on YouTube, so you don't need a social media account or anything to come follow along. If you miss it live, you'll be able to go back and watch it right there on YouTube. So I'm teaching the system over the course of three days. And then I've got a couple bonus days as well this year where I'm going to be sharing with you, if you've ever heard of the Rocketbook notebook, I'm going to give you a demo of how you might want to use that if you like being digital along with how this one notebook system feeds into my proprietary weekly planning process. 

[00:16:43] So again, this is a great, Great tool. It sounds so incredibly simple, but I have taught this one notebook system. We were looking back at our data now to, I believe close to 20, 000 women over the last several years. And they all say like total. game changer. All right. So I look forward to seeing you there. 

[00:17:06] And in between now and then, all right, if you're listening to this before we kick this off, I want you to really start thinking about where are all the places you're writing down all the things so that you can be prepared when you join me to learn this one notebook system, you'll be better prepared to start gathering all of that up. 

[00:17:27] And if you want to. Because you're only using one notebook, take some time to think ahead about which one do you want to start with. Like maybe you treat yourself to a new seven dollar notebook that you can get excited about using. So don't forget, head over to megansomerill. com forward slash, spell out the word one, one notebook, O N E notebook, sign up, and I cannot wait to show you the full one notebook system.