The Life Binder

I consider myself to be pretty organized, so I thought I’d let you all in on a method I’ve tried and tested.
The life binder is exactly as it sounds. A binder with your life in it. Mine has 5 sections. I also use a planner for the day to day planning, but this allows me to have a place at home for my stuff to be, and for it to be easily moved (rather than a complex filing system).
                        

Pros:

• It’s affordable
• It’s extremely customizable
• You can add/remove things as you get an understanding of what you need.
• You don’t need to take the whole thing with you.

Cons:

• Is a bit bulky to carry around.
• It doesn’t have a fastening clasp (if you’re looking for that kind of thing).

The binder I used was a 1.5” binder 3 ring binder, with clear plastic front/back cover. You can use any kind of binder/folder but I like these because they’re not too big and you can customize the front. I merely inserted a few pictures.
What you’d see when you opened it up;

My favorite quote.                                 My New Years Resolutions ( Not Kept)

Also, you’d see my monthly calendars.

I handmade mine, but you can find free printables here,here or here.
These are great for keeping track of what you have to do and planning ahead. Color coding is useful for these calendars too– mine was Red=Exam, Blue= Blogging Business/ Work

Okay, so lets get started with the categories I included.


To Do;
Inside this I just use regular college rule binder/filler paper. It’s cheap and easy and if I want to be able to just take my to do list with me I can simply take it out and pop it in my school bag.  If you’re looking for a printable template check here

Blogging;
Here I keep a list of all the posts I have completed and uploaded. I also keep a list of the posts I’m planning to do/ blog challenge prompts in case I get writers block.

I also used to plan my posts by writing them out here when I first started blogging, but now I use Windows Live Writer. It is amazing, it makes adding photos and formatting SO much easier. Check it out  here. It cut the time it takes me to blog by at least 30 minutes/per post.

School Info:
I keep all my important documents in here. I have 1 folder with my exam certificates and school reports, and in the other folder I keep my citizenship and birth certificates and all the documents you need to take to apply for colleges& school. I didn’t include pictures of this just for security reasons as they have my full name and ID numbers on them.

Banking:

In this one, I have an envelope in which I keep any balance inquiry slips or deposit slips for my bank account. Behind that I then have the statements that they send – hole punched and in chronological order.
This is more suitable for those of you who don't have multiple incomes or bank accounts to keep track of. If you have more paperwork you may want to look into a separate binder for bills/bank statements.

Workout:
Here is where I keep any work-outs and nutritional info that I may want to refer to. I simply cut/tear them out of fitness magazines and put them in clear folders. This is also where I keep my monthly calendar that I print from blogilates.

They’re divided into categories – abs, yoga, diet and total body.

How do you organize?