50: Organizational Hacks

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Hi, everyone. Today I am going to talk to you about some organizational hacks. If you know me, you know that a lot of people describe me as very organized, very type A, as someone who has her "ish" together. I don't necessarily always feel that way. In fact, some days, I feel like I'm running around like a chicken without a head. Some days, it just feels like things are so hectic. In fact, that has been the case lately, ever since last week when I attended a conference, I feel like I have so much going on. It's really hard to play catch up. I'm sure that is probably the same for you. If you're in the semester system, in the quarter system- those of us in the quarter system, we're already going into midterms, and it just feels like we're swamped with work. It's really easy to feel overwhelmed.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

For me, I've developed some strategies over the years to help me manage my stress and manage my workload. One of the reasons it's really important for me to do this is because I do have a chronic illness. It affects my tummy, and it affects my head. So I get migraines. I get stomach aches, cramping, and other very uncomfortable symptoms. The more stressed I get, the more flare ups I get. So I need to make sure that I remain kind of on top of things to manage my stress. So what do I do? What are some of my own kind of organizational hacks?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

One thing that I do has to do with keeping my inbox - email inbox- clean. How do I do that? I use Gmail. If you use another form of email form, then I'm sorry that I can't help you. But I'll tell you kind of what I do with Gmail. With Gmail, every time I get an email, I make sure that I label it. I label it, whatever it is, you know, some sort of umbrella term. Let's say it's something related to my students in seminars. I'll have a seminar folder or seminar label. If it's something related to funding or the budgets that I manage, then I'll label it funding. If it's something related to- I even have actually a thank you folder, a folder of all the memos I've ever received from students thanking me because it's one of my favorite folders to go back and review. But anyway, so first thing I do I get an email, I label it.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Next thing I do is I add on Gmail, under Settings, you can actually set some stars as your options for another way that you can label your emails. So there's a star. There's a little red exclamation mark. There's a purple question mark. There's a green check mark. So what I do is I will add the little red exclamation mark for emails that are in my inbox that I know I have to respond to. I add a green check to those emails that I have already replied to, but that I still need in my inbox to reference for some reason. Sometimes it's like, oh, I've already responded, but I need to save that PDF in a folder. I'll keep it in my inbox until I have the time to save that PDF. And I'll use the purple question mark if it's an email that I can't quite answer yet, because I need more info. Maybe I need to ask my colleagues something before I respond back to this email, so I'll put a question mark, meaning I need more info. If an email comes in, I put a label on it. I figure out okay, can I respond to it now? Or am I going to respond to it later, and I'll add a red exclamation mark or a purple question mark, etc.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Let's say I responded to it, I've labeled it. Then what? Then I archive it. Every single email that I've responded to, or that I don't need to respond to, but I no longer need to look at it. Everything goes in the archive. Unless I know it's spam, then spam gets deleted. But if it's not spam, everything goes in my archive. You know why? Because then it's not visible in my inbox. But if it's in my archive, I can always access it later if I'm checking my search bar. That's why I love archiving emails. So please, please, please if you're one of those people that has 15,000 unread emails, please become accustomed to archiving your emails. In fact, go ahead and check all of your emails now. Select all of them and archive them all. Then from here on out when you get new emails, make it a habit of okay. Let me read it, label it, respond to it, archive it. Read, label, respond, archive, read, label, respond, archive. That should be a saying in your head, so you can get into the habit of keeping your inbox clean.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I've done this for so long that usually by the end of the week, I can zero out my inbox. I'll have zero emails in my account, which people are always shocked to see when they look at my inbox. They're like, oh my gosh, why is it so clean? They think I don't get emails. I'm like, no. I get hundreds of emails just like you, but I have an organizational system set up to keep it clean. That helps me manage my stress, because when I see a lot of unread emails, I get overwhelmed. So that's one thing.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Next thing is I use a calendar. Most of you probably do this. Maybe you have a planner. Maybe it's an actual physical planner that you have to handwrite in, or maybe you use Google Calendar like I do. Whatever it is that you do, grow accustomed to having a schedule and a routine. Right now more than ever, it's critical for us to develop routines to remain sane, to remain healthy, to survive. Right now for a lot of us, it's still not the time to thrive. If you're still just trying to survive, because so much is still going on for all of us. I mean, I can tell you, every one of us has been impacted by the pandemic and continues to be impacted by it. I've got students who have it, who have parents who have it, colleagues with parents who have it. It's just, it's a mess. You might hear, fyi, I'm recording from my bedroom. I'm at the point where I'm just recording for the sake of making sure that my listeners have content. But I don't have the capacity to edit my podcast episodes. I don't even have the capacity to have prepped notes in advance, so I'm just sharing information with you off the cuff. If you hear my son in the background, you're gonna hear him in the background, and it is what it is.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

But anyway, going back to the calendar, and going back to routines, and going back to the pandemic. It is critical for us to develop routines, and to try to follow some sort of schedule to make sure that we get by. For me, I use Google Calendar, and I add everything to my calendar. Based on my to do list and what I know I need to get done in that week, I make time for every single task on my to do list on my calendar. If I were you, if you're a student, or if you're someone working full time and you've got a lot of things going on, go create a to do list. Prioritize your to do lists, figure out what absolutely needs to get done this week. Then at the beginning of the week, plan out your schedule, and make time. And don't just make time, I like to overestimate how long something's gonna take. If I think something's really realistically gonna take me an hour, I'll put it in my calendar for an hour and a half just to give me some wiggle room. Sometimes I'm struggling so much to focus that I need that extra wiggle room, that extra time. Sometimes I don't and I'm on a roll and I'm really focused and it takes me half the time that I thought it would take me. So instead of taking me an hour and a half, it takes me 45 minutes. Then I've got a 45 minute break, and so I'll go out and take a walk or hang out with my son or hang out with my baby, my three month old. Whatever it is, I try to over estimate how long things take me.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Some weeks I can't afford to overestimate, because I just have so much to do that I just barely have enough time to do everything. But if I can, I do that. I overestimate how long things will take. I put it in my calendar. I schedule everything down to the times that I eat. Right now, I'm also pumping every three hours. That's part of nursing my child, breastfeeding my child. So I know every three hours, I need a break. I need a half hour break. It takes me 20 minutes to pump, and then I've got to wash pump parts and do all these things. Anyway, point is, I don't have a lot of time, so I schedule it all in. And when I make time for appointments, appointments with students, appointments with staff that I supervise, with colleagues that I am collaborating with, I don't tell them my availability based on how many time slots I have available.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I tell them my availability based on my capacity to do work that day. Some days I say I'm not available, because I need that full day for all my admin work. Or some days I say I'm not available, because I already have four other meetings that day, and I know usually after four or five meetings in a day, I am zoomed out. So keep that in mind. Figure out your own internal policies as you work on updating your calendar. Try to schedule things in as much as possible and stick to your schedule to get by and to survive, and to get all the things done that you need to get done. Emailing is one thing, scheduling, calendars, planners, that's another thing.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Also, just something that I found out about recently that I thought was pretty neat if you're a pen and paper person. I found out about this notebook called Rocket Book, that seems really neat. Just Google rocket book. What I really like, I've actually started printing out- they have free printable pages, and they have a free app. If you use their pages, they have these little symbols and a QR code and you can take notes or work on drawings, or whatever it is that you need to work on. Scan it on the app, and it gets automatically saved to a destination that you've already automatically set it to. So it's kind of cool because I have certain symbols set to go straight to my Google Drive folders. I've got a Google Drive folder for my son, for myself, for my husband. I'll just scan things and save them automatically there with their app. So if you're a pen and paper person, check out rocket book, either the free printable pages or buy the actual notebook, which is pretty cool. The notebook you can actually write on the paper, but it's erasable. They give you a pen that's erasable, so it's kind of cool. If you wanted to try that out, just check it out. They're not sponsoring me or anything. I actually haven't even used the actual notebook. I've only used the free printable pages, because I'm trying to stick to my budget. But if you're curious about it, check it out. It seems pretty neat. So there's that.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now, aside from emails, aside from scheduling, another thing that's really good to get accustomed to is to use some sort of app, website, software to help you with managing your tasks. So task management slash project management software, or website, or app. I have been using for many years, this website called Kanban Flow. They have an app for it too. It's very similar to Trello, Trello is much more popular. There are now numerous different sites that are comparable that have a similar concept behind it. Trello is the one that I feel like most people use, and most people know about. Kanban flow is that is not as common, but I've been using it for so long that now I've kind of grown to love it so it's hard for me to think outside the box and try something different when that works. I'm like well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Anyway, figure out, whether it's Trello, Kanban Flow, or something else, some sort of task management system that works for you. What I like about Kanban Flow and why I use it is because I can have different columns of tasks and I have a column that's titled this week, a column titled next week, a column for this quarter, for this academic year. And I put my tasks there. Some things I know that are more long term, that I don't have to do now, I can worry about later, I put it in the column for this quarter, or for this year. Some things that are urgent that I know I need to get done this week, I'll put in that in that column and its respective column. I color code them based on the types of tasks they are. I've got financial budget related tasks. I've got tasks related to students, to seminars, administrative/record keeping, staffs and supervising. Depending on the different aspects of my job, I color code them. So I'll see like, oh, wow, I have a lot of green this week. That means I'm doing a lot of admin work this week. Or wow, I have a lot of yellow tasks this week. That means I've got a lot going on with my students and my seminars. It's nice to be able to visually see my task and what I have going on for that week.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I also prioritize them. That way, I know exactly what tasks absolutely have to get done each week. You can add deadlines, you can add bullets, you can add sub tasks, you can assign it to someone. It's pretty neat how much you can do with a project management website or app. So just check it out. Check out one of them and test it out. Or you know, some folks are, again, if your pen and paper and post its work for you, then figure out a post it system. Or you could just use post its on your computer, but make sure that it's something that is set up so that it's functional and works for you.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So figure out your emails, figure out your calendar, figure out how you're gonna manage your to do list and make it so that you're not having to keep things in your head. Try to clear out your headspace. I used to freak out a lot and stress over things and it would keep me up at night. I'd be worried. Am I gonna remember this the next day? I have a horrible memory as it is. As I've worked with more and more students, I've actually encountered folks who don't use planners, who keep everything in their head. I have actually met students, where I will meet with them and I'll give them some suggestions and some tasks and things to do. And they don't write anything down and then I tell them, are you sure you don't want to write it down? Are you sure you gonna remember? There like no, no, no, Dr. Yvette. I've got it. I'm gonna remember. It's all in my head, I'm good. Again, I repeat, are you sure? Here I'll give you a sheet of paper and a pen to use and nope. They're like, I'm good. If you're that kind of student, okay. Kudos to you. But at some point, you're gonna want to set up a system because no matter what, when you get to grad school, and you're juggling multiple projects, it gets harder. It gets harder to keep everything in your head. You don't want to be staying up at night like I would, stressing out over things, wondering if you're going to remember it the next day.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now because I have the system in place, I know. Okay, when in doubt, put it on my to do list. Once it's on my to do list, at the beginning of the week, I'm gonna check my to do list and from my to do list it's gonna go on my calendar. Once it's on my calendar, I'm gonna make time for it. Even my calendar has time for emails. I don't stress out over my emails as much as before, because I know- I am not going to check my email at this time. It's not on my schedule to check my emails right now. I'm gonna wait, and I'll answer that person later on in the afternoon. I've designated some time to do that. I even turn off my notifications, so that I'm not checking emails at odd hours in the day like when I'm having dinner with my family and so on.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

What else is an organizational hack that is helping me out? Trying to think. I definitely feel like I rely on keeping my inbox clean. I rely on putting everything on my calendar. When in doubt, add things to my to do list. Another thing I do is, I keep all of my notes in one place. For instance, all of my staff notes, when I facilitate staff meetings, I keep them all in one Google Doc. When I use Google Docs, I actually love using the table of contents on Google Docs. So I create headings- Heading Two, Heading Three, whatever number heading it is. Based on those headings, I'll create a table of contents. All of my notes are organized by quarters, I think, according to quarters, since I'm on the quarter system. All of my staff meetings are organized by quarters, and within the quarters- those are the larger headings- I have subheadings, based on the dates of the meetings that I have. So I have that for staff meetings, I have that for one on ones that I keep with students. I'll take notes of meetings that I've had with students so that way, next time I meet with them, I'll quickly pull up my previous notes from the last time I saw them. That way, I'm reminded, oh. That's what was going on with them before.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Note taking and keeping it all in one place has helped. Also, I use Google Team Drive. I use that both for work and for my own personal docs. I'm a big fan of just having a system and organizing your files. I know some folks who use Google Docs and they don't have folders, or at least that's what it seems like when I've kind of peeked at their computers while they're searching for stuff. They're spending so much time on the search bar looking for things, when just an hour or two of you of sitting down to try to organize things will save you that much more time later on. So for work, everything, any kind of Google Form, Google Spreadsheet, Google Doc that I create, again, it always has to have a folder that it goes in. Just like with my emails, every email has to have a label. Same thing when you when you create any kind of note taking doc, or spreadsheet that you need. Make sure that it goes in some sort of folder, and that that folder is organized within broad umbrella terms so that you can easily find it in the future.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

When I was in undergrad, the way that I would organize my folders were by the quarters, or by the term. I would put year one, year two, year three, year four for undergrad. Then within year one I had fall, winter, spring, summer. Year two fall, winter, spring, summer, year three and year four. Then within those fall, winter, spring summer, I would put the names of the courses, so English 101, English 102, English 103. Then I put the documents. I actually still have all of my undergrad docs, believe it or not, in my laptop. I have a very, very old laptop, and I've got stuff from undergrad and I've got stuff from grad school. It's kind of wild. I forget sometimes that I have that stuff. But I still have and I can still access things because I've had them organized in that way for so long.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So yeah, organizing your folders, organizing your desktop, organizing things on Google Drive. Nowadays, I don't even rely on my desktop, because I've made it a habit to save everything on my team drive. I just happen to like that, because I've had instances where I've lost material. I've witnessed so many of my own close friends lose material, lose dissertations, dissertation chapters and your research that they're doing and how painful it is to lose material that you've worked so hard on. Now it's just force of habit. Anything I do, I do it on the drive. That way, if something happens to my computer, I know it's saved on the cloud and that I'll be able to access it in the future. That's another hack, saving all of your documents in folders, ideally, within some sort of- I use Google Team Drive. That's my preference. I just happened to be a Google person, but it could be on Box or it can be on some other form of cloud system that works for you. That has been helpful.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Then just generally speaking, thinking about things as like, everything has to have a home. Even within my home, I think about all the things that I've accumulated and if I ever purchase something I think, okay, do I have space for it? If I don't have space for it, where can I make space? Or what do I need to get rid of in order to make space for it? If I were to buy myself a new article of clothing, or some new earrings, or whatever it is, and I don't have space for it, I think to myself, okay. It's time to get rid of some stuff, if I want to make room for this something new. My son has actually learned this as a, I guess it's like a lifestyle for him. Now he knows every time he's got a birthday, and he gets a lot of birthday presents, he's ready. He's like, oh, so we're gonna go through my room and make space and find things to donate so that I have room for my new presents. I tell him yep, that's right. If you don't have room for it, you can't keep it. That's what I try to do at home too, is try to make space for things, try to make room for things, try to designate time for chores and things like that, just to stay on top of things. It's really easy with a family, with two kids with a full time job, and other collaborations and commitments to just kind of let things fall off the plate.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I think that's all I'm going to share for today, because that is already more than enough. Even if you just try out one of the things that I've mentioned, like tackle your emails, or tackle your calendar, or tackle your to do list or tackle your desktop folders, or putting things from the cloud or from the drive into other folders so that they're a little bit more organized. The more you can set up systems in place- at work, we call them like standard operating procedures. The more you can think of things as having a system that you can follow over and over and over again, so you don't even have to think twice about it, the easier things will get for you. I think right now that's what we need. We really need to figure out ways to survive, to simplify things, so that we can feel a little less overwhelmed and just kind of get by. And find ways to make time for ourselves, ake time for our families, make time for our loved ones. Yeah, that's enough. Thanks for listening, and I will talk to you all next week. Have a good rest of the week.