“There are no secrets to success.  It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure”  Colin Powell

I get emails and comments from people asking me how I do it all or what is the secret to my success.  Now firstly, I know that I am not some sort of sensation, but I have really grown in my business over the past year and I do consider that a great success.  When I began my journey of entrepreneurship I started it in much prayer. That is a great starting point, laying it before Him and asking His guidance.  I consider every success a blessing from God.

The above quote sort of sums up my creed.  I find that the more I prepare the happier and more successful I am.  I also apply this to our homeschooling.  There are a few tools that I use that I can not say enough good things about and I know they have contributed to helping me prepare for success.  Below I have listed a few of my top organizational tools and I hope that they will help you find success in your life!

#1 iCal

If you have an Apple product, you have this program for free.  The reason I love it so much is because you can share events with others easily.  This is how I keep my husband up to date with my and our families’ schedule.  Every time I add a new appointment, shoot, wedding etc. I add his email in the invitee list and it automatically sends it to his calendar (on his phone) and it even notifies me when he has accepted it.  The calendar is gospel to him, if i have forgotten to add something to it, then he is quick to let me know that it “wasn’t in the calendar” lol.  It really is fantastic, I don’t need to nag or remind him, he is great at checking it often and there are no surprises.  Most of you married folk out there know that good communication = bliss 🙂

#2 Making Things Happen Power Sheets

I normally try so hard to be paperless, as you saw in my last post, our house is small and I have to work very hard to have a place for everything and everything in it’s place.  If you want to change your life and make this the best year ever please please buy the Making Things Happen Power Sheets.  I ordered mine back in October and I spent some of November and December going through the first part and now I have such confidence that my year has direction and focus.  Despite my need to be paperless I have started a binder that I use to organize my Power Sheets as well as my business workflow.

#3 TeuxDeux

TeuxDeux is a website and app that is simple and beautiful!  The Power Sheets help me break things down from yearly, monthly and weekly, while TeuxDeux helps me plan things out daily.  I love that I have a place to set future reminders and to-do’s up and it gives me a peace knowing I put it down in writing and am not hoping I will remember it.

#4 eMeals

eMeals.com is a life saver.  One thing I have always loved is planning and cooking meals for my family.  Once I became busier I noticed there was a lot more take-outs and drive-thrus happening.  I just didn’t have as much time to sit down and look through my cookbooks and make out the grocery list.  Now I have weekly meal plans (I have loved every meal made and I have been using it for almost a year!) along with grocery lists.  They even have a phone app, so I just add my extra things (milk, bread, etc.) to the existing grocery list and its a no brainer.  Some local grocery stores offer online grocery shopping, so sometimes I will just order my groceries online and have my husband pick them up on the way home.  Shopping with a 2 and 4 year old is my idea of torment lol and the $5 fee to order online is worth every penny!

I hope that you find these helpful!  If you have a great source of your own please share in the comments!