I finally gave into the Smart Phone Craze last Fall. My pattern business had gotten big enough that I started receiving customer service questions all day long. And packing my laptop with me to the grocery store just wasn’t all that fun 🙂
So, the phone plan was upgraded. I’m not very good at doing anything half way, so once I took the dive I went all in. After all, I’d just spent all this money on a phone- I needed to get my money’s worth!
Most of what I use my phone for is business related, so I won’t bore you with that. But I do have two apps that I LOVE and have to share. I use them for both business and personal life, and they make my life so much better.
First is Remember the Milk. It’s a simple To-Do list app. My health is sporadic enough that it’s hard to say, ‘Today I’m going to do these 10 things’. The truth is, I’m going to wake up and if I feel up to it, I’m going to start doing something. And then at some random point during the day I’m going to have to stop everything and lie down for a few hours. (Dependability is really not my thing, as much as I’d love for it to be…)
I love this app because I can put things on the list and then assign them categories and priorities. So instead of having a list that needs to get done in one afternoon, I have a list with all the most important things on top. I can work down the list knowing that where ever I leave off, it’s ok. I got the most important things done, and that’s the best I could do. There are always things at the bottom that I never get to. Before this app, that stressed me out. Now I’m just fine with it. I did all I could do, and what I did was most important. Who cares about those stupid bottom of the list things anyway! 🙂
Second is Timesheet. I LOVE this app! You can clock the time you spend on different projects, and then you can download an Excel spreadsheet of what you’ve clocked. I originally started using to clock my freelance hours (I still do some design work when it comes up). The app lets me categorize my hours so I can easily find all the hours I’d put in for each client, how much they were paying me, etc.
Then I started clocking the time I put into Sweetbriar Sisters. Now I can compare how much time I’m putting into something versus how much money it is making me- it helps me realize what’s the best use of my time (and helps me categorize things when I put them into Remember the Milk).
I’ve also really enjoyed using it for personal time as well. I’m all about time for time trades (I talk more about those in this post), and this makes it so easy to say- hey, I spent 4 hours and 35 mins making that poster for you, now you get to spend that much time doing something for me!
Or, a lot of times I’ll use it to stop myself from overdoing something. I volunteer as an Activity Days Leader for my church (basically like girl scouts with 8-11 year olds). Once a month I plan an activity for them, and you know what; 8 year olds just don’t need a project that took me 10 hours to plan! So I tell myself I’ve got an hour an a half, set the timer and start planning. When I’ve hit my limit, I stop. And you know what, the girls love the activities just as much as when I was spending 10 hours preparing.
Life is just better when we spend our time on the most important things. I hope these apps can help you do that as much as they’ve helped me!