💌 How to make your life easier

Tips to organize your life with systems & intentional design

I never thought there’d be a day where I’d stare at my email inbox in pure admiration.

The categorized mail, coloured tabs, and ordered labels that simply make sense — one click and I’m reading my favourite newsletter. Another click and I can see all my event tickets. And the auto-filtering setting? Don’t even get me started. That’s satisfying AF.

It makes checking my inbox oddly enjoyable, an endeavour that otherwise spikes one’s cortisol and raises anxiety. That’s the power of intentional organization, design, and reclaiming control — it can make the “ugh” things the “ooooOOOoo” things.

As I alluded to in my ADHD piece (which btw… I’m officially diagnosed now woohoo!), I function on systems; I can’t live without ‘em. So today, I wanted to share some tips I personally use to make this complex adult life 10000x more manageable (and dare I say, fun?!).

• Email: Unsubscribe from all the sh*t you don’t read. For everything else, add an automatic filtering system. Create email folders to categorize to your needs. Make it a habit to reach inbox zero every day. And have fun with the colours!!

• Calendar: I’m an absolutely religious Google Calendar user — if it ain’t in my cal, it ain’t happening. Time-block your days with your routine commitments (for example: morning routine, work, lunch, gym, wind down). Schedule in the rest. And again, have fun with the colours :)

• Phone: Make your phone work for you, not against you. Silence all notifications from apps you don’t need to hear from. Leverage Focus modes. Order your apps in pages and folders that encourage easy access to the ones that are good for you. (Ex. I put social media apps on the forth page so I see ‘em less often.) And this time, have fun with the widgets!

• Photos: Aren’t we all used to having 20,000 photos on our iPhones?… Heh. I’ve made it a habit to delete unwanted/duplicate pics, organize the rest into folders by event, category, and year, and back it all up on a reliable cloud drive. At the minimum, make decluttering a habit.

• Social Media: Unfollow accounts you don’t need to see — this is your home page. Be intentional about your own online presence. Every time you open an app, ask yourself the intention behind it; and close it once it’s fulfilled.

• Passwords: Don’t you dare use the same password for everything. Create complex passwords and store them in reliable, encrypted password managers like LastPass, and update them every six months to a year.

• Finance: Automate your bill payments. Set reminders to pay off your credit cards. Budgeting isn’t necessary (I don’t personally do it), but simply be mindful of where your money’s flowing in and out. Check out a previous post I wrote for more personal finance tips!

• Task management: Find a system that works for you. For me, it’s using “flagged” emails for work, categorizing tasks in Microsoft To Do, and maintaining a weekly view of top priorities in my Notion agenda.

• Routines: Your habits and routines make up the code of your life’s program, so don’t go on autopilot. Find routines that work for you, be okay with trying and failing, adjust and make them sustainable, and most importantly, have fun with them!! I like to track my ideal routine in my Notion as well :)

Now I’m telling you a LOT — but before you get overwhelmed and think, “AHHH I don’t have ANYTHING together,” note that it’s taken me YEARS of experimentation to find systems that work for my personal priorities, lifestyle, and how I operate. We all start somewhere, and your ideal “settings” can look drastically different from mine.

The only real action item I have for you is to “go experiment intentionally!” — as long as you’re adding thought into how you organize your life, you’re doing great.

Plus, who wouldn’t want to make their lives easier? Do that for yourself. It’s an act of self-love.

I’ve become the Temu version of Ali Abdaal today. That’s enough!

HAPPY MAY MY FRIENDS!

Cheers,
Meg

---

---

🍵 Meg’s Weeklies

Keeping up with the Kardashians Megatron, through my weekly gems!

Podcast I’m listening to:

A snappy read / watch:

Quote I’m pondering:

“Life either happens by design or by default. You choose.” —Bob Proctor

Raw life update:

• I’ve been officially diagnosed with ADHD, and feel this is a huge step in my self-discovery and personal development. So excited to continue growing with this added layer of knowledge on how I run.

• Been getting back into bouldering and forgot how fun it was hehe!!

• So happy with the new/improved systems and routines I’ve implemented into my life — it feels like my head’s above water, and I have the space and energy to create even more.

• Embracing the peace and calm before I go absolutely feral in Vegas next week. LOOOL

---

Check out my latest podcast episode: