Want a Game Changer? Organize your Online Activity
This past winter, I endured a few severe losses and changes. I’m not sure if it was a conscious decision or not, but I gave in – entirely – to my emotions: All my good habits and routines suffered greatly – I hardly recognize myself.
Thankfully, I was still checking emails and scrolling through my Facebook pages. In my passive income group, I saw a $10, 3-Day challenge called ‘organize your online business.’ The challenge promised that we’d have a that helped with organizing when the challenge was over.
Even though my online business is still developing, I was definitely interested.
The Problem
I used to spend hours (literally) searching for websites and numerous other landing pages that I’d used and needed to use again. This meant that I’d search my browsing history for personal things like my bank and car insurance, poured through emails looking for subscriptions and freebies, links to classes I signed up for – all kinds of online activity.
Even though my online business is in the beginning stage, the price tag made it a no-brainer – I signed up – it was bound to come in handy down the road.
The Solution
In this challenge we learned to use google docs to organize a dashboard for business management. We were given three templates and instructed on how to set it up for our business; great videos came with each one.
I was amazed at how orderly and beautiful the google docs were.
Right away, I knew that the template would help me organize all of my online activity: no more spending hours searching for the needed sites!
I now have my dashboard as my homepage, instead of navigating to each site, everything is on the main page of my document. Everytime I open my computer, I feel successful!
Helpful Categories I Used
Resources
- The first thing I listed was all the learning resources that I’d signed up for – through the years. Luckily, most of them come with lifetime access so all I had to do was log into them. I hyperlinked the site and listed the password in the same line – I am famous for not remembering my passwords.
Daily tasks
- My morning ritual of coffee, meditating, the morning (journaling) and stretching actually made it onto my calendar. In my mind, this – along with actual appointments – was the beginning of my SOPs (standard operating procedures) as I continue to develop my business.
Useful sites
- This included everything from Youtubers that I follow to various Facebook groups, platforms and AI reviews.
Unexpected Outcome
In ways that I cannot explain, this feeling of accomplishment and organization had me looking around for other areas that I could organize and my personal life.
I was experiencing a ‘knock-on effect!’
According to Google, it likely originated in physics ‘…where it describes a secondary change or cumulative response to an initial event.’
Here’s my breakdown:
1. Awareness of Time and Priorities
- Once I saw how digital life organizing reduced frustration and increased productivity, I became more aware of how I spent my time
2. Small Wins Build Confidence
- Successfully structuring my online activity created a sense of control, making it easier to apply the same mindset to other areas.
- This increased my ‘self-efficacy’ belief in my ability to do a thing, make and sustain changes plus, it reinforced my growth mindset.
3. Creating Routines that Stick
- Turning organization into a daily habit made it second nature.
- Setting small, consistent time blocks for tasks—whether business or personal—set the stage for lasting habits that don’t feel overwhelming.
4. Momentum for Other Life Changes
- The discipline of organizing one area naturally spills into others.
- You may find yourself improving your sleep schedule, meal planning, or setting aside structured downtime—all because you started with a simple organizational system.
How I keep it Going
As a member of this group, we get regular tutorials on how to do cool and useful stuff. One of the things we learned is how to set our dashboards as our homepage. I carefully watched the video, flipping from it to my homescreen; when it worked, I was ecstatic! For someone of my technical skills, this was another huge accomplishment.
Each day when I turn on my computer, I am encouraged and yes – proud!
In addition to reviewing and updating my ‘dailies,’ I take a few minutes to give myself a few ‘atta girls!’
