No More Sticky Notes – 5 Lists to Keep You Organized on Your Phone as a Busy Mom

Looking for some ideas for lists to keep you organized on that handy little device we always have with us. Our phones have obviously become such an integral part of our life and day. So it’s important to make it work for us in a productive way, not just be a motivational stealer.

There are 5 lists I recommend you have on the notes app of your phone to help you with family life organization. This is a Step 2 task in the Mommin’3 Method™ Framework.

Ideas for 5 Lists to Keep You Organized as a Busy Mom

So of course there are way more than just 5 lists that you should have on your phone and with you at all times. But we have to start somewhere! We are here for progress, not overwhelm right.

It’s good to have a digital copy be with you and always handy and because we always have our phones with us. NO MORE STICKY NOTES. I am serious.

After we spend enough time together you will start to understand more and more how important it is to write things down INTENTIONALLY. Not just for the sake of getting it out of your brain. But I digress. Let’s get focused.

The reason why I’m talking to you about these things is because these are 5 notes that I personally have on my own phone at all times. I got to a point where I felt like the notes on my phone were just getting out of control, so I did something about it.

I wanted to share that with you. I’ve been doing this already for over a year already.

List #1: Coupon Codes List

The reason why we want a coupon codes list is because, as you know, we get so many emails and different things in a day with coupon codes, which is awesome. And

If you’re someone like me who does like to get a good deal and save a couple bucks here and there, then you like to actually use all these coupon codes we get.

What you don’t want to do is spend 15 minutes digging through your email inbox, trying to find that coupon code back.

I am sure it has happened to you where you know that you have a coupon code somewhere, but you just can’t find it. So then you just forget about it, you place the order anyways, and you miss out on saving that money.

Instead what you’re gonna do is every time you get an email with a coupon code or every time you receive a coupon code in the mail with a package etc. You are right away going to open up your notes app and enter it into your Coupon Codes List

Obviously as long as it’s not a coupon where you need a physical copy of it.

Then that way every time that you are looking for a coupon, you know exactly where to find it which will be nicely filed in the appropriate list on your notes app.

List #2: Meal Ideas List

To make family life feel more organized and to keep things all in one place is a meal ideas list. This is something we will do in the meantime while we are waiting for the right time to find the PERFECT meal planning system for our particular family.

Only give yourself 10 minutes for this task.

I fully realize everybody has their own meal planning system. Or maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re one of those people that actually doesn’t meal plan. Each to their own.

Personally, I am still figuring out what works best for me as well, even after all these years. So if you don’t have a meal planning system yet, that’s cool.

1. create a list on your notes app.

2. call it meal ideas

3. the only thing you are going to put on this list is your tried and true family favourites.

I’m talking the recipes that you can make with your eyes closed, the recipes that your family always eats.

I don’t care if that recipe is mac and cheese. We aren’t really looking for the fancy recipes to put on this list.

4. Brain dump some ideas onto this list for 10 min

Set a timer, and brain dump all those meal ideas that are just floating around in our head into that note.

This way, when we’re looking for something to make for supper. You think “I want something easy. I want something I have all the ingredients for. What should I make?”

So that’s when we’re going go to this meal favourites list on our phone, and we’re just gonna pick something that we want from it.

5. categorize by protein or meal prep type

I like to categorize by protein on this list. To organize that, I have different subheadings because you can change the font size in your notes app. I am not 100% sure if all notes apps have that feature but you are able to do it on Apple Notes.

So I will have a section for chicken, beef, ham. Then I will also have a section for meat free meals, seafood or side dishes.

REMEMBER – This is not as an actual meal planning system, and this is not a meal planning routine to hang your hat on. This is just a temporary way to help cut back on some of that mealtime over overwhelm in the meantime until we can find a better system for our family.

List #3: Clothing to Buy List

If you are still at a stage of life with tiny kids, you know that they are always growing. In case you don’t know yet I have 4 little kids, and I feel like every week there is a clothing item they wear out or need a bigger size in. It feels like you just buy something for them and they’ve grown out of it.

What I like to have is a list of clothes to buy. For me, it helps me keep a running tab of what clothes the kids have grown out of so that when I am out shopping at the store or looking online in the sales section. You can quickly reference this lists to keep you organized and on budget!

This is super helpful when shopping sales, because who doesn’t love to shop for summer when it’s fall. Right? Susie just grew out of, her size 8, black leggings, so she needs size 9.

1. Set up a checklist style list

I do recommend setting up this list as a checklist style one because it is something that you We’ll be, adding to and taking away from, so having those little bullet points, If that’s an option in your notes app, a bullet point that you can select it once you have purchased it, that’s a super great option.

2. name it clothes to buy

3. stay dedicated to entering items into this list as you notice they are worn out during laundry days

Make sure to check back into this list when you are out shopping to stay on track and avoid overspending on items that the kids don’t actually need right now

List #4: Home Improvement List

Technically this one, you might be thinking, that fits under the category of home organization. Yes. You’re right. But as the managers of our family and our household, I think that this still falls under the family management step just as fine. So don’t worry.

Once again, this is going to be a place to dump everything that you randomly think of that comes to your home improvement stuff.

The trick is – even though you are ‘randomly dumping’ information into this list, we are still going to keep it organized within the list by using the built-in formatting tools to keep it tidier.

1. create home improvement list

2. jot down subheadings for some of the category ideas

As you choose some higher-level categories, take note of some of the ideas for how to further categorize each sub-heading.

• Paint colours
  • Paint colours you like
  • Paint colours you’re already using
  • Paint colours by room or furniture piece
  • Exterior Paint Colours
• Measurements
  • Windows – for purchasing window coverings/accents
  • Furniture – existing furniture you have or furniture you are on the lookout for
  • Room / Closet Sizing – for knowing on the fly if something will fit in that room
• Things to fix
  • Exterior fix projects
  • Interior fix projects
• Update List – the project and the materials you will need to purchase or keep a lookout for to complete it
  • Inside projects you’d love to budget for
  • Outside projects you’d love to budget for
• Maitenance
  • Monthly things to maintain
  • Yearly things to maintain
  • Parts numbers for appliances that need repair
  • Model and serial numbers for large household items
• Decor Items
  • Plant pots for re-potting plants into bigger sizes
  • Plant stand circumference and heights needed
  • Height of lamps
  • Size of baskets or buckets you need for a particular closet

3. take 10 minutes and Write down a few things in each category you can. Try to transfer any handwritten random notes containing this info into this digital list

I can guarantee you, that you will be happy to at least have some paint colours written down so that when your child accidentally puts a ball through your drywall, you know the wall colour you need to patch with.

Having this info store neatly and handy on your phone will be even more of a relief when you are at the hardware store picking up something else. Then you notice the paint is on sale anyways this week and you do have some time to finish painting that drywall patch.

My inspiration for creating this list for myself was when we moved into our ‘new to us’ and much larger home a few years ago.

Suddenly I had all these cupboards I wanted to organize with buckets and baskets. Windows to get curtains for in the kids rooms. New furniture to purchase when I came across a good sale, to fill up our living space a bit better.

It was really nice having measurements with me on my phone so I could easily make decisions on the fly at the store. Rather than calling my husband and bugging him with theoretical measurements, ideas and layouts to see if something would fit or work in that space.

It is also a way to save some time. You don’t want to be measuring the same window for curtains 10 times, just because you threw out the little piece of paper you had it written down on before you left for the store. But you didn’t find curtains that day so it once again got pushed to the back of mind.

List #5: Parenting & Kids Resources List

The last of the 5 lists to keep you organized as a busy mom is a parenting and kid resources list.

I want to ask you something. How many times have you come across a resource on Instagram about parenting or your kids, maybe an activity to do with your kids, and you loved it?

Theoretically, most of us reading this are moms with younger kids here, and we are always looking for new information for our kids. Whether that’s parenting resources, or for the kids themselves.

But when you come across those interesting resources. What do you do with them?

Most likely, you look at it and then you go back back to your Instagram feed and then you forget about it. Then another day, you may think, what was that tip again? I really liked that activity to do with my kids. Unfortunately, you’re not gonna be able to remember where came from.

1. create your kids resources list

So instead what I like to do is I like to have a parenting and kid resources list where I dump down links for things I want to remember as it pertains to kids and mom, like, parenting type things or resources that I have bought.

We have all have bought or downloaded different freebies, PDFs or courses and different things like that. Sometimes we need an easy place to keep all that login information handy.

Instead of once again searching through our email inbox to try to find that information, we are gonna be able to just open this note, scroll to what we need, open it up, and consume it.

I think too often we want all these resources, but we forget to actually consume them. So that’s the important extra piece of having this list is that it’s an easy place for you to come back to it.

Once again, this is just a place to put all this information in the interim until we find a better way of managing it as a whole. That brings us to the end of our list of 5 notes to keep you organized as a busy mom.

2. Create some sub-headings

Make sure you include links and include as much detail and information as you can about each resource you want to remember

Don’t forget to use text formatting in these lists to keep you organized, to help make it easier to read.

• IG Accounts you like (further categorize these by type)
  • Parenting
  • Activities
  • Health & Wellness
• Podcasts you like
  • If you don’t follow the show right away but do want to come back and consume some more info. Once again categorize by type.
• Free Resources you have accessed or downloaded
  • Categorize by type
  • Where is it stored
  • How do you find the resource back?
  • What is the login information if applicable?
• Recommended Products / Courses
  • Kids
  • Health
  • Wellness
  • Toys / Activities
  • Courses / Information
• Things you have bought
  • Login Info
  • Download info
  • Where is resource stored? (Printed, PDF, Saved to Cloud Storage, Saved to computer, Course platform etc)

How to Take Action and Create Lists to Keep You Organized

Just in case you where skimming a bit and didn’t write anything down yet. I wanted to summarize each of the 5 lists again for you.

BUT first, this is how we are going to take action.

STEP ONE: Pick 1 or 2 lists to make

I want you to pick 1 or 2 lists that you feel would be really really beneficial to you right now. Then you are going to pick those 1 or 2 things to implement right away.

STEP TWO: What app will you use?

Decide if you keep track of these notes on the standard notes app that comes with your phone or if you do want to use a different dedicated notes app. Maybe it’s something you already have on your phone or whether you want to look for a new note taking app, you make that decision.

STEP THREE: Differentiate these notes from other notes within that app with formatting

There are a few things I do to format my notes.

A. searchable titles

Don’t name your lists with weird, obscure names your never going to remember. Make it standard, plain jane and logical to make it easy to search for.

b. emoji’s to draw attention to the title

Use emojis to draw your eye to the title automatically while your searching for the note.

So for example, for the home improvement one – Add an emoji picture of a house

Or, for the clothing one, you can have a little shirt on either side of your title.

For the meal one, pick a yummy looking food emoji.

For the coupon codes one, put a nice big money sign.

c. capitalize title

This is another way of making sure that your eye will easily be able to find that note back. It will be easy to tell it’s not just a random thought you jotted down

d. organize into folders

Does your notes app have folder capabilities? If so, tuck all these lists into a folder on their own. Name it something like “Reference” or “Important Info.”

E. pin to the top

For Apple Notes, I know you have the option to pin lists to the top of your notes app. I am not sure if that is an option for Android notes apps, but I am sure there is a way to keep things at the top for easier access.

It’s one thing to make this note so that we don’t have of random paper notes all over the house. It’s another thing to organize those notes properly within the app itself, so that we don’t lose them again.

Because you can lose things digitally just as easy as you can lose lose them physically.

For myself personally in my house, paper goes missing all the time. I have kiddos that love to colour, draw, write on anything they can find. If I have paper stuff hanging around, they are going to take it and write their own notes on it.

STEP FOUR: Actually create the lists to keep you organized that you chose as the most important ones to make for now

STEP FIVE: Utilize the formatting tips from Step 3 and brain dump some info into each note

STEP SIX: Come back into each list and further format and organize with the info in there so far.

STEP SEVEN: Make it a habit to actually use these lists to keep you organized

Add to these lists to keep you organized on a recurring basis. Discipline yourself to add info into this note as soon as you think of it.

A good rule of thumb is if it only takes a minute or less, then do it right away!

As soon as you open an email with a coupon code, have the discipline to go straight to the notes app, copy the code. Go straight into your notes app and paste it along with the information of when it expires.

You’re gonna go straight from that email to the list. Then swipe back over to your email quick and DELETE THAT EMAIL. You’re done with it. That info is safely tucked away and filed away for when you need to make that purchase. AND your inbox is happier for it.

Recapping the 5 Lists to Keep You Organized You Need to Have On Your Phone

To conclude it all, we have 5 lists to keep you organized as a busy Mom, by keeping a digital copy on your phone.

1. Coupon Codes List
   • Easy, singular place to enter codes from emails / the mail etc so you know exactly where to look when shopping
2. Meal Ideas List
   • 10-20 tried and true family favourite meals. Recipes you almost always have all the ingredients for and can make from memory. A bank of ideas to fall back on when you need a last minute idea.
3. Clothes to Buy List
   • Record clothing as your kids grow out of things. What size they need, the colour and style. Makes shopping in person or online easier, faster and keeps you within your budget.
4. Home Improvement List
   • To record things such as paint colours, decor you’d like, maintenance tasks by room, projects by room, furniture and window measurments
5. Parenting and Kids Resources List
   • So you never forget that fun activity or that helpful free resource that you downloaded as it pertains to parenting or kids, activities, different things like that.

Again, the reason why we’re creating these lists to keep you organized, is because it’s just a centralized place to house information in the interim. Before we have the official systems in place to manage all these things differently.

Even if we are at the stage right now of organizing our mom life, even if we are in stage 1 of my framework. You are still going have to keep your home moderately organized in the meantime, I recognize that.

So the point of these things that we’re doing in the meantime is to kind of help us get through those other areas that we have to keep on top of, in the meantime, while we are perfecting the first categories.

Thanks for listening / reading and learning the 5 lists to keep you organized on your phone.