Staying organised from a mobile

I’m not going to bore you with the details on every type of calendar or planner I’ve tried – because we would be here all day. Let’s just say I’ve got boxes full of neglected stationery at home. Washi tape, pastel highlighters, every type of sticker imaginable. The truth is, I bought these things in the hope that it would help keep things organised. Just like any new phase, it worked, to begin with, but faded eventually and I was back at square one.

If you find yourself asking questions like this over and over…

“What was I supposed to buy from the shop?” “Where is that meal booked for next week?” “When is my insurance due?”

…then this blog post might just change your life.

Stop spending money, now! It’s free to stay organised with your mobile

To some people, this might seem obvious. But you’d be surprised how much stationery and personalised planners can actually cost.

There are two FREE apps that you need to install on your phone straight away.

1. Microsoft Outlook
2. Microsoft To-Do: List, Task & Reminder

There is one other called OneNote which I’d highly recommend. This isn’t required for everyone because if you enjoy writing in a notebook and carrying it around, then that’ll work too. But don’t come to me when you’ve lost your bag!

The first thing to setup is Outlook. To-Do and OneNote are amazing but if you’re not already using them it will take a little bit of getting used to. So I’d suggest getting comfortable with Outlook to begin with then getting to grips with the others after.

Sign in to Outlook with all your email accounts

Do you use a live account for emails already? If yes, you’ll find this easy.

If not then you might need to consult your trusty friend Google to help – or get in touch with us, of course 🙂

Set up your emails for your needs

Every setup can vary depending on your individual needs. To give you an idea of how Outlook can be used on mobile, I’ll explain how mine is set up currently.

The first thing I did was added all the email accounts I needed access to. I’ve got an android mobile so have to have a google email address for that. I get hardly any emails for this so set up a forward to my live account (@hotmail, @outlook, etc) which is the main one I use. Then I added my work email for Fabric IT. This is an Office 365 account.

Emails and calendars on one app: Outlook for mobile

The Outlook app is pretty powerful. It’s really good for reading emails and you can set up quick swipe actions to suit your needs. Mine is set to ‘delete’ or ‘flag for follow up’ depending on the way you swipe. Not many people realise that Outlook for mobile has a very nice calendar tab which I would argue is one of the best of its kind on mobile.

Set up your calendar to show what you need: Work, Sports, Family accounts

Do you support a sports club? Add your team of choice and their fixtures will be auto-populated in your calendar. Be sure to check the location as mine always show Manchester City’s name before any other football team name. Which if you’re a fan of football you’ll know that’s incorrect if it’s an away game.

Do you want to keep track of your work teams calendar so you can book meetings on the go? That can be set up too! I’ve got Carl and Grace’s calendar within easy reach so I’m never booking meetings when they aren’t free.

Keep it organised with colours

Now that all your accounts are in Outlook, here’s the fun part. You can go to the calendar tab and add colours to represent each account you’d like to view.

Don’t overlook this step – even if pretty colours aren’t your thing! It’s designed to help as a visual key for organising your calendar. If you spend time on picking the right colours it can seriously help make your calendar easy to follow.

For mine: pink – personal, purple – boyfriend, Green – work, blue – Manchester City games, Grey – Tottenham Hotspur games (my boyfriend’s team).

Add your meetings to Outlook

When you first set everything up, your calendar may look quite bare. Now’s the time to start adding in your plans and get organised from your mobile!

Since I set this up, it has really improved my organisation.

You may be wondering how you can use the other apps I mentioned. We already have some amazing blog posts from my colleagues, Grace and Fiona, on these apps.

To-Do or Not To Do

In short, this is the only To-Do list you’ll need on your mobile. Microsoft has built this and combined it with Wunderlist to create the ultimate To-Do list app for your mobile and desktop. I use this for my work and personal life and it’s pretty amazing. It even lists your emails flagged to follow up! See how to stay organised with your new best friend, Microsoft To-Do, in Grace’s blog.

OneNote for all your notes

If you’re overwhelmed with sticky notes and handy scribbles, then OneNote is for you. It’s a digital notebook that is saved in the cloud. You’ll never lose your notes again! It’s really handy for making notes on meetings, drafting ideas and even planning holidays! If you have children in high school, this could just about save their life when it comes to revision notes – just speaking from experience! Check out Fiona’s blog on how OneNote is Microsofts best kept secret pad.