I have become an avid Notes app user in the last couple of years. It’s where I basically keep track of my life. I would be entirely lost in my day-to-day if not for that app and my calendar app. I love that I can jot something down or create a grocery list on my desktop and have the note sync to my phone, too. Here are some ways I like to use my Notes app:
My Weekly To Do List
I can’t remember when I started making these lists, but they have been transformative for my time management, productivity, and stress level. On Sunday afternoon or Monday morning, I take about 15 minutes to make my list. It has all the days listed out with a checklist underneath the day filled with to-do’s. I reference both my work and personal calendars to input appointments, deadlines, meetings, etc. Once the “must do” items are in the list, I then go in and fill in any extra things, like workouts, grocery shopping, meal prep, work project goals, and more. I check them off as I go, move tasks around to different days if needed, and the list syncs to my computer and laptop so I can always stay on top of things!
Here’s a sample list:
“Food This Week” (aka my meal plan)
On Sundays, I will take some time to also make a food plan for the week. I’ll decide what we’re eating and when, then I will make my grocery shopping list accordingly. I have definitely been guilty in the past of buying ingredients for a meal, then forgetting I was going to make it, and letting them go to waste. With my list, that doesn’t happen! I will refer back to this several times throughout the week, especially as I’m pulling meat out of the freezer or planning a second grocery shop for meals later in the week.
Shared Notes
I love the shared note function! You can create a note and then “share” it with someone (or multiple people) to contribute to it as well. I have a couple shared notes with Mike and my assistant, Chelsea. For Mike and I, I’ve recently started doing a shared note with our childcare plan for the week. While we have a rough outline of how the weeks will go, it feels like something is always coming up or changing with out schedule. Having a “week at a glance” with the days/times I’m solo with the kids, he’s solo with the kids, etc. is helpful for planning and also our communication! I can then plan my work schedule and time around that, so that I’m making sure to have everything covered.
My mom, sister, and I had a shared note around the holidays with a list of all the activities/events we had going on with our 3 families. It was helpful to each chime in with different ideas or timing constraints all in one place, versus going back and forth in text messages and then forgetting what we decided on!
Everything Else
Aside from those constant notes I have in my app all the time, I also use it to just jot down anything I need to remember!
I discovered that you can name one of your lists in your Reminders app as groceries and then whenever you ask Siri to “add eggs to my grocery list” or something to your groceries list she will add it and then the list automatically subdivides into categories, deli, dairy, household products, etc. It is the most fantastic and efficient thing about this phone.
Yes, that’s a cool feature! I make my list in order of how I go through my grocery store, so I just do it in the Notes app.