Planing is essential for an effective workflow. Time is changing and technology is becoming a bigger part of our lives. We have so many distractions that we are becoming more stressed. Some are even getting depressed because they can’t keep up.

I have been there myself. – I started to forget, lost concentration after 10-15 minutes, got ill all the time, got upset over the smallest things, a little depressed and so on. – Why? Well… I’m what you call a student entrepreneur, meaning I’m also studying on the side. I actually founded my company in the middle of my second semester and now I’m on my last and seventh semester.

I believe it was my fifth semester I went to my doctor with my symptoms and she said I had stress. I was already using a schedule I made for my self but it was only possible to plan on short term. I was getting stressed because my schedule was always staring me right in my face, with all the things I had to do and I couldn’t do all of them.

Since then I have researched and tested a lot more and have come up with a perfect combination of three different tools. – The first two are free and the third is very cheap. You probably already own a stack.

1. Trello

Click on picture to enlarge

It’s so simple and easy to use. You can use it for everything like teamwork, dinner, vacation, personal things and so on.

You list your task under the cards: To do – Doing – Done – or make others. You can click on each task and you will see a popup like the picture on the right. Just customize it as you need to. Using a checklist, you can divide the task into smaller tasks. When you do the smaller tasks and check them off, you won’t feel stuck as you might do, when not dividing your tasks up.

Trello also have apps for Apple and Android.

I use Trello for managing as well as smaller and bigger projects. It’s also easy to add other people if needed. – Click here to sign up for Trello.

2. Google Calendar

A very easy and simple tool. I use it every single day. If you click on the picture to the right, you will see my schedule for this week.
I use different colors for my activities:

  • Green is for education
  • Blue: work
  • Light blue: background work
  • Yellow: private
  • Purple is them all mixed
  • The faded colors are over with.


You can set it up for endless repeats or set a date for it to stop. Set it to repeat a certain event on fixed days or dates. You can invite others to your calendar and have many different schedules. – Sign up for Google Calendar here.

You can also get apps for Apple and Android.

3. Sticky notes
Yes! Sticky notes, they are awesome! They are cheap and you can use as many as you want. Take one daily, write down what you have to do in the morning before starting work. As you work trough the list and cross off the different tasks, you get some kind of satisfaction and get more motivated to do more work.

Tip
1. Put your phone on night mode so you wont get disturbed when working.
2. If you work in an office where you get disturbed a lot you can reinforce a sticker policy. If you have a green sticker on your screen it is alright to get disturbed, if you have a  red sticker, then you are not to be disturbed.

Follow me on Instagram for motivational quotes: @hafsafarooqx2