Get It Together, Weirdo

New Year, New Systems: How to Create Systems That Stick

• Sarah Bowser, That Weird Nerdy Mom • Episode 11

Share episode

What's causing that heavy, overwhelming feeling in your chest and gut every time you think about getting organized? Maybe it comes from trying to force yourself into a system that wasn't designed for you.

In this episode of Get It Together, Weirdo, host and coach Sarah Bowser encourages you to harness the energy of the New Year by creating a personalized organizational system that sticks. You’ll learn to identify what currently overwhelms you about one-size-fits-all solutions, to experiment with different tools and methods, and to regularly assess and adjust to ensure that your new system is still working for you. 

Sarah has tried sooo many different systems over the years — paper planners, Trello boards, Google tools, and a whole washi tape phase — and what she’s learned is that the system you follow or piece together doesn't have to be followed perfectly to a T. It just has to be yours.

Want to use that New Year energy to finally get your shit together? Not in some overwhelming colour-coded planner sort of way, but by building a system that actually works for you and your wonderfully weird brain? Don’t miss this episode! 

If you want to stay in the loop on new episodes, posts, and other tidbits that Sarah shares, go to thatweirdnerdymom.com to hop on her email list, or join her for weekly coworking on Mondays. 

What you’ll learn in this episode: 

  • The importance of developing a personalized organization system tailored to your wonderfully weird brain, instead of relying on one-size-fits-all solutions
  • How to identify why your current organizational efforts are causing you stress or overwhelm
  • How to experiment with different organizational tools and methods to find what works best for you
  • That progress and persistence — including regular check-ins and tweaks to ensure your system is still working for you — are the goal

Noteworthy quotes from this episode:
“The system you follow or piece together doesn't have to be followed perfectly to a T. It just has to be yours.”

“A lot of these popular tools and strategies assume that we're all striving to be neat, orderly, colour-coded robots who thrive on rigid plans and having our days planned down to the minute. No! We're human. We're messy. Unpredictable.”

“If something doesn't work, take it out and try implementing something else at that step. That's not a failure. It just means you're learning and gaining more information about what doesn't work for you.”

Join the Get It Together, Weirdo community

Episode 11: New Year, New Systems: How to Create Systems That Stick 

Welcome to Get It Together, Weirdo, the podcast where we dive into ways to help you figure out how you can tackle your to-dos, keep track of your side quests, and manage your time in a way that works for your brain so you can focus on nerding out on the things that make you do a happy dance. I'm Sarah Bowser, your get your shit together coach and resident weirdo here to guide you on your journey. So let's get it together Weirdo. 

So here we are, my wonderful weirdos, fresh into a new year. There's a special kind of energy that comes with January, isn't there? A mix of hope, motivation, and oh yeah, guilt. Guilt about everything we didn't accomplish last year. Let's take a moment to thank those perfectly curated Instagram grids and influencers for that one. Now let's leave that all behind for a moment, okay? Because I want to help you take that oh so common New Year energy and use it to finally get your shit together. 

Not in some overwhelming color-coded planner sort of way. I'm talking about simply, easily building a system that actually works for you and your wonderfully weird brain. Because those one-size-fits-all solutions don't actually fit anyone. It's like those free T-shirts that you would get at events, which, I'll be honest, I always wanted one of those T-shirts that sonar shot out of the canon at Hartford Wolf Pack games growing up. But anywho, they claim to be universal, but they either drown you or squeeze you like a sausage. No in between. No thanks. 

So instead, we're going to talk about creating your own personalized organization system. One that fits your life, your brain, your priorities, without the overwhelm or guilt. And I've been down this road myself. I've tried so many different systems over the years. Paper planners, Trello boards, Google Tools, a whole washi tape phase that we won't continue to talk about anymore. I tried to make so many systems work based on courses and directions from people who have touted their system as the end-all, be-all, as the system that will work for you as long as you follow it exactly. 

And what I've learned after failing to perfectly follow so many systems based exactly on someone else's instructions, which were made for their brain, not mine, is that the system you follow or piece together doesn't have to be followed perfectly to a T. It just has to be yours. 

So where do we start with coming up with your own imperfect personalized system? Well, first we need to figure out what's causing that heavy, overwhelming feeling in your chest and gut every time you think about getting organized. Ask yourself, what's not working for you right now? Maybe it's the piles of sticky notes that seem to multiply overnight. Maybe it's that fancy app you downloaded but never opened. Or maybe it's just the sheer volume of to-dos swirling around in your brain.

How much of this overwhelm comes from trying to force yourself into a system that wasn't designed for you? Are those sticky notes giving you anxiety even though that one influencer said it was a game changer? Are you feeling immense guilt that you paid for that app, but it doesn't make any sense whatsoever to you? A lot of these popular tools and strategies assume that we're all striving to be neat, orderly, color-coded robots who thrive on rigid plans and having our days planned down to the minute. But no. We're human. We're messy, unpredictable, and sometimes we lose entire afternoons googling why raccoons wash their food. 

So we need to get clear on what doesn't work for us and why it's not working. And once we've done that, we can start to set some goals. And no, becoming a perfectly organized productivity machine doesn't count. We want to set goals that are specific and attainable. So for example, instead of saying I want to organize my entire life, try something like I'll sort through my email inbox by the end of the month or I'll spend 10 minutes a day decluttering my desk. 

We don't want to make the goals too big, but if you know you have this bigger goal that you really, really want to achieve, you can work on breaking down that bigger goal into smaller bite-sized chunks that you work through in a specific order to achieve that big goal. Think of it like a video game or putting together your new favorite Lego kit. Every little win, every little step gets you closer to leveling up, to putting together the whole Lego piece. Plus, it's way more satisfying to check off sort one drawer than to stare at reorganize entire house and feel like a failure before you even start. Hi, it's me. I've been there. 

Once you've got your goals, we can design a system to help you crush them. Start by organizing your life into buckets or categories. For me, it's things like work, home, kiddos, and creative or fun projects. What are your buckets? Kids? Hobbies? That growing TBR pile that is turning into its own monster in the corner of your room. Whatever they are, your categories are going to help you start to make sense of the chaos. 

Then you want to think about what tools feel right for you. Do you love the feel of pen and paper? Well, cool. Stick to a planner or notebook or handwritten lists. If you're more of a digital nerd, Trello, Notion, or even a simple Google Doc or Google Sheet might be your thing. And if you're like me, you might end up with a weird mix of all of the above. And that's okay. It doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to work. 

You want to treat this like an experiment. Try a tool for a week or two, see how it feels, tweak it as you go. And same goes for the categories. Try categorizing things. If it doesn't work, you don't like it, doesn't make sense, tweak it. Anytime something doesn't feel right, you're allowed to change your mind and try a different tool, a different category, a different anything. 

Once your system is designed, the next step is actually implementing it. This is where most people will hit a wall of some sort. Because right off the bat, I just want to tell you, don't try to implement it all at once, you little overachiever you. Because yeah, that's what I try to do. It doesn't work. Pick one piece of your system. Maybe it's setting up a calendar for appointments, creating a daily to-do list, or setting up your first Notion database. Focus on that first. Test it out,

see how it works, tweak it a bit, and then add more layers as you get comfortable with what you just added in. And again, if something doesn't work, take it out and try implementing something else at that step. That's not a failure. It just means you're learning and gaining more information about what doesn't work for you. 

And finally, let's talk about keeping the system going, because let's be real here. It's easy to fall back into old habits. Make a point to schedule some kind of regular check-in with yourself, a system audit, if you will, once a month or however often makes sense for you, your brain, and your system. Ask yourself, is this still working? What's stressing me out? What needs to be tweaked? See if you can come up with some sort of rating system. When you do this check-in, try to look at your system from a more objective point of view as much as possible. Be sure to give yourself grace during this audit. You're allowed to have bad days, you're allowed to screw up, you're not going to implement your system 100% perfectly, 100% of the time. That's not realistic. And that's okay. You're even allowed to throw the whole system out the window and start from scratch if you need to. Nothing in this process is about perfection. It's all about progress and persistence. 

So my lovely weirdo, here's your homework for this week. Pick one thing to tackle. Maybe it's clearing out your inbox. Maybe it's setting up a simple to-do list. Whatever it is, give yourself five minutes to get started. Just five minutes. That's it. Remember that no system is perfect, but the right system for you, that's a total game changer. 

And hey, if you're feeling overwhelmed and need some support, I've got your back. Check out my Mental Chaos coaching. It's designed to help wonderfully weird people like you create systems that actually work for their wonderfully chaotic brains. Or if you need someone to just organize your shit for you, I got you covered there too with my Get Your Shit Organized VIP days. You can find all of the details in the show notes or shoot me a DM on Instagram @weirdnerdymom. Let's tackle 2025 together. One step at a time. 

Thanks so much for listening today. You can find complete show notes, links to resources mentioned, as well as a link to our co-working community on our website, thatweirdnerdymom.com. Be sure to leave a rating or review and check me out on Instagram @weirdnerdymom. Feel free to shoot me a DM. I'd love to hear from you. 

Until next time, my wonderful weirdo. You've got this. Bring out your weird.