How Google “Keeps” my Life Together

I’m a Type A perfectionist whose coping skills happen to be organizing, list making, and planning ahead. This sounds great in theory until it keeps me up at 2 am planning a party in June for my child’s second birthday in December….but I digress. Most of the time these things make my life easier, and I am here to let you in on a secret weapon that helps me remember things, plan ahead, and generally look like I have my life together. That weapon is Google Keep. 

Google Keep is basically a list making app. You could compare it to Evernote, Trello, etc. I’ve used it for years, and over the years have fine tuned my usage to make it work for me. 

Lists…..and more importantly, SHARED LISTS

How Google “Keeps” my Life Together

By far my favorite feature of Keep is the ability to make lists. Lists keep my brain organized. My husband and I have a shared Google Calendar where we track events, birthdays, appointments, etc. {Side note:: the marriage advice I give all newlyweds is have a shared calendar, like Google or Cozi, another great shared calendar app. It will save you many an argument about what time you were supposed to be at your in-laws for dinner.} We use Google Keep in a similar way. 

Our main shared lists are HEB, Costco, and baby related things. That means if one of us is swinging by HEB on the way home, the other can add things that we need to the Keep list, and BAM. It’s right there when you get to the store. Keep also saves your list items, even after you check them off, so we just use the same list over and over again for those grocery items that we stock up on every time. You can put links, photos, or text in keep, which means if my husband is picking up deodorant for me, I can add that to the list WITH A PICTURE of the exact one I use. No more guesswork. Other things we share are:

  1. Packing lists
  2. Date night ideas
  3. Restaurants to try
  4. Meal planning
  5. Gift lists or ideas

Things I Want to Remember

I don’t know about you, but if I don’t write something down, I will either forget about it completely OR ruminate on it endlessly. Sometimes this calls for a deeper dive into my journal, but for things I just want to recall later, or when I don’t have access to it, I plug it into keep. Here’s some of the things that I track.

  1. Recipes to try
  2. Blog brainstorms
  3. Books to read
  4. Crafts to make
  5. House projects
  6. Places to visit in Houston

I love this because it saves me time down the road. When it is time for my next book I just pull up my list and see what’s available at the library. When we are deciding where to go for a date night, or want something new to cook, we start with the list. 

I also keep track of things that I want throughout the year so that I can have a list of things I actually want to receive when my birthday and Christmas rolls around. And sometimes I go buy it myself!

Other Uses of Google Keep

How Google “Keeps” my Life Together

I have a Brain Dump list that is just random things I want to remember or need to get out of my brain. It has things like “Target gift card has 10 bucks left” or  “need to get new passports” or websites I hear about. It’s a catch all in the moment that I can refer back to later, or move to a new list if I need to store it long term. 

You can also color code your lists *swoon* so all of our household lists are yellow, my personal things are blue, etc. This lets you easily see the things you have in a clear visual way. Keep also lets you archive a list or note so if you don’t need it then but might need it in the future, it is still accessible. 

You can set a reminder to a note or a list, you can search for them based on keywords…basically never forget anything again! You’re welcome. What list are you making first?


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