I learned early in life that life is easier when you are organized. When Ben Franklin spoke of “A place for everything, everything in its place,” he knew what he was talking about. Your 7th grade math homework is easy to find when it’s snapped in your math notebook instead of wadded up in the bottom of a bookbag.

When you’re organized, you can not only find what you’re looking for, but in the process have a good idea of what you have and forgot all about. Need a screwdriver? Go to the spot where screwdrivers are kept and you find the one you need and also see the six others you own of different sizes and types.

When you’re organized, work to be done stands out. Today’s stack of mail in the middle of an otherwise clear desk leaves no doubt about what needs to happen. On a cluttered desk that stack simply blends in with all the other stacks.

It’s the same with digital organization

Technology, when used properly, makes life easier. I was lucky enough to realize that one in the early 1980s. While others waited for the “new-fangled fad” to pass, I spend time staying ahead of the curve. I was the one always asking the question, “I wonder if the computer could do…” and the answer was generally “yes.”

Over the years, our tools have gotten easier. Once, our information was housed in a box of floppy disks on a desk. Now it’s on a network and available to us from anywhere via the phones in our pockets.

Still, too many find themselves stuck between the old and new. With one foot on the shore and one foot in the boat, life gets harder with every inch that boat moves.

And then a pandemic spurred action

Beginning in March 2020, if it hadn’t been for technology, we wouldn’t have had school at all in many parts of this country. Suddenly, having a digital device in the hands of every student and a reliable internet connection to every home became important.

The business world had toyed with the idea of “work from home” for quite a while. Suddenly, the “remote work” revolution was on. The boat that had been inching slowly from the dock was now being swept out with the tide.

And the need to “get organized digitally” became a must

The previous books I have written address both paper and digital organization. Because technology changes so quickly, I focused on principles of digital organization which would remain eternal rather than the specific tools.

All that changed a over little year ago. After being approached by Taylor & Francis to write something that would address the needs of educators looking for help, I began work on Get Organized…Digitally!: The Educator’s Guide to Time Management. That book is now finished and goes on sale December 29th.

It’s a story in three acts

We all complain about the many “things we have to do” and how to keep up with it all. Part 1, “The Digital Task List,” provides the nuts & bolts to help us all handle the ever-increasing number of “to-dos” that come our way digitally and give us a digital way to keep up with them.

In an information age, our information is only as good as our ability to find it when we need it. That’s the rationale behind Part 2, “Digital Notes & Digital Documents.”

Part 3 is all about “Rounding Out Your Digital Treasure Chest.” Our digital calendars are now critical to our survival in a world of Zoom meetings and other digital invitations. Email is still the most efficient method of written communication, but only for those who have a system to master it, and this part shows how. Another chapter in this section talks about automation. Technology is great at handling the mechanical, repetitive tasks in our lives. Automation is also great for letting our different digital tools talk to one another.

Written with the educator in mind, this is a book for all of us who have the feeling life could be easier than we often make it.

Get Organized Digitally!: The Educator’s Guide to Time Management is available from Routledge or Amazon. Grab your copy today.

Stay tuned next week as we talk about a special online book launch party we’re having on January 13!