A little while ago, I found myself in a sour mood. On one hand, I felt like I wasn’t getting enough done. On the other, I felt like I was giving my all and no one was appreciating me. Conflicting emotions that all stemmed from the same place. Not recording what I was doing.

So, I set out to find a solution. I started with post it notes. I picked up this tip from my lovely friend Abby. She’s a graduate student studying stage management at Carnegie Mellon. She’s also the source of all sunshine and goodness. She suggested that I use post it notes instead of lists. Not only did the post its give a physical indication of how much work I was doing, the act of balling up a post it note and throwing it away was basically crack for an achievement junkie like myself.

The only problem was, I have a short term memory. I would get really excited about throwing away all my post it notes, but the next day, I’d forget those suckers ever existed. I mean, had I really done anything that week? So I decided to step up my game by, well, making it into a game. Now my life is basically Mario.

I decided to take the sticky notes and apply points to each of them. 20 points for finishing a video. 15 points for a blog post. 1 point for an answered email, etc… The more important or urgent, the higher the points. Then, because I like a little frill, I added badges, 1 ups and lives.

I use badges for when I go out of my way to do something. Like a meet and greet or making something cool.

1 ups are for when I learn a new skill, like frame by frame animation or mastering a new social media trend.

Lives are when I do something for myself, like a day off with a friend, or taking a nap. These are few and far between, but everyone needs a little incentive to Treat Yo Self (RIP Parks and Rec).

All of this adds up to a dash of fun in my very busy days. I love making the badges or totaling my points, and it makes me compete with myself every week. All in all, the system works so far.

So how about you? What do you do to organize your time?