How do you stay organized and productive in life? Do you rely on pen and paper to track your to-do lists and any information you want to remember?

I suggest that you leverage the power of modern software to be more organized and effective in life. More specifically, I recommend using three software tools: ClickUp, Confluence, and Jira. I use all three of these tools, and they have ramped up my effectiveness and they have helped me to make progress on my goals and to fulfill my responsibilities.

ClickUp

Of these software tools, ClickUp is my favorite (https://clickup.com/). I use it to track my daily action plans and to track my master tasks list.

ClickUp is project management software that groups tasks into lists. And each list belongs to a space. You can create a free ClickUp workspace and you can have multiple spaces in your workspace. Then you can create as many task lists as you want in each of your spaces.

In my Clickup account, I created a “Planning System” space. In that space I have two task lists: “Daily Action Plans” and “Master Tasks List”. For my daily action plan list, I am able to group tasks by due date, so I can see the tasks I have committed to working on each day of the week. Then I have my master tasks list grouped by priority so I can see unscheduled tasks in order of priority. This helps me choose which items from my master tasks list to move to my daily action plans when I do my weekly planning on Sunday.

Another great thing about ClickUp is that is has an iPhone app. This allows me to review, update, and add to my task lists directly from my phone. It gives the power of the full web app on my computer while still allowing me to manage my tasks from my phone.

Confluence

Another tool I use is Confluence (https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence). This is a tool that gives me a private Wiki website with web pages grouped into spaces. It is where I document my goals, plans, and any other information and notes I want to capture. The best thing is, Confluence is free for up to 10 users. This means that you can use it for free for personal use, or if you have a small company of 10 or less employees, you could even use it as a free documentation and collaboration tool for your company.

In Confluence you can create spaces to group the web pages you create. And it has a built-in and easy to use page editor, so you don’t have to be a web developer to create content for your Confluence site.

I use Confluence to track information for the Toastmasters clubs I belong to. I also use it to track the details and meeting notes for the projects I work on in my personal life. I also use it as a note taking tool.

Another great thing about Confluence is that is has an iPhone app. This allows me to access my Wiki pages from both my computer and my phone.

Jira

Another tool I use is Jira (https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira). Jira is a great tool to use for someone who develops software as a hobby. It allows you to create projects, and each project you create can have tasks. Each task can also be given a type, and there are different types of projects you can create, like Scrum projects or Kanban projects, or even a simple bug tracking project.

One of the best things about Jira is that is free for up to 10 users. This means you can use if for free for your personal software projects, or you could even use it for free for your company if you have 10 or fewer employees.

I use Jira to track the work I want to do for my personal software projects. For example, when I created a Payment Tracker app for my Project Managers United Toastmasters club, I used Jira to track all of the features I wanted to implement in the app. This helped me remember to create all of the features that my club wanted me to create for this app. I also have Jira projects for the other software apps I have created, and I track bug reports, feature requests, and enhancement ideas as tasks in my Jira projects.

Jira also has an iPhone app. This lets me see my projects and tasks on my phone when I don’t have access to my computer. It also makes it easy to capture enhancement ideas and bugs as project tasks on my phone, which I can later review on my computer.

Conclusion

Leveraging productivity software has made me much more effective at making progress on my goals and fulfilling my responsibilities. The tools I use are ClickUp, Confluence, and Jira. ClickUp is great task management tool, while Jira is great for tracking the work I want to do on my personal software projects. And Confluence is a great personal Wiki where I document my goals and plans and capture other documentation that helps me to remember important ideas and information in my life.

The best thing is that these three tools have options for free accounts, so they are great tools for someone who wants to be more organized and productive. They also have iPhone apps, so you can access your data from both your computer and your phone.

I encourage you to use these tools yourself. You could use ClickUp to track your daily action plans and master tasks list. You could use Confluence as a great note taking and documentation tool. You could use Jira to track the work you want to do on your personal software projects or other projects you are working on.

Ultimately, using these tools will make you more effective and organized.