PA type help for new life

[Queenofthesilverdollar]

I have recently retired after 40 years 30 of which I have had been very lucky to have PA support. They never sorted my home life but because they sorted my work calender, travel, files, letters, email etc I had a structure that I worked in and used to help me manage home.

I am finding the transition difficult from keeping a calender, being ahead on travel arrangemetns etc and setting up a home filing system. its all on my phone currently and if I lose that I am stuffed.

Can any one recommed a system/website that I can copy

Op I dont know how much paperwork you have now you are retired but I guess most of us just muddle along. A mix of Word docs and spreadsheets stored on the computer and old paperwork in files in the cupboard. Its not that complicated!

Can you get your old pa to soft you out with a system and set you up? If not one you know you can ask for this from a local administrator/va.

A recent thread about outsourcing home jobs said that apparently you can buy pa services for your home life. That might be helpful at least to start with until you have something set up.

I would look into getting a private VA (virtual assistant) - you can just pay for as many hours as you need and they can help you set some systems up.

I use an app called ToDoIst which is very helpful, or look up Bullet Journaling. Setting aside a small amount of time for planning every so often is very helpful - I am retired and still spend half an hour or so on Mondays getting the coming days straight in my head, doing a food/shopping plan and that kind of thing.

Also make sure your phone is synced into the cloud somewhere - iCloud or whatever android do - so it’s much less of a problem if you do lose it.

I am a huge fan of the bullet point journal system- buy the book, which was transformative for me after only reading about the system online. I use a Leuchtturm 1917 B5 monthly planner, not a bullet point journal. Ignore the videos of people spending ages decorating their journals, it’s a down to earth system.

Do you mean you used your work calendar (Outlook, I presume) to manage your home life too? Can you not continue to use that?

Basically replicate how you 'managed home' whilst you were working.

The first thing I did before I took voluntary redundancy/early retirement was buy a personal laptop, prior to that I used my work one for everything.

I have all my files and spreadsheets on the laptop, my emails and bookings are sorted into folders in my Outlook, my documents are all in files in Explorer. I have a small office from my many years of WFH, this is set up with my laptop, monitor and printer and cupboards so it's a pleasant place to do my "admin".

As well as my Outlook calendar, we also have a large A4 paper diary that all shared appointments go into, it's left open, a week to a page, and checked every day.

It's neither onerous or complex to manage. I can find dates, tickets, bills, appointments, financial info etc. in seconds.

Buy a good spec laptop and set it up with Outlook etc. I'm assuming that you're comfortable with the Office suite and that's what you use on your phone. There are other free options but why complicate things.

After that just replicate everything you did when you were working.

Try the app Evernote, or similar, great for keeping documents/clippings in once place electronically