[ad_1]
I’m a productiveness junkie—I’ve dabbled in many of the to-do checklist apps on the market, and I’ve experimented with each number of Submit-it notes, pens, and fancy journals. Nothing ever appears to stay!
YNAB is nice as a result of I by no means must “system hop” relating to my funds. As soon as it clicked for me, I used to be hooked, and I’ve by no means seemed again. Having that framework for managing my funds is highly effective and assuring, and I really like that I don’t must “hack” it to make it work.
How I take advantage of YNAB as a to-do checklist
These days, a part of my productiveness experimentation concerned YNAB. In any case, I’m in my funds each. single. day. Generally (okay, most occasions) a number of occasions a day. Might there be a technique to make it work for me as a to-do checklist? Whereas I’ll neglect to open my planner or by accident toss that post-it notice, there’s little doubt that my funds will all the time be there for me.
Listed below are some methods to make use of YNAB as a to-do checklist:
Scheduled transactions as reminders
The obvious manner to make use of YNAB as a to-do checklist is to reap the benefits of scheduled transactions. For instance, due to YNAB, I do know that my library card is because of expire in a number of weeks. Sadly, the “cool” library (sure, there may be such a factor) is simply over the state border, and I’ve to pay $50/12 months to have the ability to take a look at a gazillion youngsters books each week.
It’s not on auto-renew, however seeing that transaction enter my funds is a reminder to do one thing about it. Do I wish to renew my library card? Are there dusty, forgotten books that must be returned (almost definitely)? It’s the nudge I want.
My teammates had all types of enjoyable makes use of for scheduled transactions:
- Does a test must be written for an expense, one thing that may’t be paid by way of auto-pay? Kat makes use of scheduled transactions to remind herself to do exactly that.
- Jen makes use of scheduled inflows to let her know she’s anticipating reimbursement, whereas Ernie makes use of them to test incoming rebates (whereas all of us lament that it could be higher to obtain in-store financial savings as a substitute).
- Kelly makes use of scheduled transactions to remind herself to skip meal package deliveries – one thing I’m notoriously horrible at doing (though as soon as, I requested to cancel and so they refunded me, solely to ship the field anyway—which was nice for my grocery funds).
Use the notes subject
The notes subject can also be extraordinarily useful—you possibly can add month-specific to-do’s within the class header, or class particular notes within the—you guessed it—class. The “✅” emoji can be utilized to maintain you on monitor.
Ashley G. makes use of her notes to maintain monitor of birthdays and essential occasions and to assist handle her Christmas purchasing, however her use of the “✅” emoji is downright genius! Extra on that beneath.
Use classes and class teams
Ashley makes use of a class group to arrange all of her Christmas to-do’s, with every class representing one thing that must be bought and accomplished, like shopping for stamps and sending out playing cards. As soon as it’s full, the class will get the magic test mark (✅) and is moved to the underside of the checklist.
Classes themselves could be standalone to-do’s, simply saved out of view by collapsing the class group. As soon as they’re accomplished, you possibly can even delete them—YNAB will immediate you to decide on a class to ‘merge’ them into, so your funds can be muddle free.
Create a to-do “account”
I created a particular account in my funds referred to as “✅ To-Do Listing”. Whereas it could be superb if YNAB may import the contents of my operating psychological to-do checklist, that is the subsequent neatest thing. On this account, I take advantage of scheduled transactions to create date-specific to-do’s: the date is when it’s due (repeating as essential) and the ‘activity’ is the payee. For the class, I’ll select whichever is essentially the most related.
For instance, if my canine wants her flea remedy, I’d select the “Pet” class. If I want to purchase a birthday current for my mother, I’d set it up like this, with “Purchase Mother’s Current” because the payee, with “presents” because the class:
I can use the memo subject to maintain monitor of any particular particulars, like concepts for her present and even the URL of the merchandise on Amazon. The great thing about that is that I don’t must enter an quantity for the “transaction”, however it’s preserved in my funds. As soon as the duty is full, I’ll “clear” it, so I nonetheless get that satisfaction of marking a test field. The cool half is that I can use the To-Do Listing account as a technique to see all the things that’s on my plate, and may filter by class as wanted. And if I don’t wish to see the finished to-do’s anymore? I can reconcile, and simply filter these out.
Whereas I feel I’ll perpetually experiment relating to my to-do checklist, utilizing YNAB on this manner has been a game-changer. It reduces the friction that comes from checking yet one more app, web site, or notepad, and makes it much more probably for me to work together with my funds. It’s a win win!
Taken with extra budgeting suggestions and methods? Be a part of us on the Weekly Roundup, a enjoyable, once-a-week e-mail replace on cash issues!
[ad_2]
