Best Laid Plans

Ep #183: All-Digital Planning + Life Systems with Kae!

January 29, 2024

You all know I LOVE paper planners but there are so many people out there planning effectively with digital tools – and it was time to interview one of them! In this episode, I interview Kaelyn Lopez (Grateful Kae!!!) for this episode because she has gradually shifted almost entirely to a digital planning system that is both functional and fun. She shares her system in detail in this conversational episode!

Her primary tools: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Tasks
Seconary tools: Google Keep, Google Drive, Google Sheets/Docs

Kae also shares her unique long-term time/life tracking system based in Sheets.

If you don’t already follow/read Kae’s blog, you should!! She has productivity content, lots on family life + travel and more. You can find her at gratefulkae.com!

Episode Sponsors:
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14 Comments

  • Reply Coree January 29, 2024 at 8:41 am

    I loved this episode! I really need a personal to do list makeover – I’ve got my work projects 95% under control but struggle with keeping track of personal tasks in a coherent and systematic way, so I’m going to give her Today, This Week, etc lists a go.

  • Reply Elisabeth January 29, 2024 at 9:45 am

    Loving this episode! Great job, Kae <3 So fun to FINALLY hear your voice, too.

  • Reply Lisa’s Yarns January 29, 2024 at 10:16 am

    Loved hearing from Kae! She makes me want to use the google platform more but all of the google apps are blocked at work. I do use some of them on my phone, like google sheets for maintaining our address lists. I like how she’s teaching her kids to reference a calendar versus answering a question about the schedule!

  • Reply Katie January 29, 2024 at 10:41 am

    I read Kae’s blog and loved hearing her friendly Wisconsin accent! 🙂

    I also find digital systems a lot easier to manage- any paper list I make ends up getting lost eventually. But still, there is SOMETHING about writing things down that I just need to make sense of things. We have a white board in our kitchen with the weekly schedule, and I could never remember what’s going on just using my phone!

    • Reply Grateful Kae January 29, 2024 at 5:20 pm

      Hahaha, I always forget that I apparently have the STRONGEST Wisconsin accent!!! I mean, I personally don’t really hear it… lol! But my cousins who live out of state used to always get the biggest kick out of my accent whenever we used to see them as kids. They’d make me repeat all the words with “o” sounds. “Say… Boat. Coke. Float. Don’t.” 😂

  • Reply lea January 29, 2024 at 1:05 pm

    I’ve been a loyal listener to the podcast. For me, this has been them most helpful episode with regards to implementing digital life and so many new ideas that I can implement right away. I just started using Googlekeep this year too

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger January 29, 2024 at 1:58 pm

      Yay!!!

  • Reply Katharine January 29, 2024 at 1:29 pm

    Really want to learn how to make better use of my phone this year and I’ve got a lot of ideas from today’s episode. Thank you!

  • Reply Grateful Kae January 29, 2024 at 5:21 pm

    So happy to hear that some people got some good takeaways from the episode!! 💕

  • Reply Michelle January 30, 2024 at 10:12 pm

    I’d love to see her time tracking log that she uses to archive/record her life that y’all mentioned at the end!

  • Reply Happy Things Friday: 2 February - The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist February 1, 2024 at 11:01 pm

    […] of fun things around the blogosphere. Kae was Sarah’s guest on this week’s episode of Best Laid Plans to discuss all things digital planning, Birchie welcomed a new Doggo into her household (the future […]

  • Reply Shylie February 4, 2024 at 2:41 am

    LOVED this episode as a fellow Google girl – with a paper planner too! A couple of tips for anyone interested – I use Google tasks A LOT and was annoyed that you couldn’t seem to search them like you can calendar, keep etc. I found a Chrome extension from Natfluence that let’s you search! It doesn’t look great but it works. Second one, I have my morning routine in Google keep as a checklist and have set it to pop up on my phone every morning at 07.30. Game changer for space cadets like me!

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger February 4, 2024 at 7:55 am

      very cool!!!

  • Reply Kim February 5, 2024 at 6:30 pm

    I loved this episode (well, I pretty much love them all!), and I’m interested in trying out Google Tasks. I’m currently using SimpleNote which works pretty well for me. I can access it on my phone and my laptop, so it’s easy to organize and make changes and even print. I like that I can use checkboxes if I want. I’m wondering how similar SimpleNote is to Google Tasks, will have to research.

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