GoodNotes Plan With Me | September Reset as a Realtor & Mom

Hi guys, what's up? It's Natalie. Welcome to, or welcome back to, my YouTube channel. Happy September, you guys! We are entering fall, which I'm really excited about because next month is my birthday. If you've never seen my face, hi, my name is Natalie Barnes. I am a licensed realtor in Florida, specifically Palm Coast. That's where I'm located. Palm Coast is in between St. Augustine and Daytona, so Florida. Um, I specialize in new construction. So a little bit about me, I used to be with a builder my first half of real estate, and I really learned how a house is built from the ground up, which really was beneficial to me. And yeah, I fell in love with real estate, and I am so happy I made the jump in May. I made the jump to general real estate in May. Yeah, this video is super fun. It's one of my favorite videos. I do now almost every month. I'm trying to make it a habit. It is a September plan with me, so every single month I'm trying to do a plan with me of my goals, my personal goal, my work goals, my personal goals, and what I want to accomplish this month specifically. I'm gonna break down what I accomplished last month. If you guys did not see my August recap, I'll talk a little bit about it. I am a mom to a 3-year-old daughter. She is crazy. And I also have 2 doggies and a husband who is a cop. So a lot going on in my life. We are a Disney family, we love going to Disney, and yeah, that's basically it. So how I organize my life and stay on track with everything: I have an iPad that I'm using right now. It helps me plan my whole entire life. This goes with me everywhere. I am a huge iPad girly, and without my iPad, I truly believe I would be lost in the sauce because It has my whole life. I talk to ChatGPT every single day, and I have my Bible journal on there and also my planner. So I also have an iPhone, I also have an iPad, I also have a Mac— iMac and a MacBook Pro. MacBook Pro I take to my brokerage whenever I need to work from there. Um, my iMac, I'm trying to be better. I'm going to be better, guys. That is a goal of mine for this month is to start using my brand new iMac. I'll get into it a little bit more, but we are moving this month, so that's super exciting. And at the new house, I will have my own office, so I will be using my iMac a lot more. And my phone I use every single day, and then my iPad I use just as much as my phone. So in today's video, I'm going to be showing you guys how I organize on my GoodNotes app. If you've never heard of GoodNotes, it's really cool because you can do templates, you can do— you can buy planners, you can make a planner, you can really use GoodNotes to do anything. I use it more for organizing my life, my personal life and my work life. I'll leave down down below the planner that I use. I've gotten a lot of my friends to use it, and I just think it is the best planner in the world, and you get to customize it as much as possible. So let's talk a little bit about August and what I accomplished. So what I accomplished last month was I got 4 houses under contract, one of them being my own, and then I also got our property, me and my husband's property, leased out, which we were selling it, and then we thought, let's turn it into an investment property, keep it for a year and see where it goes. So we signed a 1-year contract with our tenants, and they now have the house for a year, and we are buying a new one. And, um, I have my one listing that went under contract, and then another house went under contract, and another house went under contract. So super busy month, super packed, super full, very fun. And I've gotten zero new listings out of my 4 listings, guys. I have one. So this month we have to focus on listing. Um, that is a goal of mine to accomplish. But all in all, I felt like August— best way to put it was a fight or flight. A lot of the things that I did not know happened in August, and I realized that I know what kind of agent I want to be. I want to be as transparent and helpful and treat everyone exactly the same, as in people have no idea how to buy a house, and a lot of people like when I explain it as simple as possible. Me being a mom of a 3-year-old is very beneficial. I've learned I'm the same type of person. I need someone to explain to me step by step on how something works and how it is a time frame and how to basically keep people on track. I like that, and I've realized my, my clients like that as well. So that is how I definitely want to run my business, as simple as possible, as easy as possible. And, uh, yeah, that is my goal. I absolutely love how I'm running my business right now, um, and I'm pretty sure everyone's really happy on how I'm running it. Um, I tried to be as less stressed as possible and have my clients be as less stressed as possible. I feel like going into real estate, I did not know a lot., and the only way I did learn was asking questions. And I feel like people are scared to ask questions. So before I even try and sell the house, I make sure they know what they're getting themselves into. If they want to be in an HOA, what are the fees? If they want to buy a 20-year-old home, what does that look like? What kind of extra steps do we need to take? If they want to buy a new construction, fantastic. What exactly is the most important to you? And let's find a builder that has that. That has helped me tremendously. Also, social media. Social media is crazy. Two of my people that I got under contract, they both came from social media. Um, I post all my homes, all my listings on Facebook Marketplace, and if the listing works out for them, which one did, um, fantastic. If not, it's just a new way to gain new clients. But I think going back to my September goals, I definitely want to continue my habit of working hard but also implement some new things. So I'm very proud of myself for getting 4 houses under contract, but this is a new month, so my new goal is 2 houses under contract, 2 houses for listing, and then I want to do at least 2 houses for open houses every single week. I have to keep in mind I am a mom of a 3-year-old and my husband's work schedule is very, very different every single week, so that is going to be a tricky thing. But I am following someone on TikTok and they're doing 100 days of open houses, and he's gained like 4 clients and it's only his 9th day, which— that's insane. So I obviously can't do 100 days of open houses, but I can definitely do 2 houses a week, even if they're during the weekday, I can do it. So that is my September goal. Let's dive into my GoodNotes planner and kind of how I set up my iPad to make it as beneficial as possible. Let's jump into it. Okay. So on my dashboard, I have the keypad, um, that helps a lot, um, when I type, but I basically have everything I use every single day except for the Procreate app on my home screen. So starting at the top, I have my planner, um, not my planner, but an overview of the month and what day it is. Underneath that, I have a nice little quote that says, God, goals, gratitude. And then in the middle, I have my Pinterest board of basically all the things I've been pinning and kind of my style going forward. And then ChatGPT I use every single day. And of course, I have my Gmail email. Pulled up as well for anything that's new. But let's go into GoodNotes and talk a little bit about my planner. So if you look down below, you can actually see a 2025 Life Planner and then my prayer journal that I use every single day— well, I try to use every single day in my prayer journal. But we won't go that way, we'll go through GoodNotes itself. So right now I am on my GoodNotes overview planner. This is basically what I use Um, every single day— I mean, you can go to the week, so if I hit W36 right there, it'll pull up my actual week of like time blocking I can do and stuff like that. But for the sake of this video, I'm gonna go straight to my monthly calendar. So this looks a little crazy. I have some stuff that is whited out, those pink lines, because I have addresses there, but I have a closing my first week. But what I want to do is, if you guys look on my planner and see where it says notes— I'm going to click right here, I'm going to do my little highlighter and go here to the yellow. So right here, notes, that's where I keep my whole YouTube schedule. So I post on Thursdays and Sundays, so I will literally post I'll click on this little text. I'll put Thursday I uploaded, um, August recap. Oops. So that's my August video. And then Sunday I am posting this video, which is my September Plan with me. And that is what I do to stay on track with YouTube. One of my biggest goals for this month as well, personal goals, is to grow my YouTube channel. So if stuff just doesn't go my way or I need to do a quick fix, I just tap on it and then just change it. Not a big deal. And I'll do that every single, um, I would do that every single month, every single box I need for my notes. And another cool thing is if I take my pencil and I just click this, I can actually duplicate it. Oops, I'm still learning, so give me a— give me a second, guys. Oh, did not want to do that. There we go. And I can just duplicate it again, use my finger, drag it down, duplicate again. Let me see. Anyways, you guys get it. Um, let's see, on Sunday we are doing M-I-C-K-E-Y, not so scary party. Which I'm super excited about. But what I'm not excited about— which I kind of am, but wrong timing— I have a closing the next day, so that is not going to be fun to wake up early to go to because I'm pretty sure that's a 10 AM closing. And then you guys can see I'm going on a trip to Georgia. I'm not going to film that because I am going with friends and those friends do not like their children or anyone really on social media, which I totally understand. I want to respect their privacy. But what I want to do right now is go through and look at my week and see what I can do in terms of open houses, what days I can do it. So the purple little dots, like right here— let me see if I can click on it— right here, right here, as you can see, um, those are days that Sam has is working, so I know I will have to pick up Arabella those days and I can't really do anything. Um, we're closing on my personal house right here, so what I want to do here is, um, spend the day moving in. So I'll actually put that— so if I go here, move into the new house, and I'm gonna put that in the between because that is what I'll be doing both days. And I think what I want to do for this specific week, I don't want to do any open houses because I'm going to be stressed out moving and it's just not going to be as fun. So what I'm going to do is actually do an open house the next week. Let's do one on Wednesday. I'll start asking around, open house here Oops. Let's do another open house here. I know these two are two different days. And then what I want to do is an open house on this Saturday and then another one on this Sunday. Um, I might do another open house on a Friday. I don't know what open houses— I'm gonna ask my brokerage if anyone needs me to sit on any. And then we are going into October there, so I'm not going to plan anything right there. Um, what else do I want to implement? I don't like to put, you know, by this day I want to have 2 listings. No, that's not what I do. So if I am going to do something by week So right here, I know it's going to be tomorrow for me. I'm going to go to Ashley Furniture and shop. This is Labor Day, so obviously I'm working, still working and answering emails, but I'm not going at my brokerage. Tuesday, what do I have Tuesday? So I can go easily back to my monthly calendar. Calendar and see that I have an inspection at 9 AM. So I just put it here, quick inspection at— and then I'm not going to say my address— at 9:30. I think it said— oops, 9:30. If I can actually type, I think it's 9:30. 9 o'clock. Good, glad I checked. 9 o'clock. And I'll go from there. So I know this day I'm doing closing, and I also know that I'm going to be filming this day. So what I like to to do is I have stickers. I have one right here, so I'll put that right there. So I can just put Thursday— oops, Thursday, this is what I'm uploading, August recap. And then Sunday I'm doing a September playing with me. But another thing I started doing was the days that I need to film for my YouTube channel, I will— these are my little stickers I have— I will actually put a sticker of what I need to do. So I know I'm filming this day, and I have another day I'm filming, but I don't know exactly what day I need to do it. Let's see, on this calendar there's different things like an overview of what I want to focus on. So personal goals, let's fill this out. This month's focus, personal, I want to grow my YouTube channel. Oops. Grow my YouTube channel, and I want to be as organized as possible. And I also want to get into going on walks, walking every week, walking each week. Those are 3 goals for myself. For work, like I said, I want 2 new listings, 2 under contract deals, and then I want to do 2 open houses a week. Home, I'm not really going to do much other than one of my goals is eat at home. More. Um, I need to get quotes on different fencing companies. Oh, I'm just gonna put div fencing companies, and that's really it. Just get organized, but that goes back to personal. Um, an activity or intention for each life area I would like to focus more on. For emotional, I want to be stress-free. I don't know if that's really an emotion, but stress-free. Spiritually, I want to con— I want to do my prayer journal every day. Health, go on more walks. Social, spend time on home dates. So home dates are when me and Sam just order in or just make food and watch a movie. Learning, um, I have a class for my real estate, um License coming up. Hobbies, um, grow my YouTube channel and be, let's say, consistent. I also like how it autocorrects. And then sometimes I will put pictures of what I'm planning on doing or some highlights So here is one of Arabella. She looked really funny here. Um, this is us for the new house. I'll put that there. Uh, let's see, we're laughing. There's just so many pictures of us. Here's another one. This is really just for me, just to get like more inspo and motivation. I'm not gonna really fill this in right now. Financing, I don't really do much. Um, I have another tracker, a tracker for habits. I haven't been doing this, I probably should. And then an overview— oopsies— an overview for my month. I'll try and do this when I do my September recap, but that is basically my whole entire calendar for the month of September. I'm super, super proud of it. And what I like to also to do each week is go in— like, I know on Wednesdays I have my email blast. I'm trying to do every single week, so I'll put email blast going out. And then normally on Mondays I like to work on my email blast, come up with some ideas. That's about it. And then I take 2 days off of work. So some days I go into the brokerage, like if I want to go into the brokerage, let's just say on Wednesday, I'll put go into the office. But since this week is going to be super, super crazy, I'm not going to do that. But that is basically how I plan my month at a glance. I am definitely the type of person that likes to overplan. Um, I'm also planning a trip to Italy next May, so me and my mom and Sam have been planning that. So I've had a lot going on lately, and, um, I've been stressed. I'm not gonna lie, I've been stressed. And this planner has helped me tremendously. Let me know, by the way, if you guys use a planner or how you guys stay organized. Any tips, any tricks, let me know, because I'm always down to trying new things. But like I said, I would be completely lost without my planner. If you like my planner and you want it for yourself, I'm actually going to leave it in the down box below. You guys can get it, um, and it is amazing, I think. And of course, I would be nowhere without ChatGPT. I love my ChatGPT. It organizes me perfectly. Um, I actually did a video of ChatGPT running my day, and I was pretty productive, I'm not going to lie. But, uh, yeah, if you guys like this video, let me know. Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe. I am going to have some fun videos this month, like my not so scary Halloween party. I'm gonna try and film that as well and then continue doing, um, my Thursdays and Sundays upload days as well. So a lot of, a lot of it's going to be geared to my closings this month, and also there's a little fly, and also moving into my new house. So if you guys like that kind of content, subscribe. Anyways, guys, thank you guys so much for watching, and I will see you guys in my next video. Bye!