Hello, Reader, and welcome back to part 3 and 4 in the series out of 4.

(I started this series in January but then my kids got sick, I got sick, my kids got sick again, and I had a stressful work deadline. I'm a completionist and can't stand that I never finished the series so I'm sending it out now so I can start fresh for Q2.

Just curious...did you like this drip format where you get the actionable tips broken out over four weeks? Or would you prefer a single high level summary one week with a link to the more in-depth blog post, and email you about other things the other three weeks of the month? Let me know what works best for you so I can meet your needs!)

Don't worry if you missed part 1 and part 2: You can read the full thing on my blog: How to Find Old Digital Purchases​

• In part 1, I covered how to find purchases on your credit card or bank statement
• In part 2, I wrote about search terms you can use in your email inbox to find invoices, receipts, and login information.
• In this email, I'm going to go over part 3, how to track what you find, and part 4, tips to find time to actually do the courses or use the items you bought.

Step 3: Track the Info (Airtable, Sheets/Excel, Docs/Word, etc.)

So, yeah, you could take time to find all the logins of all the people you ever bought something from. And someday you will.

But what’s really value added? Making lists or learning the info?

As you research invoice information and login information, take a moment to add everything to a tracker.

It’s okay if it’s just one line. Do the course, mark it complete, then move on to the next one.

It's also okay if you only add partial info (business owner, date purchased, price).

But don’t bog yourself down researching all the logins to all the courses and then trying to DO all the courses at once.

One at a time.

I definitely recommend some sort of table, whether it be in Airtable, Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, Notion, or even other tools like Trello. You could even conceivably make each thing a task in Asana or ClickUp or whatever productivity tool you use.

If you're a Google Docs/Word (or sheet of paper!) type of person, go for it! I recommend using H2 or H3 for the product title to help create a table of contents, but it's totally find to just start a document and write down what you know.

In your tracker, I recommend the following columns. Pick and choose which ones work for you:

• Product name (because you want to know what you bought)
• Creator name / business name (one column or two) (because one owner can sell multiple products that you buy on multiple dates for multiple prices that you finish on different dates. It’s okay if they all share login info, etc.)
• Product type (if you want to differentiate between courses, printables, ebooks, etc.)
• Date bought (if you want to be able to sort and filter on old vs new)
• Amount paid (an extra way to keep track of expenses)
• Topic (if you want to be able to group or search later by themes like SEO, social media, email marketing, blogging, etc.)
• Why bought (leave yourself a note of what problem you bought this course in order to solve.)
• Start date (when did you start learning the info)
• Status (if you want to track To Do, In progress, or Done. Can also call the column Done and use a check box)
• Login URL (where do you go to access the courses?)
• Login (I recommend using a utility like LastPass or 1Password or KeePass, not keeping logins here. But if you don’t use one of those, this is the next best thing. Just be careful.)
• Password (I recommend using a utility like LastPass or 1Password or KeePass, not keeping passwords here. But if you don’t use one of those, this is the next best thing. Just be careful.)
• Bundle or Summit name (in case you want to be able to group/filter on things you picked up from the same bundle or summit)
• Link to folder (Do you have a folder in your Google Drive/Dropbox/One Drive where you’re keeping downloads from the course, notes, etc.?)
• Attachments (this is more for printables, eBooks, etc. than it is for courses. Attach it here instead of saving it in your online folders.)
• Affiliate info (put info here if you’re an affiliate for something)
• Notes (I always like having a Notes column for just random things I think of)

Here’s a screenshot of my tracker beginnings in Airtable in grid form (or what it would look like in a Google Sheet or Microsoft Excel or a Notion dashboard):

What I also love about Airtable (and Notion) is the ability to look at in other formats, like a Trello or Kanban board, cards, calendars, etc.

(Notice I have a few items titled Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing 3? That's because I got the purchases off my credit card statement but haven't yet researched the invoices to know the names of the things I bought. I can see the things if I log into my portal, but I don't know which is which yet. That's why I like to search for both the invoices--to get the name of what I bought--as well as the login info.)

Step 4: Schedule time to do the course

I don’t know about you, but I have all these good intentions but struggle to find the time.

The main problem is that as a mom working full time, the time I find to sit down at the computer is usually the time I need to be working on a task. It’s hard to sit down to the computer to watch a video or do a course.

I usually have better success treating course videos like a podcast and listening to them on the go. Of course, my phone is more mobile but sometimes it’s hard to get the course loaded up. One of the best parts about having a tracker is that I have a link that I can tap to open it on my phone.

Also many of the course platforms out there also have their own app.

(Bonus for any courses you purchase from creators using Kajabi…there’s only one login and then you can access anything else you’ve ever bought using their app. I also find videos on Skool and Heartbeat easy to listen to while I walk, drive, do chores, etc.)

Summary

🎯 Your Next Steps:

• Capture the information you research as you gather it to save yourself time.
• Make sure you write down important information, such as the creator and business name, name of the digital product, etc.
• Use a password manager to manage your login and password info. But if you don't have one, a tracker is the next best thing (but make sure to protect it!)
• Schedule time in your calendar to do the course. Be creative about when/where/how you listen to or read the content.

That's a wrap!

Please reply if you have any feedback or if there's any way I can help you in the future.

Allie, Technically Eclectic Digital organizer, technical writer, and mom of three boys

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p.s. Check out the Organize My Digital Purchases Workshop for $9 if you’d like to get more step-by-step instructions to do this on your own, and use ready-made templates in Sheets, Airtable, and Notion.