Feel like you are surrounded by clutter and chaos? You’ve tried to get organized- you have read book after book, bought organizational products and spend countless hour organizing. So why isn’t it working for you?
For many people getting organized is daunting, stressful, anxiety-causing, and a point a failure, or boring, mundane, and tedious. If you are at either end of this continuum, you probably have struggled with organizing your stuff and most likely your time as well.
There is no right way to be organized. What is organized to one person may or may not be organized to someone else. Organization, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. But if lack of organization is getting in your way than read on!
Figuring out what your issue is, is an important part of the process. What is throwing you off track?
It could be a physical issue.
- Your belongings don’t have a “home” so they aren’t put away or put away in the same location. Your belongings should be kept in the room where they are being used, in categorize that make sense to you and with the most used items easiest to reach.
- You are using a system someone else set up or trying to organize in a way you think in normal or expected. A good system of organizing is one that makes sense and works for you.
- You don’t know how long tasks take you to do so you can’t plan correctly. Knowing how long tasks take you is the key to time management. Without this information, planning is almost impossible and causes people to have long never ending to-do lists.
- You are trying to do a task at the wrong time of day for your natural energy/concentration cycles. We all have times of day when we have clearer thought processes and other times when physical tasks are easier.
- You aren’t using the right “tools”. Some people in need to file with a color coded system, for others color coding is meaningless. Some people need to “see it to do it” so they need open storage, others need everything put away so they aren’t distracted.
It could be an issue of the mind.
- You are distracted. You could be distracted because you have AD/HD but there are many other reasons as well. You could be distracted because you have too much on your mind. Find a system to capture your appointments, schedule, ideas and thought so you can be in the moment that you are in.
- You are overwhelmed. No idea where to start a big project? If it is an organizing project break it up in to parts-one section of a room, one drawer of a desk, or for one hour. If it is other type of project, it should also be broken into parts.
- You are unclear about your priorities so you end up reacting to whatever is put in front of you.
- You are a perfectionist. Being a perfectionist can cause some people to procrastinate because they are afraid of not doing something perfectly. Some times good enough is good enough; learning to live with this idea may take time but will ultimately help.
- You think structure will diminish your creativity. This idea is just not true. People who are organized are more productive, efficient and creative. Period.