It’s not that common that there’s a person among us who doesn’t feel the need to get more organized. I consider myself moderately organized, but there are times when I get a little lazy about my organizational rules and ideas, and always there is room for improvement.
Here are steps that seem to work for many people.
3 Most Important Tasks.
You need to write down and making mental notes of your top 3 tasks that need to be done for the day. Thing else seems to fall into place and be easier when you do that.
Keep a capture device.
It might not be the same device for every location, but just being able to write stuff down when you think about it is key.
Use the recycling bin/trash bin.
Organizing unnecessary and unneeded items is a lot of wasted energy. It is a wonder how much more in control you feel just by getting rid of outdated things, clothes that don’t fit, books I have already read, and other things you no longer use.
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A place for everything, and everything in its place.
By having places that are easy to get to and find for all the things you use most often, and places that are pretty easy to get to for the things you use less often, you can spend less time looking for things and more time doing things.
Put it away now.
The single, simplest thing to do to stay personally organized is to put whatever tool, item, clothing, bag, hairbrush etc., away immediately after using it. Then you will always know where everything is so you never have to waste valuable time looking for something
Keep a to-do list that syncs with your mobile phone
This is so you can add stuff as needed and when you remember it.. And you need to make sure every item has a due date and expected date.
Flylady.net.
She helped us realize that we needed to apply organizational principles to our home life. Many, if not most of her basic ideas are just really easy in a slightly different perspective (control journal, baby steps) and also concrete methods for accomplishing next actions (2-minute hot spots, 15-minute timers)
Color coding.
Many people are visual, and find that color-coding various lists and calendars minimizes the time spent looking at them. You can do this for anything. Even using Outlook on the computer by diving and writing down tasks and assigning them a color. Then you just need to quickly glance at Outlook to find what needs to be done.
Note cards.
One can write tasks on them using one per card, or in a list (depending on the type of task in question; you can do both). When doing one per card, the stack serves as a very easy to understand and look at prioritization schemes. They can be arranged on cork boards, shared, annotated, torn up and rearranged. They can be used as placeholders, as mini-whiteboards to show ideas. You can carry them around and you can attach them to other documents. Different colors allow for a super-easy visual representation of many different kinds of to do’s on the list. They are cheap and most importantly of all: easy to use compared to using a computer or tablet and easier to change as needs and projects change.
Never rely on having just one thing if possible.
There are people who pay $1,000 to hear speakers at a conference and only have one pen to take notes with no backup ones. It’s a great feeling to have when one thing breaks, gets lost or runs out of power, and you have another spare!
Delegate.
Learning to trust people is hard especially if you like to micromanage things. But letting other people help with critical tasks in all areas of your life will make your life much easier and easier to stay organized.. When you learn to effectively delegate tasks to others then you actually find that it is easier to keep the stuff you absolutely cannot delegate better organized.
Have Les Stuff
Getting rid of what you do not need and only keeping what you must absolutely have to keep will make your life much easier. Simplifying your life in every area will help especially when it comes to belongings. The less you have the easier to organize and have a place for everything.
Do one thing at a time
When you walk into a messy room and you look at everything you must do is overwhelming. It makes you just want to walk back out. But by focusing on small tasks, like cleaning off the coffee table, it becomes much more manageable and less overwhelming. When you are done, move on to another small project.
Do it now
Procrastination is a killer when it comes to organizing. If you put things off then they build up and then become unmanageable. Do what you need to do NOW as much as is possible and you will have less to do in the long run and you will not get overwhelmed.
Taking control of your life is the key thing in making your life more organized and easier. Try some of these tasks and hopefully you will be on your way to a happier, healthier organized life!