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Presenting a clean and organized room to your parents might have earned you a trip to the toy store as a child, but these days, the reinforcement for a lack of organization is mostly negative.
Living in a messy space, failing to keep your workplace clean, or showing up late to a date or meeting will all come back to bite you. That’s why mom and dad wanted to impress the importance of organization on you at a young age. Instead of resigning yourself to life as a hot mess, try a few of our recommendations for a more centered existence.
Identify Your Priorities
Before you begin getting organized, ask yourself what it is you’re planning for. You wouldn’t bury your dress shirts beneath a bunch of tank tops if you have to get one out for work every day, would you? No, because your job takes priority. Even if you have a great collection of T-shirts, finding the right one is not that important. Apply this logic to your life. Identify what’s most important and plan ahead for it.
Arrange Your Home and Workspace
If you’ve ever tried getting a job done when you couldn’t find a tool, you know the risks of being disorganized. People who lack organization skills tend to see things boil over. For example, if you misplace your car keys, you might be late to pick up the kids and be forced to have fast food instead of enjoying a family dinner.
Practicing good habits should begin with the places you spend time the most: work and home. Have a set day of the week where you get everything back to an organized state. If you’re suffering from a case of the clutters, ask yourself whether you really need all these things, or if there are items you could get rid of to reduce the stress of disorganization. Perhaps you have to have lots of tools in a vehicle you use for work. You can add shelving to sort the tools you need to do your job. This way, you’ll never let a job drag on when you can’t find something.
Practice Good Habits
Once you have the physical things in your life accounted for, it’s time to plan ahead so you can keep them that way and improve your overall level of organization. This means keeping up good habits. For many people, having a written to-do list is a helpful and easy way to stay more organized. Try setting deadlines for yourself to accomplish chores, and make sure you’re dispatching easy tasks right away and breaking up larger ones.
Pay attention to the things that distract you and pull you off-task. The better you are at remaining focused, the more you’ll accomplish with your time. This will allow you to complete more scheduled tasks in your day. Just like the way disorganization can bring about more problems, being organized can bring about improvements It’s not that hard, and the better you get at it, the more productive and accomplished you’ll feel.