First Aid Kit for an Organized Life
8 Simple ways to develop your organizational skills and put your life in order
I love organization.
If you look for the word ‘organization’ in a dictionary, you’ll probably find my picture next to it.
Kidding aside, I consider organization to be a skill that can be mastered by everyone with some time and thought put into it. It can help your everyday life wonders.
The art of organization
What does being organized mean? Why is it so important in our lives?
The meaning of organization lies in the idea of putting things together in a logical order. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, it’s ‘how something is planned and arranged’.
Organized is someone who structures and plans one or various aspects of his life. He thinks logically and doesn’t leave anything to chance. He has everything prepared beforehand and knows what to do and how to do it. Someone who is organized in one aspect of his life, in his work for instance, is usually organized in everything.
Now, you might tell me “I’m not interested in having everything prepared beforehand; I’m happy as I’m now, thank you. Why should I bother?”
If you’re happy as you are now, that’s absolutely fine. However, I would suggest you pay attention because being organized is indeed important. I’m not suggesting becoming an organization freak but just a bit of organization in your life will make it easier.
Now, let’s have a closer look at the benefits of organization.
The most important are the ones it can have on your health¹:
It can reduce stress and help you enjoy your daily life.
When you have something organized, you know what to do and how and this helps you feel relaxed and secure.
It boosts your energy.
Just imagine having an organized desk with everything you need, where you need it, instead of one full of books, pens, magazines, devices, plates, and the neighbor’s cat. When you have a place with all the necessary things, you will have more energy to sit there and work.
It improves your sleep habits.
Imagine a bedroom full of clothes on the floor or on an armchair. Or imagine going to sleep having in mind all those things you have to do the following day, not knowing where to start from or how to do them. It doesn’t sound like you’re going to have a pleasant sleep, does it?
Moreover, organization is a crucial skill for any kind of job. That’s why in the job specification there’s always a section for desired ‘organizational skills’. In the interview, you’re asked to talk about the organization freak inside you and to demonstrate your skills.
If you’re an organized person, you can balance many tasks efficiently and effectively. When you plan something beforehand and make sure you have everything on hand, you earn precious time, which otherwise would be wasted by looking for things or trying to figure out at the last minute how you’re going to do something.
Organization ideas
Here I share some of my secrets that keep me organized and help me to keep my life in order. They work for me and might work for you too!
1. Before you start anything, make sure you have what you need.
For example, before I started writing this article, I made sure I had my notebook and pen, where I keep my ideas, my laptop, a glass of water, relaxing music on the background and my phone on mute.
It might sound obvious but before you start doing anything, it’s crucial to be organized and have everything you need on hand. This will help you focus on your work, craft, hobby, cooking, without any distractions.
2. Organize the items and areas in your house and get rid of the clutter.
This point is crucially important as your house is a reflection of you. It’s the place where you relax, have fun and feel safe. An organized home with items you love and need will help you enjoy the time you spend there.
Imagine a cluttered house, full of unwanted or useless items all around, dropped on the floor or in random places. Not very tempting, right?
To avoid the clutter, before buying a new item I always think about whether I really need it. If I get it, I assign a place for it with other items of the same kind.
I use storage boxes and place my items back to their appropriate place once finished.
What helped me understand in-depth the idea behind organization and see the importance of it, is the KonMari method. Marie Kondo, the founder of this method, offers views on tidying and organizing, which have inspired me a lot.
3. Use post-it notes.
It’s a favorite and all-time classic little tool. With a variety of sizes, shapes and colors, these ‘magical’ sticky notes can be your best friend, especially if you tend to forget things. You can stick them everywhere: on the fridge, on your laptop screen, on a document, in a book. You can use them to make a grocery list, keep track of something or remind yourself of your appointment with your doctor.
My favorite is the ‘Happy Jackson’ pad set, with a range of different sticky notes.
4. Use a Pending Folder.
Do you get a lot of correspondence by post? Is your coffee table bombarded by letters and bills which require your attention?
Instead of placing them in random places around the house, why not dedicate a designated area to them? It’s a good idea to use a folder where you could place all the documents/letters/bills that you need to attend to at some point.
I’ve got one on my desk, which I name ‘My Pending Folder’ — not a very exciting name, is it? But it still does the job.
In that folder, I put all the documents which need my attention soon in the future. By placing them there, I offer them a place and avoid meeting them out of the blue around the house. I know that I have to look onto them soon (that’s why they’re called pending).
The rest of the documents are either ones that I need to deal with now (so I deal with them immediately and recycle them) or ones which I need to keep for an unknown period of time (for example, my job contract), which I place in a particular folder called ‘important documents’.
5. Organize your emails.
What would be a good idea for anyone who isn’t sure what to do with all their emails, is to delete any unwanted ones and divide the rest into separate folders.
For example, I have a folder for emails related to work, one for any house documents, one for travel documents and one for pending (just like the written correspondence, these are emails which I want to have a look at but not immediately), etc.
This helps me navigate easily to my inbox and know exactly where to look when I want to go back to an email.
6. Use an application.
This works like a post-it note, with the difference that it can be used on your phone. I use Google Keep to keep notes on the go. It’s super helpful as I can have access to it anywhere, write notes and ideas for later, make lists, set reminders or archive old notes which I want to keep safe.
7. Keep an agenda.
An agenda is an effective way to keep your daily life on track.
In the same spirit as an agenda, I use my laptop’s calendar for appointments, activities, things to remember and pop up reminders.
The best part of it is that it is connected to my phone through my Gmail account so I can have easy access to it.
8. Store all your files in one place (or maybe two).
Whether it’s OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive, this is a great way to assign a designated place for all your computer files: pictures, videos, documents, etc. By placing them in one of those services, you make sure you have easy access to them and rest assured that your files are all in one place.
If you belong to that percentage of the population that feels more secure by having their data in two places, then go for it. It’s a guaranteed way to make sure you will never lose your data.
I personally prefer Google Drive as it offers me the opportunity of more storage (at its free tier).
The takeaway
Whether you consider yourself organized or not, it doesn’t matter. You can use my ideas above, if you haven’t already done so, to practice your organizational skills.
I’m an organized person by nature; however, these practices have boosted my skills and I feel more confident and sure about the things I want to do.
They have made my life easier. They can make yours too.
[1]: 5 Health Benefits Of Being Organized by Erica Florentine