Ten Ways To Stay Organised

‘Organisation isn’t about perfection. It’s about efficiency, reducing stress and clutter, saving time and money and improving your overall quality of life’

It can sometimes feel like we’ve got the world on our shoulders. With all aspects of life being so hectic, it can feel like everything is happening at once as you try to juggle work, home life and everything in between.

Even if you’re not into organisation, you may even be the least organised person on the planet, it is time to admit that a little organisation may help. Despite it being a chore to even think about organising, keeping on top of things does make things easier in the long run. Organisation skills are not something you are born with, those who are organised have cultivated healthy habits, which then help them stay organized. From planning things, jotting things down, ditching the unnecessary and sorting out the things that matter, as long as you’re willing to practice and have the desire to change those habits, you can become an organised individual. These simple little hacks will help you stay organised and are super easy to implement into your daily life.

Here are ten ways to stay organised not just at work but in life too…

1. Create a vision — start by thinking and imagining how you want to be organised. What aspects of life would you like to adjust? Once you’re clearer on that, you can begin, before this vision it seems like too big a task. Visualise and then conquer
2. Write things down — trying to remember everything going on in your head is pretty impossible. A pen and paper is a great way of remembering things and makes your thoughts that much more permanent. If stationary isn’t for you, use your phone to write notes. By keeping important dates, reminders, tasks and deadlines in your head, it will only further complicate things
3. Don’t let things pile up — whilst your life is going in several directions trying to juggle the things I mentioned above, it can be very tempting to stay focused on one task at hand and let everything else slip by the wayside. If you can, try and spend ten or fifteen minutes doing all the little things that can be easily be done like admin, tieing up loose ends at work or folding the washing. This keeps the chaos down to a minimum and also, stops you feeling incredibly overwhelmed
4. Make sure everything has a home — keeping your belongings organised means keeping them in their proper places. Not only this, but a tidy environment is subconsciously linked to a tidy mind AND it means that things are less likely to get lost. A win-win-win situation. Storing things in the correct and accessible space and by having a place for everything, things will move smoother and faster. Yes, it takes time to get all your bits and bobs into their place, but after a while you’ll see how easy it is to find what you need when you need it
5. Find your rhythm — our brains are muscles and love routine, so when things go a little off schedule it can send us into a tailspin. Notice what works for you, where things slow down, what you find more difficult or when you know you’ll be more stressed or tired than usual. From there, spread your work/tasks accordingly
6. Don’t be afraid to delegate — sometimes it can be your worst nightmare to delegate tasks. You don’t want to relinquish control. You may feel it can be seen as a sign of weakness, but it is important to know that it is OK to delegate and have tasks slowly dispersed and organised out. It will make your life so much easier, and sometimes, that added help from a team member can bring a new perspective to the task at hand
7. Prioritise — with a large project or heavy workload at work/home we tend to feel like we are looking up at Everest. By prioritising your tasks by deadline or in any other way you see fit, you’ll be able to move through those tasks much faster
8. Don’t procrastinate — ‘it’s now or never’. The longer you wait to do something, the more difficult it will be to get it done. Putting the effort in at the beginning to get things done as soon as you can will help you out down the line and stop all your tasks mounting up
9. Spring clean regularly — similar to number 4, the best way to remain organised is to keep on top of de-cluttering and clearing up. Having fewer things and only keeping what you need frees up space and means that things you aren’t using regularly aren’t collecting dust
10. Sleep! — you’re probably thinking, what on earth does sleep have to do with being organised?!… it has EVERYTHING to do with it. Staying up late to get things done, or having too little sleep due to other circumstances can really take its toll on your organisation the next day. You are able to accomplish much more, rather than running on an empty tank

How do you stay organised?