Stay organized and avoid burnouts

So often we find ourselves dealing with a toxic cycle of anxiety, stress, guilt and self-criticism because we’re too overwhelmed to deal with our hectic lives in a healthy way. Instead of being motivated to tackle the tasks at hand, we’re nervous, upset and unproductive.

This can lead to burnouts and poor mental health… which isn’t good for anyone!

Keeping our work lives organized makes everyday tasks easier and reduces the stress in our lives.

How do we obtain organizational prowess?

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Make time every week to schedule

As strange as it seems, the more we have to do, the less likely we are to tackle our to do lists. Committing to a time each week to sort through your schedule and tasks will help you out so much more in the long run.

Carving out time (at least) once a week to sit and organize your plans for the upcoming days is such an important part of easing anxiety and putting your best foot forward in life, both personally and professionally.

Most people think Sunday evenings or Monday’s are a great time for this, and in theory that’s true. But realistically, aren’t Monday’s hard enough? And don’t you already find yourself scrambling Sunday nights?

Take something off Monday’s already full plate and try doing your weekly schedule maintenance on a Wednesday or Thursday, when things are less hectic!

Be consistent with your time. Soon enough taking a few moments to sit down and get organized will be a habit.

Tools

So what tools can we use to help?

Trello
Trello is an amazing organization tool that helps you create specialized lists to keep yourself organized.

You can set reminders, due dates, colour code lists, notes and more.

Lists and cards are draggable, and you can even add attachments, comments and descriptions to each.

They have an amazing mobile and desktop application.

Evernote
Evernote is a fantastic note-taking app that helps organize your information. It’s great for keeping track of blog ideas, research, interviews and more.

Their additional plugins like Evernote Web Clipper that allow you to save links, images and other things you see online directly to your account.

Diigo
Diigo is perfect if you do a lot of online research. It allows you to browse web pages while highlighting key segments, adding notes and sharing with friends and co-workers.

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Make it enjoyable

And it doesn’t have to be a chore!

Couple your “scheduling time” with something you enjoy… a little self-care! Knitting, a doodle session, a face mask. Whatever relaxes you. Put on your favourite tunes and sort your life out. However, try and avoid activities like watching TV, or other things that can just be distracting.

Self-care can be really fun! But keep in mind it is a discipline. This great article by Tami Forman is a great reminder of just that.

Be realistic about your time

Make a list of the things you need to accomplish for the week, and then schedule time to get them done. Make sure you’re being realistic about your time. Just because you can theoretically do three hours of chores after work, doesn’t mean it’s a realistic expectation to set for yourself.

By avoiding being realistic, you’re only setting yourself up for failure, and in turn, setting yourself up for a burnout, a freak-out or both.

Be kind to yourself.

As you head into each day with a clear cut idea of what you need to accomplish, you can avoid a lot of anxiety that would plague you if you were going in with the weight of a week’s worth of tasks and no idea when or how you were going to accomplish them all.

Keep a clean workspace

Staying physically organized will keep you mentally organized! For those of us who are a little messier than others, it can seem much easier said than done, but taking five minutes at the beginning and end of each work day to do a quick tidy-up will make all the difference!

Label your sh*t

Label things. So simple, but so important! Binders, notebooks, files, all of it. Finding things quickly, and knowing where to put things when you’re done creates the efficiency you need.

It doesn’t have to be fancy. Masking tape will even do!

Top to bottom

What you use regularly, keep at the top of your desk; what you use rarely, keep at the bottom. Another simple tactic that helps ease the simple difficulties of your work day.

These are just a few helpful tips to make staying organized a little easier, and to help you avoid burnouts.

Remember that taking care of yourself is important, and extends beyond bubble baths. It’s about putting the effort into making sure all aspects of your life are handled.

Work is a huge part of our lives, so making it as efficient and as easy to handle as possible is so important for our mental health.