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How To Get Organized And Stay Organized

It took so long to organize your room and each closet, but it only takes a few days for you to return to your old bad habits. Rushing out the door, you toss something into the drawer, vowing to put it in its proper place later. The kids come home from school and toss their clothes in the closet and on the floor instead of hanging them up. Slowly but surely, the books are no longer organized, or even not put away. Learning how to stay organized is one thing, but remaining organized is a completely different matter. If you want to know how to stay on top of the organized lifestyle you've laid out for yourself, see Step 1 to get started.

Put everything away as soon as you can. This is one of the easiest ways to stay organized. Sure, it's great that you organized your home, your office space, or anything else in your life that needed to be put in its place, but that won't mean much if every time you come home, you throw your keys, the mail, umbrella, or other countless items wherever you feel like it because you're tired and you'll get to it later. Making a conscious effort to do this as much as you can will make a huge difference in how organized everything will look -- and how much better you'll feel. Of course, it may not be realistic to expect you to put everything in its place the second you get to work or the moment you walk in the door. It can help a lot to have a "sorting bin" near the entrance of your front door so you can toss the items into the bin, knowing that you'll have to organize them as soon as possible. However, you can't let this bin pile up: you should make a goal of keeping it as empty as possible and going through it every 12 or 24 hours. A lot of the trouble with this is mental. You may think that you don't possibly have the energy to sort through your mail or your school backpack, but if you just say, "I'm going to spend five quick minutes organizing this stuff," you'll see that the task is manageable. And the longer you let things pile up, the less manageable everything will feel.

Make your bed when you wake up. This may sound like a small point, but if you make an effort to put this into your routine, you'll be much more able to stay organized. An unmade bed is a sign of a disordered life, and the sooner you make the bed, the better you'll feel about facing your day. Seeing a neatly-made bed before you start your daily tasks can make you feel like your life is in order and that you're capable of facing the day. If your bed isn't made, it's much more likely that the rest of your bedroom will look chaotic, and that you won't be able to stay as organized as you'd like. If you leave your bed unmade, that's like giving yourself an invitation to leave your clothes piled on the floor, your makeup spilled all over your dresser, and letting old papers you don't need pile up on your desk. If your bed is made, it's a signal that you'll make sure that the rest of the room is up to par with the bed in terms of organization.

Make a to-do list for the day. You should make a goal of creating a to-do list toward the beginning of every day. This will set your priorities for you, keep you focused, and will make you feel accomplished for doing the things you set out to do. However, different forms of list making work for different people, so you shouldn't feel compelled to do exactly what wikiHow or other websites tell you to do; find a list-making method that works for you and stick to it. Here are some things to keep in mind as you make your lists: Consider making a weekly to-do list. Then, break up the things you need to get done each day so that all of the stuff you have to do feels less overwhelming. You'll feel a lot better about getting through that long list if you decide that you only have to get three things done on Monday. Make a "top 3" list for the day. These are the things you really have to get done to feel better and to move forward. Don't do something easier and more fun, like returning a friend's phone call, when there are more pressing things to attend to, like paying those electric bills. Don't feel compelled to write down every little thing you have to do. This can actually lead you to feel a bit more overwhelmed. If you have some of the easier tasks firmly planted in your head and go about doing them, you'll feel better about checking them off your list. Avoid making an incredibly long list. Though your list can include some "reach" items that you'd like to do this week but can do the following week without the world ending, you should stick to the things you actually have time to accomplish. If you write down 40 tasks, then you'll just feel bogged down and overwhelmed and won't know where to start. When you make your daily or weekly list, you can separate the items in terms of urgency. You can label them, "Things I have to get done today," "Things that need to get done this week" or "Things I have to do by the end of the month." This will help you put things in perspective and will help you prioritize your tasks.

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How To Get Organized And Stay Organized Continued

Keep your planner up-to-date. Maybe you had an awesome planner when you first decided to get organized, but now you barely glance at it. Well, you need to get back into the habit of filling out your calendar on a weekly basis and of knowing what you have to do when. Having everything written down can help you plan future events and will give you a sense of what the week ahead has in store for you. You may not realize that you're going to have a busy week and that you'll need to budget your time accordingly until you notice that you've written "dentist appointment," "work project due" and "baby shower" down for the same week. Make a habit of checking your planner every morning, updating it as needed, and even crossing off the things you had to do. If you like using your phone or computer better, there are countless apps that can also help you schedule your time and to stay organized. Some of them cost money but people swear that they're worth it. Some of the most common apps are RescueTime, CalenGoo, Freckle, Things, and Mindnode. See if one of them works for you. Doing this digitally, even if you just plug things in on your iPhone, has the added advantage of you using a feature that sends you a reminder when you have an important event coming up.

Remember that drawers are your friend. If you want to stay organized, then you should stick to using drawers, boxes, and other forms of organization to keep everything in your home together. You might have set them out for this purpose and then forgotten to use them, and it's important to make sure you stick to the organizational method you've set up for yourself. Devote 5 minutes a day to inspecting the cubbies, drawers, and boxes you've created and make sure that everything is where it should be. Consider having a little cubby or drawer to organize the things you keep on the table in front of the TV. This could be where you place your remote, stray pens, magazines, and anything else you occasionally use in that room. This can look better than just throwing lose odds and ends on the table. Consider having a drawer on your bookshelf for loose items. You may not have the perfect place for extra CDs, odd-sized books, albums, or other loose items that don't quite fit on your shelves but don't belong anywhere better. Using one of these on your shelves can help everything stay organized. Use plastic trays under your kitchen and bathroom sinks. People tend to just throw plastic bags, cleaning supplies, detergent, and other household items under their kitchen sinks as well as a hodgepodge of beauty products and other paper products under the kitchen sink. Investing in just a few plastic drawers that can each be designated for certain items (such as a drawer for cleaning supplies or extra shower supplies) can help you feel more organized.

Devote 10-15 minutes a day to organization. This doesn't sound so bad, does it? Find a time to take a 10-15 minute "organization break" from whatever you're doing to go around your house or office to make sure everything is in order. Is your desk as orderly as it could be? Have you folded and put away your clean laundry? Did you empty the dishwasher? Did you tie up all those loose ends at work? Take a walk around the house as well as one last peek at your calendar to make sure that you're not neglecting anything. Making this an important part of your day can help you stay organized. If this really sounds painful, you can do it with the TV and radio on. It won't take much effort to organize your side table while you're watching TV, will it? Though multi-tasking big tasks is not a good idea because it makes it hard for you to fully focus on one task, there are ways that you can cheat when you're trying to organize stuff around the house. While you're checking in with your mom on the phone, fold your laundry. When you're on hold with the credit card company, do those dishes. Find ways to make the best use of your time.

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Keep a notepad handy. You can use a physical notepad or one on your phone or another electronic device if that's how you prefer to take notes. Having one nearby can help you write down anything that comes to mind -- such as the fact that you need to pick up paper towels, or a new way to organize a project for work -- so you don't completely forget the brilliant thought you just had. Make a habit of writing down any stray useful thoughts you are likely to forget and check in with that notepad often. Writing down your thoughts can also help you feel more in control of your daily tasks.

Keep a journal. No, keeping a journal won't help you organize the stuff under your kitchen sink, and it probably won't substitute for filing all of those pesky papers on your desk. But keeping a journal can help you stay organized in another big way -- by giving you time to slow down and to write down your thoughts. You may feel constantly overwhelmed or like you're spinning out of control, desperately trying to check off a few items from your to-do list, because you never pause to take a break. Writing can help you do that. Writing down your thoughts and feelings, even if they have nothing to do with how to organize your life better, can make you feel more in control of your life, and can help you slow down long enough to get centered.