Are you chronically disorganized? Do you wish you could organize your life, keep track of things and get your daily chores done without wasting so much time? Check out this post – it’s full of tips and tricks to help you find your own natural schedule…

How to Organize Your Life

Look familiar?

I know my office looks that way most of the time on occasion. But I’m sure, the hallways through my brain look that way all the time. I don’t exactly like to organize.

Disorganized?

Yea, you could say that.

I’ve never exactly been “organized” and the idea of making labels and tagging everything in my house as a “home” for my inanimate goods or jotting down my daily schedule hour-by-hour, just doesn’t do it for me.

It’s not that I don’t want my things to have a home…I do…it’s just that my brain is too cluttered to remember to bring them back to their home when finished and so, they’re left out on the streets like the homeless.

 

One of the most important things to remember to ask yourself when attempting to live with intention is…

“Why you are doing what you are doing?”

I often forget to do this, but it is important…because if you don’t know why you are doing something, then there is no intention involved.

Maybe you are just doing whatever it is you are doing because someone told you to or you feel like you have to…

But, that is never the right choice.

Especially, when it comes to being organized.

Organization is about you. What makes you feel more comfortable and relaxed?

Don’t let anyone tell you how to spend your time.

When your trying to organize your life, there is one hard and fast rule to remember…

You must intend to do something and you must do it every. single. time!

Becoming organized must be intentional.

The single most important aspect of being organized is time management…the main area in which I struggle.

Besides trying to keep up here on the blog, I also do some freelance writing, run my Etsy shop, Zazzle shop and I’m currently working on building my own store for VLHamlinDesign!

It’s a lot to keep up with!

Managing my time well enough to complete my daily tasks in each of those areas is a hard job and one where I often feel like I fail.

Especially, with the housework. It seems to be the easiest thing to cast aside and yet, I think it’s the one that annoys me the most.

Below, I’ve shared a few solutions that, over the years, have helped me better organize my time and my life…I hope they help you organize your life, too!

Trust Yourself

In order to create a schedule, you have to learn to trust your natural instincts!

When I took the time to do this, I surprisingly learned that I actually do have a routine, despite the fact that I can’t seem to follow a written schedule or plan.

It’s really quite shocking when you pay attention to your natural habits.

After spending a lot of time paying attention to what my instincts told me to do, I learned two important things about myself –

1. I prefer to get up in the morning around 5:30, get some apple juice, then coffee (in that exact order…) and head downstairs to my basement office to start work, right off the bat. I can’t get up, watch the news and pick up the house first, because if I do…work goes right out the window. I am naturally more creative and productive in the early hours of morning before anything infiltrates my brain.
2. I like to split 1 day into 2 days…sort of. I’ve got to cram as many things into one day as possible. In the morning, I am an employee for my business. At lunch time, I feed myself and the puppies, then head back to work until the girls get home from school. After that starts “day 2″…it’s time to prepare dinner, then clean up and spend some time with the family before bed.

By paying attention to the things I do naturally, I learned that the best schedule for me is business in the morning, housework in the afternoon, then, cooking and kitchen work in the evening.

I do these things automatically…everyday, without even thinking about it and so, I’ve developed my own sort of schedule based on my natural tendencies.

Spend a week or two really paying attention to what you do (without a scheduled plan!).

You’ll be surprised at how predictable you really are!

Organize Your Life With A Planner

I’ve tried using hundreds of planners over the years and loved them all…for the first week of so. Eventually, I’d stick the planner in a desk drawer or throw it up on a shelf and forget about it for all of eternity.

But then, I started designing and one day, I suddenly realized that I could design my own planner…to actually fit my own needs.

My favorite planner to use is my “Sweet Treats” weekly planner (shown above – available in the shop).

I love it because it provides tons of space for me to write in everything I need to do each day. Plus, when I designed it, I intentionally created separate days on separate pages, so that I can easily keep track of everything that I need to do throughout the week. And, you can print just a week at a time, use a hole punch to add 3 holes and throw it into a binder. It really does make time management just a little bit easier.

However, it doesn’t really matter what kind of planner you choose!

You can spend a few bucks on a printable planner or you can drop your weekly paycheck at your local print shop for a big, fancy planner book…but, if you don’t use it, you won’t do it.

The key to actually benefiting from a daily planner is to leave it out!

On your desk, table, counter…wherever you spend your time working (or living), just leave it out, so that you can see it throughout the day.

I know it might seem out of place to some of you cleaning junkie’s out there, but for me, it simply cannot go up on the shelf or it will never come down to see the light of day again!

My planner has to be in my face…all the time!

Slow Down

I like to take on any task like a bull rider grabbing hold of the horns. Throughout my life, my parents constantly told me to slow down, but I was always on a mission to do something and I never listened.

Actually, I still don’t listen and I often grab a-hold of the bull and let it run like crazy until I fall off.

But, slowing down, just a little bit allows you to concentrate on the task at hand.

I try to always remember this quote from Albert Einstein that says –

“Failure is success in progress”

Without failure, there is no learning process…in anything.

And that includes becoming organized!

If you just slow down and pay attention to the things you do naturally, you’ll find that you can organize successfully and then you can watch your failures slip away.

What steps have you taken to organize your life?

Have a Great Day!