I had so much fun and made so much progress during Fix-It February, that I decided to commandeer yet another month, assign a catchy label to reflect its new purpose, and do it all over again! This time I'm reassigning October to be Organizing October! Perhaps the first thing to do is to establish … [Read more...]
I firmly believe that some people are born with an organizing gene and some are not.
I (thankfully) inherited the organizing gene.
I’m a natural-born organizer, but that doesn't mean that I’m always organized. Even someone who has a knack for structure and design can have life come at them too fast to keep up with it.
That certainly happened to me. When my daughter was young, I shared a glass of wine with a friend and bemoaned “When am I ever going to be organized again?” His response – “When your kid leaves for college.”
I was absolutely certain he was wrong. But given that my daughter is soon on her way to obtain her PhD in chemistry and I'm still not as organized as I want to be, perhaps he wasn't.
But then it hit me. I'm organized. I'm just not organized for my life as it is today.
Organizing truly is a process, and an ongoing process at that. It never fails that as soon as I'm organized to effectively handle life as I know it today, things change. And then I get to rethink my systems. And I need to restructure and purge and toss and realign my filing systems to how life works now. For awhile.
Gene or no gene, to keep pace with life, it’s tenacity, adaptability, resilience, forgiveness, and self-compassion that are my best allies in continuously organizing and reorganizing my changing environment. Genetics really are overrated. Persistence rules!
I sometimes make up silly little games to help stay on track while organizing. Let me know if any of them work for you.
Organizing Trick – Why Are You Here?
Last week, while wandering around my house doing 10 things before I go, I stumbled upon another fun, motivating, and interesting (to me at least) organizing technique. I call this the "Why Are You Here Hour" and it goes like this: 1. Pick up an article that has been laying around your house for … [Read more...]
Organizing Trick – 10 Things Before I Go
One organizing trick I use to maintain some modicum of order around my house, is to do ten things before I either leave my house or before I go to bed. For example, if I'm running errands (I don't have to be anywhere specific at a designated time), I'll simply wander around my house and put away, … [Read more...]
Organizing Trick – Two Dice and a Chocolate Bar
I've read hundreds, nay more realistically thousands, of organizing articles and tips. And they pale in comparison to a simple five-step process I've developed that works for me. To use my system, you will need two dice and a chocolate bar. … [Read more...]
