The “Why, Who, When, Where, What and How” of Getting Organised!

Whether you are single, a stay at home mum, working, wealthy, poor (the list is endless!) it makes no difference to the fact that being more organised WILL benefit you to some extent.

Do you find yourself saying any of the following throughout the day:- “I want to get organised”, “I need more time”, “Where did I put my…”, “Where do I start!”, “I am so sorry, I forgot…”  etc….?

I challenge anyone to not say yes to at least one of those!

The best way to get started is to understand what questions to ask, and get an overview of how it will help you and what you need to do. Being aware of the overall picture will help you to stay focused and motivate you to get to the final destination.

Of course, the “What / How / Why / Where / When and Who questions and answers that I will look at in more detail below will be different for each of you, but its the asking (and answering) that will lead you on your organised way.

I hope that the following helps you to focus on what you want, how to get there more quickly, and how to stay organised for life. It should at the very least make you think about things more closely!

Organising will help you to live life to the full, whoever you are!

Look at the list below and see if you relate to any of them:-

I am constantly losing things and wasting time trying to find themI am late for meetings regularlyMy house is only ready for guests after I spend a day cleaning and tidyingI seem to do everything around the houseI can’t remember the last time I simply had chance to relaxI am always sending belated cards to peopleMy mind is constantly full of information of TO DOs etc…My children leave it to me to tidy up after themI constantly double book myselfPlanning for Christmas / birthdays / holidays is always done at the last minuteI am always chasing my tail and never seem to get ahead

If you have ticked even just one of these, then your life would benefit from being more organised (and you’ve probably identified a good place to start as well!)

“Getting Organised” is such a wide reaching phrase, and can mean different things to different people. The key is to define what it means to you, and to work towards that (this reason will be your motivation)

For example:-

Do you want a clutter free home?So you want to set a good example for your children?Do you want more time?Do you want all the above, and more!?

Define your reason – the “Why” – and you will be able to more clearly see how to get there. Sort out the “Why” first.

You may think that it will only be you that will benefit from you getting more organised (and indeed you should only do it if you are totally invested in it, or its not likely to work), and this is not so.

The butterfly effect (from Chaos theory) states that every small event creates large events (if a butterfly flaps its wings, then a few weeks later a hurricane is formed.

As such what you do everyday can affect your whole life. The little things add up to form large things. Small bad habits, small amounts of wasted time looking for things – all create large amounts of time and effort and energy that you have simply lost – just by being disorganised.

What you do everyday also affects so many other people as well. It stands to reason that therefore everyone benefits from you getting more organised.

You become a better partner, parent, friend, sibling and child all by developing more organised habits:-

You will feel more able to have people over as your home will be guest readyPeople will be able to rely and depend on you moreYou will be on time for thingsYou will remember important eventsYou will appear more relaxed, and therefore be someone easy to be around

Basically, you benefit so much from getting more organised and so does everyone you interact with.

There are some people who are really organised at work, and not so much at home – whereas some people have everything in its place in the home but their car looks like a bomb site (see a previous post as this is me!)

If you can easily see where needs your attention the most, then it will serve you well to pick an area within this to start with.

This could be your home, your office, your hobby, your car, an organisation you belong to, your garden, your social life etc….

This is purely your high level overview of your life – and will give you a good insight as to how balanced it is as well.

Of course, you may be disorganised in the majority of your life areas, as such you will need to look a little more closely……

This links very well to the “where” and is the next stage of working out your organising plan.

You need to be specific with what you want to get organised, as then you will know exactly what to focus on the most, and you will start to see your goals more clearly.

Your “What” should be something that makes your life run more easily, and that has a positive effect on you (and others as well most probably).

Things to consider would be:-

paperwork / finances / daily habits / clutter / time / systems and routines….

And there are lots of theories to consider on exactly how to choose what to get organised:-

Start where it hurts the most – what do you get frustrated by on a daily basis? The positive of this method is that you can see results quickly.Start in the most disorganised space – do you have a really cluttered room, or simply too busy a social life to keep up? Again the positive of this method is that you will make a difference very quickly to your life, and be more motivated to continueStart small and build up slowly – there is a train of thought that suggests that starting with something small like a drawer or a cupboard will give you enough to get started, but not overwhelm. While this is correct, it may be too insignificant for you to feel a big difference and your enthusiasm may wane over time.Start and finish one room / area before going on to the next – The problem with this is in how you define “finished” – nothing is ever perfect, and so you may find yourself stuck in one area trying to reach perfection.

All these methods are good, mainly for the reason that they all get you started – and thats the main goal here – to simply START.

I always go for starting somehere where I feel really needs sorting fast, as long as its something I will see everyday. This way I will see the results and build momentum to keep going. I also make sure I split it into manageable chunks – which means that I can start with a big project but not get overwhelmed. This method covers the majority of the ways to start listed above, and works well!

For example – this past weekend I really got stuck into sorting out the families paperwork.

I have had a lot going on in recent weeks, including an influx of work projects, family changes, and general busy-ness. As such the paperwork has ended up being neglected and piled up (only that which isn’t too important of course).

I also have in the back of my mind that I am writing an ebook soon to be available on this site – all about the perfect way to organise all the paperwork that comes into your home (WATCH THIS SPACE!). As a result I want to be able to go through the process from start to finish to ensure that I think of all the possible niggles in my system so I can sort them out and ensure the system you get is great. Thats the aim! However, this project takes time to do, and as such things had been building up.

ENOUGH!

I simply got started, and felt so much better!

I took everything out of the corner where I intend to set up my system, and then sorted everything out into specific piles – allocating a file or a space in a drawer for each part. Then I put everything where it should go.

The results? I can now find everything I need, I have the beginnings of the system I want to create, and can now see it working properly before I invest more time into getting each part of it sorted. Its enough for now, and it the first step.

I now feel more relaxed when I deal with my paperwork , as I know the system is in place and working for me – even with some tweaks to make. I also know where to find everything quickly and easily.

Its all too easy to fall behind in your organising when you’re busy or waiting for other things to happen, but just getting started will help so much!

So, we have now looked at the “why”, the “who”, the “where” and the “what”.

We have a plan of action but we don’t as yet have the tools to do the job.

The reason you have chosen the area of your life to get organised that you have is because you are to some extent disorganised and need to change what you are currently doing – because thats the only way you know how to do it.

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got…

You now need to find new systems, strategies and habits to ensure getting organised is sustainable and will work specifically for you.

My key to getting organised is as follows:-

View the original article here