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Becoming Organized

As you start on this journey, organizing may take longer than you think. Don't be daunted by this – plan for it. Remember the preparation-action-completion cycle? It operates here, too, so plan ahead to allocate time and energy to finish what you start in any particular organizing session. Also, plan sessions in which you identify new habits that you want to practice and a system that you would like to experiment with. You'll need time for all these activities. Schedule your organizing sessions when you are fresh and energized if you want your efforts to make a lasting difference. Don't organize when you are tired or during your "off" hours – this only makes it harder.

Use these rules of thumb as you set aside time to get organized:

• Allocate much more time than you think you will need.
• Do less than you think you can. Scope it down.
• Start organizing only what you think you can finish in the allotted time.
• Stop before you think you are done. Then, complete all the little details.
• And a little twist on all of the above – follow your energy. If you started out clearing out the junk drawer but suddenly have great energy to clear out the basement, go for it. Just reset your intention and keep moving. We disorganized people are sometimes best at doing just what we didn't set out to do. So what. Keep the big picture in mind and keep going.
• Remember that small steps actually taken are much more impactful than big steps not taken!!!

Think of organizing as being similar to setting up a new piece of unfamiliar equipment. Susan, for example, recently bought a new computer. Her old familiar clunker was about seven years old (dated and rusty by cyber age time) and her new laptop was sparkling, fast, and up-to-date. But she let her new laptop sit in a corner for months before she made the shift. The transition time just seemed too costly. She felt she didn't have the time to purge or transfer old files, organize her new files, and learn some new programs. It would take hours and hours of work to get up to speed on the new one. Besides, she loved her old white elephant.

Once she finally made the change, she wondered why she had ever waited so long, because she has become so much more effective at her work. As she looks back, the investment in the update was worth it. In fact, the transition time was insignificant compared to how much more she can get done now. Similarly, arriving at your new ways of being organized will take some time, perhaps even months or more than a year, but your life will run much more smoothly. Even more important, you'll have more time and attention for what you really care about. Looking ahead at all the hours that you have to invest to make the change can be daunting. Yet, looking back, it all seems so worth it. You'll wonder what took you so long.

It will help a lot if you designate an extended period of time when organizing will be a high priority. Designate next month as "organizing month." Or decide that this spring will be devoted to organizing. Cut back on your other activities and focus. A month or a season is not such a long time. Then, make sure that you have allocated time for your new habits to take root. It will take a while. You'll make progress bit by bit. A month is only a beginning. For many people, who are committed to creating significant change, this process may take years. Don't give up; remember, it took me thirty or forty attempts before I could keep my desk clear. Keep in mind, the rewards are worth it.

Pick a Starting Point

Once you've established your priorities, pick a very specific area of focus. Don't try to organize your whole office or the whole house, or the whole attic, for that matter. Don't try to get every aspect of your calendar straightened out. Scope it down. Remember that your thinking can be confused, so what you think is a small goal might be quite big. Setting big, unrealistic goals will not help you get more done. In fact, it can backfire because you will feel discouraged and may be tempted to give up. Choose one specific area of your life that has been bugging you – whether it's a physical or temporal area.

The challenge in this is not to let your frustration take the lead, since it will say that you simply can't live this way anymore and you have to change everything at once. That kind of thinking will encourage you to try to do too many things in a half-baked manner. Then you won't see much progress and you'll be more frustrated. The truth is, you can't do everything at once. You will have to be patient. Taking time with your plan will yield great results.

As you choose where to start, look for leverage, which means working on the spot where you will get the biggest bang for your organizing buck. Identify the few things that you might change that will have the biggest impact in your life. What items do you spend the most time looking for? What important meetings are you always late for? What vital records can you never find? What bills haven't you paid? What services get shut off? What is the ugliest, most offensive place in your home or office that you can't stand but you have to look at every day? These are good starting points, so you can experience the beneficial impact of your organizing immediately. Some possibilities are:

• The top of your desk – with archaeological layers of papers, mail, lists, and half-drunk cups of coffee.
• One part of your office floor – with years of piles of papers, old magazines, and outdated materials. Identify an area small enough that you can clear it off in one week.
• The front hall closet – with several generations of boots, mittens, coats, and sporting equipment.
• Your car – perhaps it is a traveling storage container.
• One of the kitchen counters – for many people, this is the mail-sorting station, only the mail never gets sorted.
• The bathroom – with assortments of bottles, toys, outdated medicine, and Band-Aids that don't stick anymore.
• Your punctuality for a specific activity – start by identifying just one or two appointments that are important for you to arrive at on time. If you are regularly late for a particular meeting, focus on the key actions that will get you there on time. If you tend to be late for work, start with that.
• Overbooking – focus on one particular type of overbooking. Do you want to completely eliminate double-booking? Or do you want to stop canceling things at the last minute?
• Procrastination – again, choose one area that you want to change. If you chronically postpone calling clients, focus on what you would need in order to do that in a timely way.

When Sandra began thinking about her starting point, she focused on her bedroom. "I wanted to organize the whole bedroom in a day," she recalls. "I wanted to get the stuff off the floor, clear out the closet, hang up the pictures that have been in the closet for a couple years, and clean up the master bath. I figured if I was setting aside a whole day, then I better get a lot done, but I remembered that I often bite off more than I can chew. Then I don't get anything done. I decided to focus on cleaning out my closet. It didn't seem like a big-enough goal for a day, at first, but that is what I really wanted to do. And I did it. It was great. I brought a carload of clothes to the Salvation Army."

Ask what result you want to create from focusing on this specific area. Think about your goals in terms of what would be useful to you. Neatness is not your goal per se. Think in terms of accessibility, attractiveness, or utility. Identify a result that has meaning for you. What Sandra really wanted was to let go of all the clothes that were too small for her. As she thought about it, she decided that she only wanted to keep the clothes she absolutely loved, so that all the contents of her closet would support her aim of being elegant and sophisticated.

Keep reminding yourself that finishing a small organizing task is better than starting something big that you can't complete. Aim for less than you think you can achieve. When you complete your first getting-to-ready project, congratulate yourself and identify the habits and systems that you need to get back to ready. Then, practice your new habits and systems so that you can enjoy the ongoing benefits of your new spaciousness.