Hello,
Don’t take the power of organization for granted.
This is a ‘NO JOKE’ powerful skill set to have. It’s actually a spiritual principle… “let all things be done decently and in order.” 1 Cor 14:40
The difference between being organized – life, files, clothes, pictures, efiles, papers, books, desk drawers, desk top, etc, etc…. and not is the difference between accomplishing your highest and best goals and NOT.
The lack of organization usually indicates something else happening beneath the surface. Some reflection on the ‘why’ is very useful BUT you don’t have to wait until you understand it all to take action. You CAN behave your way into a new success habit. You don’t have to have all the answers to all your questions before right action takes hold and produces powerful habits that help.
So you might find out after some careful review that your lack of organization skills is connected to your rebellious spirit toward an overly ‘neat and particular’ parent or perhaps you find you lack self-confidence and there’s something about an abundance of “stuff” visible to the eye that you find comforting…or perhaps you simply never took the time to become more organized. Creating a powerful new habit – in any area of life, takes real effort, energy and focused activity.
And you don’t have to wait to be clear on the ‘why’ before you can move forward with this skill/habit; take action in good faith, ask the appropriate questions and the answers will be more likely to manifest.
If you’d like a power dose of organization, here’s a 3-step action plan:
- Take one surface or location today and CLEAR it: Clear it by taking all of the items off and placing them in piles, groups or categories of likeness. For instance, I took my desk this morning and took all papers off, then I went through and created piles, based on the projects the papers belonged to. You might decide to select a desk drawer or briefcase or planner…just let it be a small enough space that the project can be completed in five minutes or less.
- Place those piles in their “homes.” EVERY item in your space has a home, a place where it belongs and serves you best when it is housed in that location. Obviously papers belong in like groups so they can be filed or stored appropriately. I like – no love binders. I have binders for every project. Despite the electronic age of edocs, some of us – me included, love the written format for creating and developing ideas. Of course this need for organization is JUST as needed with edocs and folders. Disorganization has a way of following us wherever we go.
- Label the homes. Every home needs a name…whether it’s numeric or a family name, every home has to be able to be identified by those that live in it and those visiting. The same applies to homes for things. Files – electronic or paper without labels that make sense to us, will not be useful. You will spend more time trying to find the item as a matter of fact, because it’s now inside something else. Labels help us find things in a fraction of the time it takes to either search the item out or re-create it from scratch.
{I cannot tell you how many hours of life have been wasted learning this lesson again and again!}
So there you have it…Clear, Place and Label your way to a sensation of joy that is just incomparable. For real! The joy that comes from being in an organized space where your mind can flow easily from one thing to the next without getting stuck in search mode is so sweet. This sensation leads to a level of relaxed creativity that itself leads to increased productivity.
Organization is powerful. Do this 5 minute exercise and let me know how it goes.
The key then is to keep this up…Do as many surfaces and locations as you can, clearing, placing and labeling until you have all of your life organized.
Then keep it up… 5 minutes a day putting the ‘toys’ away works wonders for the spirit the following morning!
Wishing you an abundance of success,
♥~