Are you wondering how to go about organizing your life?
If your life has become “cluttered” and you feel like you are drowning in an unorganized mess of “stuff”, then getting organized will help you take control of your life.
However, before you go out and buy a neat and tidy filing system it would be better to know about three simple truths that can help with organizing your life so that you can achieve order and control.
Once you understand these truths, you will find getting organized less complicated.
The three simple truths of organized living are:
- Control is the goal
- Organization is a process
- There can be no control without understanding
1. Control is the Goal – The goal of organized living is not to be organized. Being organized is part of something that is much larger and that is being in control of your life. Control is the goal of organizing your life. If you are not organized you are at risk of being overwhelmed by a torrent of material objects that will take up permanent residence in your home or office and this often gives the feeling that everything is out of control.
This aspect of control in your life has to be emphasized as a part of organizing your life because if you do not maintain some control over your life you will have difficulty achieving what you want. The results of your actions will seem almost random and unpredictable. In this type of chaos you may feel like events in your life are occurring randomly instead of as a natural consequence of your own actions.
Your energy and other resources become drained and your life will feel very stressful. To avoid all of these consequences it is imperative to achieve control in your life, and you can do that through organized living.
Organized living is nothing more than a systematic and controlled way of living that results in predictable outcomes. That is why I say that “control is the goal” is the first simple truth to understand about getting organized.
2. Organization is not a goal it is a process – When people ask themselves ” how to get organized” they are really asking how to “be” organized! You can’t go out and buy some “organization,” rather you have to learn a systematic way of being organized.
For some people organized living comes naturally and for many others, they have to learn new skills and give up bad habits. If you are in the latter category, then don’t despair because you can learn how to be organized.
As you go about the process of organizing your life pay attention to the following points:
- Know, understand, and assert your organized living rights.
- Know your own space and use it efficiently
- Know and understand the systems and processes of your everyday life
- Know your own needs and what is it you want from your own life
So, whether you want to organize your closet, your office, your home or indeed your entire life, it is possible if you learn how to live in an organized, systematic, and controlled way.
3. There can be no control without understanding – The best way to solve any problem is to understand what the cause of the problem is, and this applies to the problem of getting organized and taking control in life.
If you forcefully try to “get organized” without understanding how you got into a disorganized dilemma in the first place then you will never get out of the trap.
For example, if you are trying to control the amount of goods that are piling up in your home, you should first understand how they got there and then do something about it. And once you decide to clear the clutter it is important to learn how to prioritize your needs and keep the things that are truly necessary and discard the rest.
Understanding goes still deeper. You need to understand your own needs, wants and desires if you want to control the purchasing process that is contributing to the build up of stuff that is cluttering up your life. And of course if you are trying to control your time, then you need to understand the things that you are doing that are wasting your time.
Finally you can never learn how to get control your life unless you understand what you want your life to be. This requires some deep thinking, and not just chucking out the random objects that seem to be cluttering up your life.
So the next time you wonder how to go about organizing your life, start with recalling the 3 simple truths about organized living.
Success with organizing your life requires understanding three things about organized living. When these simple truths are understood the question of “how to get organized” is less mysterious.