Monday 27 August, 2018

Just Do One Thing


When you think about decluttering and organizing your home, you probably think about what a monumentally huge chore it is going to be, right? You think about the dozens of rooms and spaces in your house you need to organize: the kitchen, the living room, the basement, the attic, the wall closets, the bedrooms, the […]


When you think about decluttering and organizing your home, you probably think about what a monumentally huge chore it is going to be, right? You think about the dozens of rooms and spaces in your house you need to organize: the kitchen, the living room, the basement, the attic, the wall closets, the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the study, your desk, the drawers, and so on. You don’t even know where to start organizing your home.

No wonder so many people get overwhelmed when they think about getting organized! That is why one of the best organizational tips for home is to break down your home organizing goals into smaller, more manageable tasks.

One way you can do this is to tackle just one thing at a time. Depending on time constraints, that may mean just one aspect of a given organizational task.

You may be familiar with the idea to get organized in 15 minutes a day. The technique I want to present here is similar to that one, just less demanding. For really busy people who don’t enjoy organizing, the idea of spending 15 minutes daily may still be too much.

Here is what you do.

Pick one day of week when you have a little less on your plate than usual—or when you do not mind taking on a little extra work. For some people, that might be a weekend. For others, it could be the start of the work week. It all depends on your disposition.

Each week, send yourself a reminder using something like Google Calendar. The reminder should specify an organizing task you are going to work on that day.

It should be something you can do in a finite amount of time. Pick an hour, half an hour, 15 minutes, or whatever other time period works for you—but make sure it is something you can stick with week after week.

Each week, work on that chore, whatever it is. Some weeks, you may be able to accomplish a whole task, like organizing a particular drawer in your kitchen.

Other weeks, you may be working on a task you have to do piecemeal, like organizing a large DVD collection. In that case, break the task down into half-hour chunks, but make them clearly defined. So one week you might organize A-M. The next, you could organize N-Z.

If you clearly define the goal for each week, you will get a sense of achievement, even though you have not finished the entire task. You still have accomplished a full subset of the task.

That will provide you with the motivation to follow through with your organizing goal for the next week, and so on.

When and how should you decide on tasks? That is up to you. Some people may find it works best to come up with each task when the last one is completed. Others may sit down and send themselves reminders for several weeks or months at a time. This is helpful if you need to buy plastic tubs for home organization. Whatever method you choose, all that matters is that it works for you. This is a slow and steady method, but you will be amazed what you can accomplish if you stick with it!

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