I have a confession to make: being organised is not my natural state. My default state is crazy messy desk. Crazy messy bedroom. Crazy messy kitchen. Just ask my friends.
But after reading various books on organisation strategies, as well as a lot of trial and error, I have sorted out my inner slob. I even made a mindmap to cement the ideas into my brain.
Long gone are the days of running around the house in a panicked state yelling, “I can’t find my keys. Where are my keys?” or arriving at university only to realise I left my wallet at home and I can’t buy any lunch or get out any library books.
I now have systems in place and strategies so I can get things done without the extra stress and drama.
‘Organised chaos’: Is there such a thing?
I work with a lot of students who tell me, “My desk and file looks messy but it’s organised chaos. I know where things are”.
But have you ever arrived at school only to realise you left your sports shorts at home? Or you forgot your graphics calculator on the day you had an important maths test? What does it feel like to be disorganised? Not much fun.
It’s time to stop kidding ourselves and face our inner slobs once and for all.
In the book ‘Ask me anything’ Rebecca Sparrow states:
“Compare how you feel when you’ve forgotten something really important for school, to the day when you arrive with everything in your bag and you’re ready to go”.
When you’re organised, you’re less stressed. You can focus your mind on what you need to do. You can dedicate your time and energy to the things that matter most to you, instead of wasting it searching for things.
The good news: Being organised is a skill you can learn
I know at this point you may be thinking “But I’ve always been messy! I don’t know any other way to be!”. I get it. Mess is familiar. It’s become part of your identity and it’s hard to imagine being a tidy, organised person.
If you’ve been labelled a ‘mess-pot’, ‘slob’ and/or ‘disorganised’ (all labels I’ve been given in the past), don’t despair. Being organised is like any skill. It’s a skill you can learn. It just takes practice and perseverance.
There are a number of simple things you can utilise to keep chaos at bay and become more organised. Below are some of the strategies I highly recommend.
1. Make your bed first thing
Research has found that people who make their bed in the morning experience a little win of success which sets them up for the rest of the day.
Charles Duhigg (author of ‘The Power of Habit’) says making your bed is a ‘keystone habit’. If you do it, it’s likely to lead to other good behaviours.
Making your bed appears to help develop the mindset of being an organised and disciplined person.
2. Dump what you don’t need in a box
Multi-tasking is a myth. Your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. So you need to make it easy for your brain to do just that.
I work best when I’m not surrounded by clutter and reminders of all the other things I need to be working on. Perhaps this is why people seem to work well in cafes (they can’t bring all their clutter with them).
Here’s a tip: Gather any clutter on your desk that isn’t relevant to the current task at hand and dump it in a box. Put that box out of sight.
3. Keep things in sight (out of sight is out of mind)
I realise this may seem a little contradictory to strategy 2, but hear me out. While you want to be able to focus on one task at a time, you also don’t want to forget about all the other things you need to work on. If I put a project away in a drawer or cupboard, there’s a good chance I’m going to forget about it.
This is why I have an open storage cabinet on the side of my desk that is just out of sight while I’m working on a project. When I finish working on one project, I’ll go to that open cabinet and pick the next project to work on.
4. Make lists you can trust
Many of us make lists but our lists fail us. They don’t motivate us to be in action. Why make a list if you’re not going to do what’s on it? What’s with that?
The problem is that the list items are too vague. They don’t spell out what you need to do next. They contain statements like “Study psychology”, “Exercise” and “Mum’s birthday”. How will you know you have finished studying psychology? How can you possibly cross that off your list?
To create indestructible lists that you can trust, you want to get into the habit of writing down the next step you need to take. For example, if you need to study psychology, you may write down “Open book to page 26 and study the concept on intelligence”. If it’s your mum’s birthday, you could write “Go to the florist and buy mum flowers”.
When something you need to do is framed in a specific, concrete way, your brain says, “This is urgent!”. And then what? You go do it.
5. Have everything you need on hand
Before cooking a meal, a good chef has all the ingredients and cooking utensils out in front of them. They don’t want to get half way through making a meal and say “Ah! I need to run to the shops to get some coconut milk!”. If this happens, it’s going to slow down the kitchen and upset the customers.
You want to be like a top chef. When you sit down to study you have everything you need on hand: paper, pens, sharpener, eraser, textbooks, notes, water and maybe even some snacks if you’re hungry. Take 5 minutes before a study session to lay out what you need.
6. Create a ‘magic spot’
When I was a little kid, I would borrow my dad’s clutch pencil. It was one of those fancy pencils draftspeople use. But if I didn’t put that pencil back in it’s ‘magic spot’ as dad would say, all hell would break loose.
“Where is my clutch pencil? Why is my clutch pencil not in it’s magic spot!?” dad would yell, stomping his feet like an ogre. Needless to say, I learnt pretty quickly to always return that pencil to its magic spot!
You want a magic spot for your school projects, stationery, and books. This will save you time and help streamline your studies. If you need to find something, there’s only one place it can be – in its magic spot.
7. The magic bowl in the hall method
I used to always lose my keys and my phone. It was becoming a serious problem but then I discovered the magic bowl in the hall method.
This is very similar to the magic spot technique, but it’s for the essential items that you need every day (e.g. phone, keys, fitbit, and sunglasses).
You grab a nice bowl (something pretty and solid, not a plastic disposable bowl) and this is where these items are stored. You only take the items out of the bowl if you are going out or you need to use them. Once you are finished with the item, place it back in the bowl.
8. Do a quick tidy up at end of the day
A crazy messy desk overflowing with clutter is unlikely to help you work in a focused way. At the end of each work day, set a timer for 10 minutes and prepare yourself for the next day by doing a quick tidy up.
I’m not talking about pulling out your feather duster or a bottle of spray and wipe (you’re far too busy for that sort of thing). All you need to do is put away any irrelevant papers or books. Return things to their magic spots or to your magic bowl.
9. Post-it note mental preparation
It’s also a good idea to write out on a post-it note what you need to work on the next day. Doing this is like getting the map for a treasure hunt before everyone else. It gives you a bit of a head start for the next day.
Architecture and Design Critic Alexandra Lange says:
“I leave myself a post-it note each night of what I should do the next day, and as if I were my own boss, I let myself move freely among items on that list”.
Why a post-it note? They’re small. You can’t fit much on them so you’re not going to overwhelm your brain with dozens of tasks.
10. Pack your bag the night before
Last but not least, pack your bag before you go to bed. Here’s the best way to do it:
Grab your diary/schedule and look at what you have on the next day. Ask yourself “What are the items I’m going to need?”. Write them down. Then with your list, take your bag and start packing all the items for the next day into it. If an item doesn’t fit in your bag (e.g. a guitar or a giant inflatable penguin) place it by the front door.
If there is something you need to pack the next morning (e.g. your lunch), leave a post-it note reminder on your bag (“Take nonna’s lasagne out of fridge and put in cooler bag”).
Once your bag is packed, place it by the door (or wherever you exit the house in the morning). Why?
Because your bag and all your equipment that are by the front door will act as a visual reminder. They scream, “Take me! You need me!”.
Have you ever tried out some of these strategies before? Have they ever helped you? Or do you find other strategies work better for you? Let me know by posting a comment below.
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I love the feeling.
I think, “Go me! Look at you go!” as I strike the pen through the list item.
But as good as it feels to cross things off, it’s not really about that. That’s not where the power of lists resides.
The power exists in making the list in the first place. Getting the thoughts out of your head and down on paper.
In his book Keep going: 10 ways to stay creative in good times and bad Austin Kleon states:
“Lists bring order to the chaotic universe. I love making lists. Whenever I need to figure out my life, I make a list. A list gets all your ideas out of your head and clears the mental space so you’re actually able to do something about them.
When I’m overwhelmed, I fall back on the old-fashioned to-do list. I make a big list of everything that needs to get done, I pick the most pressing thing to do, and I do it. Then I cross it off the list and pick another thing to do. Repeat.”
When I’m feeling really under the pump, I’ll go for a walk and scribble out a list while I’m walking.
I’m not sure which activity helps me more – the walking or the list making – but by the time I arrive home from my walk, I always feel less anxious and more in control.
If you haven’t been having much luck with to-do lists, you may have fallen into one of the following common traps:
If you look at your list and it says says things like ‘Mum’s birthday’ or ‘Study’, it’s time to make these list items crispy.
Crispy is a Behaviour Design term created by Stanford university Professor BJ Fogg. When you make a behaviour crispy, you get really clear on the specific behaviour you need to carry out.
Here are some examples I came up with to illustrate the difference between fuzzy and crispy list items:
Fuzzy to-do list item: Mum’s birthday
Crispy to-do list item: Call mum to wish her happy birthday after lunchFuzzy to-do list item: Study
Crispy to-do list item: Open Quizlet study deck and test myself for 5 minutes on the bus
When you ‘crispify’ a list item, you tighten it up. You make it crystal clear for your brain what you need to do next. This in turn makes it much easier for you to get started.
If your list is no longer working for you, feel free to abandon it and create a new one. As Psychiatrist Douglas Puryear says in his book Your life can be better:
“I make lists over and over, all day long. It’s not just about having the list; there is also benefit in making them. Writing down what I need to do is somehow calming and organizing, and therefore motivating. When I write things down, it’s as though I’m on top of them.”
Our brains get bored easily, so try making your list a little bit different every now and then.
Here are some simple ideas on how you can jazz up your next to-do list:
It doesn’t matter what medium or what materials you use to create your to-do list. What matters is that you get everything out of your head and you make each list item crispy.
If your to-do list is causing you to have a mini meltdown, back up. Ask yourself . . .
“Is this list too long? Can I cross a few things off?”
Create a short list from your big list – just three items (post-it notes are good for this). Then put away your long list. When you’ve completed those three items, create a new list of three from your long list.
During times of chaos, lists are your friends. Reach out and use this fabulous tool to lighten your mental load. You don’t need any special skills or talent to do this. Lists are for everyone.
It certainly can be.
If you’re spending hours of your day, dusting, picking up bits of fluff off the carpet and scrubbing floors, then yes. You’ve got a bad case of procrastacleaning.
Put simply, you’re avoiding living.
As professor (and expert on procrastination) Tim Pychyl says:
“Procrastination is an existential issue of not getting on with life itself”.
When I was at university, I had a friend whose parents were hardcore house cleaners. They spent a huge amount of their time cleaning.
Their house had a distinct chemical smell: Pine O Cleen.
Like a hospital surgery room, everything was so neat. So immaculate. So sterile.
The backyard was the same: brick paving as far as the eye could see. No trees. No flowers. No birds. No life.
One day, out of the blue, I received a phone call from my friend. She was really upset. She had just received the terrible news that her mum had late stage cancer.
I remember my friend saying things like, “Mum isn’t ready to die”, “There’s all these things mum still wants to do” and “Mum wanted to go travelling . . . ”. But her mum was now too sick to do anything or go anywhere. She’d missed her chance.
Not long after that phone call, I became friends with a Bohemian family. And oh boy, did they know how to live!
I would go over to this family’s house and we’d do things like pick olives in our muddy gumboots, trample back into the house and sip on cups of tea surrounded by piles of books, academic papers and trinkets gathered from various adventures.
In this Bohemian household, no one cared about mud on the floor or decluttering. What mattered most were projects, ideas, relationships and good food!
So I decided cleaning and organising was a waste of time. I embraced a life of mess and clutter.
It’s fun being a slob up to a point. But then life becomes really hard work. Much too hard for a slob to handle. For example:
• You waste time running around the house looking for things (e.g. your car keys and assignment sheets)
• You buy things you don’t need (you forgot you already have the item or something similar)
• You feel mentally chaotic being surrounded by piles of work and clutter
• It’s much harder to focus on one thing at a time
• You lose track of all the things you need to do
• You feel like you don’t have enough time to do everything (because you don’t have a clear mental picture of what needs to be done)
I soon realised I had to strike a balance between the hardcore cleaners and the Bohemian family. When I started working on my PhD, I knew it was time to break my slobby, pack rat habits and get organised to complete this big project.
I didn’t want to spend hours of my precious life energy cleaning. And as a poor student, I didn’t have the money to hire a cleaner.
So I embraced the power of The Tiny Tidy.
A Tiny Tidy is an intense three-minute tidy-up session. It delivers quick results and leaves you feeling more optimistic about your life.
In his excellent book Tiny Habits BJ Fogg explains how to execute the strategy as follow:
“Go to the messiest room in your house (or the worst corner of your office), set a timer for three minutes, and tidy up. After every errant paper you throw away, celebrate. After every toy you toss back into its cubbyhole – you get the idea. Say, “Good for me!” and “Wow. That looks much better.” And do a fist pump. Or whatever works for you. Celebrate each tiny success even if you don’t feel it authentically, because as soon as that timer goes off, I want you to stop and tune into what you are feeling.
I predict that your mood will be lighter … You will be more optimistic about your day and your tasks ahead. You may be surprised at how quickly you’ve shifted your perspective. I guarantee that you will look around and feel a sense of success. You’ll see that you made your life better in just three minutes.”
The celebration part of the Tiny Tidy is essential. Don’t bypass it. Every item you deal with must be followed with a “Woohoo!”, fist pump or celebratory dance move. This is what helps wire in the new habit of doing the Tiny Tidy sessions.
I have found doing a Tiny Tidy session once a day keeps chaos at bay. As Marian Petre and Gordon Rugg state in the The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research:
“Tidying and filing, if you do them in manageable doses can be very soothing activities and can give you a feeling of control.”
Life is short and there’s lots of stuff to do and explore. Who wants to spend all their time cleaning?
Famous artist Margaret Olley was well known for her cluttered, messy house. And she had a great philosophy when it came to cleaning. She said:
“I’ve never liked housework. I get by doing little chores when I feel like them, in between paintings. Who wants to chase dust all their life? You can spend your whole lifetime cleaning the house . . .”
Her advice was simple:
“If the house looks dirty, buy another bunch of flowers”.
My advice is save your money. Don’t buy any flowers (pick some from the garden and put them in a jar) and try a Tiny Tidy in between study/work sessions.
It’s a good idea to do a couple of Tiny Tidy sessions over the weekend so you can start the week with some kind of order.
Trust me, three minutes here and there adds up. Before you know it, you’ll be looking at a very different work/living space and feeling way more in control.
So whatever it is you want to do in life, go do it. Remember, life is for living (not for cleaning).
Being disorganised can create inner turmoil, stress and confusion. If you can’t find basic items (e.g. your textbooks or assignment sheet) you run the risk of giving up before you even get started.
Lists help us to stay on track. They give us an idea of what our day should look like.
Find yourself faffing around and distracted? Just revisit your list (“Oh yeah, that’s right. I need to be working on that English essay!”).
If your list gets messy and confusing, don’t be afraid to abandon it and create a new one.
As Dr Douglas Puryear states in his book Your life can be better:
“I make lists over and over, all day long. It’s not just about having the list; there is also benefit in making them. Writing down what I need to do is somehow calming and organizing, and therefore motivating. When I write things down, it’s as though I’m on top of them”.
Dr Gabor Mate states in his book Scattered that the physical space you occupy can help to either harmonise or disorganise your mind. If you neglect to honour your physical environment, you neglect to honour yourself.
Do your best to keep mess and clutter under control. You’re not aiming for perfect stock photo tidy or perfect hotel bed tidy. You just want to eliminate anything that could potentially derail you when you study.
I feel like I’m constantly tidying up. Things will be tidy and then a day later, it’s back to chaos. I think, “Ugh. Why do I even bother?”
But Dr Gabor Mate believes that this doesn’t matter. He states:
“The effort itself, in the long term, has an organizing effect on the mind.”
Feeling overwhelmed by a big project? Relax. You don’t need to do it all at once.
Dr Gabor Mate states:
“The ADD brain is overwhelmed by a multipartite task. She does not know where to turn, the all-or-nothing mindset demands that everything be done at once. Nothing needs to be done at once. The best plan, I find, is not to insist that any one task be finished all at once, but to impose a strict time limit in which to work. When the appointed time period is over, stop.”
So set a timer for 10-15 minutes and make a start on that project you’ve been avoiding. Remember, the key is to focus on process, not finished product.
You have a limited amount of attentional resources. Every time you make a decision, you use up some of those mental resources. So what happens is your attentional resources get depleted as the day goes on.
You can avoid wasting your precious mental resources and streamline your day by establishing routines and habits. You can read more about establishing different routines here.
Have you ever underestimated the amount of time an assignment would take to do?
Enter the yearly planner.
The beauty of a yearly planner is you can see how many days you have between now and when the piece of work is due.
Picture this: you look at your planner and see that you’ve got less than 2 weeks to go before an important exam. This is what you need to propel you into action. You realise, “I don’t have all the time in the world to do this. I better get started, even if it’s something small”.
In short, a yearly planner can break the tendency we all have to procrastinate.
Finished working on a project? It’s easy to just leave it in a heap on the table. But it’s best practice to force yourself to put it away. Here’s why …
When you leave projects out, they can get jumbled into one big heap. That big heap becomes mentally overwhelming. You’re not quite sure what projects are in there.
So what do you do? You just ignore it. The problem is the pile of projects keeps growing and before you know it, everything feels out of control!
So once you are done, take a minute to make a note of what your next action is on the project, then pick your stuff up and pop it away (note: I recommend using an open storage system like this one).
It takes less than a minute to put your things away but it can save you hours of time down the track!
Are there certain jobs you need to do over and over again? For these jobs, you need checklists. I have checklists for the items that I need for the following situations:
I file all these checklists away in one central location. Before I leave the house, I find the checklist I need and I do a quick scan to see if I’ve missed anything. I’m amazed how often there’s an item I’ve forgotten to pack. But I don’t beat myself up about it. I grab the item and go!
If you wake up late and have to pack your bag in a hurry, you’re more likely to not look at your checklist and subsequently, you’ll forget something important
Having everything packed for the next day gives you a sense of being in control. It also gives your subconscious time to think about whether you’ve forgotten anything.
I know what you’re thinking, “Ugh. Goal setting!” But goal setting is one seriously misunderstood technique.
All a goal is is something you want to do. Why set goals? Because they motivate you. They focus your mind on what you need to do.
To help you set weekly and daily goals, here are some good questions to ask:
If you set 20+ goals for the day and only achieve 3 of them, you’ll feel discouraged. You won’t want to start on the next task or stick to it. But if you set 5 goals and manage to knock off 4 of them, you’ll feel like you’re making progress.
As Dr Douglas Puryear states:
“Life feels better and goes better when you’re achieving your goals.”
There are so many things that can derail you from doing your most important work. But having reminders in your environment can help you stay on track.
For example, I have a whiteboard in my office and I write my most important goals down with coloured pens. I also use post-it notes and a program called Complice to help me stay focused.
When it comes to making your reminders, make sure you change them every few days. Why? Because your brain will get bored and start to tune out. So keep your brain stimulated by using different colours, changing the wording and drawing funny pictures.
I realise there is a lot of information here. It’s easy to find this blog post overwhelming and think, “It’s all too hard!” and do nothing. But remember, you don’t have to do all of the things I’m suggesting. Just start with one or two things. Master those. And then pick another. Before you know it, you’ll be feeling more organised and in control than ever before.
Dr Jane Genovese delivers interactive sessions on learning to learn, combating procrastination, exam preparation, how to focus in the age of distraction, habit formation and much, much more!
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