Think about all of the diverse things you do in a day, down to the breaths your body needs to take. Today I woke up at 5:30am, fed the dogs, took them out, got myself ready (curled my hair and wore foundation since I wanted to give myself some extra love), managed customers all day, networked for my development for an hour, gave advice to a colleague, hid in the bathroom without my phone to decompress for a few minutes, talked to the Vice-President about an open position, while driving home, caught up with my traveling boyfriend over the phone, arrived home, took the recycling and trash out, fed the dogs, took them out, wrote this article, and went grocery shopping. Does this sound familiar?
But some days don’t feel productive and some feel amazing. Why is that?
Most times it’s because we are struggling to be organized enough to efficiently get through your day. I have found that when laundry isn’t done, my closet isn’t organized, dishes are in the sink, my car is a mess, I feel frustrated when I can’t find something I need at that moment. In other words, I want to feel supported simply by having things in a certain spot to make my routine easier in order to turn my focus on more important tasks at hand. Although we can’t have everything be perfectly organized all of the time, we can keep the most important parts of our lives as organized as possible to make us feel calm, controlled, and collected, which gives us the confidence we need to be our best selves.
Here are 20 ways to feel organized in 30 minutes.
1. Make your bedroom, including your closet, your sanctuary by simply throwing a load of laundry in to finish later, lining up your shoes, turning on an essential oil diffuser, and/or making your bed.
2. Keep your favorite tea/coffee/alcoholic beverages stocked, ready to make when you want to unwind.
3. Cut down on your papers, throwing out unnecessary documents and scanning and filing necessary documents (10 minutes each day until completed).
4. Write love notes to yourself and post them in places you frequent the most, bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, work desk, vehicle, etc.
5. Use Siri and/or Alexa to set re-occurring weekly reminders for grocery lists, deadline sensitive to-dos, calling friends and family, birthdays, etc.
6. Make a list of wants to accomplish for one week and set reminders to do each one of them using post-it notes or electronic methods. These are your steps to get you to your long-term purpose.
7. Clean out your car. It will make you feel relaxed when going from one place to another and believe me, this makes a huge impact on your mental health.
8. Throw out items you don’t need. Why are you keeping them?
9. Take 15-20 minutes to do a facial, do your nails, and/or shave your legs. Giving yourself love makes you feel organized and centered internally.
10. Read a book or listen to a podcast for a few minutes each day on topics that supports your long-term purpose.
11. Organize your workspace, posting inspirational photos and sayings, reminding you why you work so hard.
12. Listen to a podcast on world events such as The Daily, or NPR, to keep you up-to-date on global news.
13. Schedule time for yourself, with friends, family, your dog, using either a paper and/or electronic calendar and most importantly, follow it.
14. Drink lots of water each day, preferably half of your body weight. My mood, my skin, and my productivity stems from whether I’m hydrated. This is a super easy way to feel organized that we often overlook.
15. Go for a quick walk, jog, or run to get your endorphins moving.
16. Do something kind for someone else. This reminds us of what we are grateful for in our lives.
17. Say no to requests that aren’t healthy, productive, and/or meaningful to you. If you have something important scheduled, don’t easily give up that slot. This is tough for me since I love helping others but sometimes you have to focus on you in order to deeply impact others in a meaningful way.
18. Keep your desktop clean at all times. In other words, have a place for every file so that you feel less scattered. I get anxiety when I see my entire desktop full of files.
19. Find ways to make things easier, such as grocery shopping by using delivery services, amazon to organize private and public lists for gifts and your wants, enter everyone’s birthday on the calendar with reminders, etc. We have so many tools at our disposal, so use them to make your life easier.
20. Ask your closest friends what they do to feel organized and what works for them might work for you.
This list is unconventional but it works. I do these actions as much as possible to feel organized so when chaos hits me, I’m ready to be adaptable. This goes back to a basic principle, when you take care of you, then you can take care of others in such a powerful, unique, way, all while making forward steps towards your long-term purpose/s.
Please let me know if and how these steps are working or not working for you!
