How to get organised

Being organised can drastically boost your productivity. I always feel slightly guilty of either spending too much time in de-cluttering or completely ignoring the way things are. I have realised both the extremes are not good & I need a simple but effective system of being organised without spending too much of my energy & time in organising things.

Here are a few tips that’ll help you organize your life at home & work.

1. Write Everything Down And Don’t Rely On Your Memory.

We can all agree most of us have a tough time remembering things. If you want to remember things, put it in writing, or in a digital notebook like Evernote or WhatsApp your self. (Here’s how to do it - create a group & add your friend then politely remove him from the group you have your personal note-taking app on WhatsApp)

Keeping your to-do lists and other information written somewhere allows you to look back at it anytime, even when you’ve hit your head and forgotten your own name. The big benefit of writing your tasks is that it frees your mind & you can focus better on the most important thing in your day. It’s like creating more space in your computer hard disk so that RAM can do more with lesser processing. Freeing up your mind from mundane stuff will make you more organised than anything else.

2. Practice Mise En Place (Putting In Place)

Chefs are extremely organized people; in and out of the kitchen. What’s the secret? They have a place for everything. They sort out their clothes, wrapping paper, crafts, cleaning materials, basically everything, and keep them in labelled containers or closets at home. In the kitchen, they’re trained to organize their workspace well so that they won’t waste any time & it conserves their energy. Chefs are effective as they know exactly where all the ingredients are.

Doing this will take time, but after a while, you’ll see how easy it is to find what you need when everything in your place has a home.

A place for everything & everything will be in place.

3. Clean Up Regularly

The best way to remain organized is to allot certain hours of day the de-cluttering and cleaning up. It doesn’t have to be a large chunk of time either, as 15 to 30 minutes a day is enough. Use your Weekends for cleaning up something, Decluttering on Sunday has really helped me, it just sets the right tone for the Monday.

4. Keep The Hotspots Clean.

Every house and office has a hotspot for clutter. Usual suspects are the sink, dining table, cubicle, nightstand, and bedroom drawers. Take a note of these places and tidy them up daily. In-office, doing it as a shutdown ritual can help you overcome a bad day at work. Set up a ritual of cleaning up before shutting down your computer.

5. Get A Money Management App

One downside of being unorganized is overspending your money and relying on credit cards until payday.

You can easily avoid this by getting a money management app or just set reminders in your personal calender. (I suggest using 2 different calenders for professional & personal needs. Use google calender for work & i-phone for personal)

Use these apps to record your monthly bills and document your spending. This way, you can get reminders sent to you before your bill is due so you can deposit money to your account. You can also see how much money you’ve already spent so you’ll know exactly where your money goes and how you can cut back.

6. Recycle And Donate

Is your closet full of unopened bags and clothes that still have their tags on? Is your book shelf full of unread books?

Chances are if you haven’t read, worn, or used whatever it is, then you’re probably not going to use it at all. Donate them to a charity or sell them on eBay. Goodwill has tons of donation centers and Disabled American Veterans (DAV) can even pick up your donations.

7. Donate Or Throw One Thing Before Buying Something

Try this experiment: before buying one thing, throw out something old or something you don’t use. Or, if you’re a terrible pack rat, just throw out 1 old thing a day until you can’t find any more items to throw. Do that for a month and I guarantee you’ll have less clutter in your life.

8. Check The Expiration Dates Of Canned Goods And Medicine You’ve Stocked

Expired canned goods and medicines won’t just taste bad, it’s also bad for your health. Dispose of it immediately to minimize the clutter in your cabinets and make room for new supplies.

Not sure about an item’s expiration date? Check out EatbyDate, they have an excellent database of food expiration dates.

9. Learn To Delegate Cleaning And Organizing Tasks

It’ll be easier to declutter your home if it’s a team effort. Go through your to-listed tasks and find tasks you can delegate to your family members or room-mates.

10. Practice Putting Things Away Immediately

All your hard work creating a dedicated space for your stuff will be a waste if you don’t implement it. Things can pile up quickly, sometimes in as little as a few hours if you have kids.

Keep the calm and organized ambience of your home (and life) by putting things away, immediately after you’re done using them. This practice only takes a few minutes but it’ll save you a lot of cleaning time later on.

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11. Unsubscribe From Unread Email Newsletters, Magazines And Other Subscriptions

If you subscribe to several newsletters, blogs and other online publications, but haven’t read a single email from them in 3 months, just unsubscribe. You probably won’t read any of their content, anyway. While you’re at it, unsubscribe from unread magazines, catalogues and junk mail. It’s just a waste of money and space, especially if you don’t read them.

12. Create An Inventory And Don’t Over Stock Supplies

Make an inventory of home cleaning and toiletry supplies, so you don’t run out and don’t overstock either. You might think overstocking is good, but if you don’t have enough storage, then all those extra supplies are just wasting your precious space. The same tip applies for office supplies, canned goods and toiletries.

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13. Label Stored Food and Perishables

When was the last time you found an unrecognizable Tupperware of food in your freeze? Sometimes it’s not just cooked food — juice, condiments and sandwich spreads go unnoticed until one day you’re wondering what that mysterious green goo is. Minimize food wastage by putting a label on all items in your fridge, complete with expiration date, name and quantity or size.

Print your own food labels or get inspiration here.

14. Create Daily, Weekly And Monthly Schedules for Cleaning

Organize your cleaning schedule. It’s exhausting to have a “cleaning day” where you clean everything all at once. Distribute tasks evenly, for work desk you can do daily cleaning while weekly schedule for cleaning your closet is useful and cleaning the windows done monthly.

15. Get A Task Management App on Your Smartphone

Download Trello, or any other task management app on your smartphone so you don’t forget random errands and tasks.

16. Create a Weekend Bucket List

Keep a list of activities that you want to do, so you can consult this list on boring weekends instead of wasting your time figuring out what to do—or just giving up and watching reruns at home.

Whichever of these tasks you decide to undertake, remember that you can’t completely organize your life in one go. It’s a long, never-ending process so be patient. Just decide to get organized now then take baby steps until you see some semblance of order in your life. Soon enough, you will make a habit out of it all.

17. 3 Months rule

Just look around how many things you have not used in the last 3 months? How many things you will not use in the next 3 Months? Just get rid of them. This will itself make you way more organised than any other tip.

Or hack. Just repeating this exercise once in 3 months should be enough to declutter your house, office & life in general