Ever look at someone and think “wow they have their stuff together” and wonder how you can be like that? You can start by working towards the habits that organized people embody.
I complied a list of 8 habits that the most organized people out there do regularly to keep themselves and their lives in order.
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- They clean along the way
Do not wait until the end of the day or until the weekend to clean up. Do it throughout the day and before you begin the next task. For example, making breakfast? Do the dishes right after you finish eating so they don’t pile up in the sink. Laundry basket full? Put the clothes in the washer before you leave to run an errand. Just staying on top of things throughout the day keeps everything from adding up at the end of the day making your home messy and stressful.
- They use a planner
Tired of me saying this yet?! Probably… but I am going to keep stressing the importance of using a planner or a calendar until EVERYONE starts to!
Planners keep your whole life organized. I recommend having one at work and one for your home life if you find that just one gets too filled up.
If you have a planner but don’t use it every week like you need to do to stay organized then take a look at this 5 Reasons Your Planner Isn’t Working and figure out why and then follow the steps for what to do to start using it.
- They take advantage of down times
Do not let down times go to waste. Let’s break this habit down:
What’s a downtime? downtime is anytime during the day that isn’t obviously a time you can be productive but can be used to be organized.
How do I take advantage of it? figure out ways to make that time productive. For example, commuting can feel like a huge waste of time so I came up with a list of productive ways to use your commute.
- They don’t buy it without a plan
This is basically, if you don’t know exactly what you are going to do with an item then you don’t need to buy it. Cute decoration that “you could totally find somewhere perfect for it”? Yeah you don’t need that! That skirt you saw on 5 people on Instagram that you love but have nothing to wear it with and no where to wear it? Yeah you don’t need that!
Keep yourself from having to declutter and constantly re-organize your home by just not buying the items you don’t need in the first place.
- They do tasks right away
Organized people take care of necessary tasks right away. Procrastination makes everything cluttered and chaotic. If something comes to your attention like that the floors need swept… just do it right then. Don’t wait for a time that you want to do it.
Staying on top of what you need to do before it even has time to be added to your to-do list.
- They only keep things with a home
How do you keep your home organized? Simple, don’t keep it if something isn’t in an assigned place (aka it’s “home”) then it doesn’t need to be in your home. “Junk drawers”? “Spare closets”? Get rid of it all. And unless you really need the cash just get rid of it all by donating anything you can and throwing out the rest. Keeping things around with the intentions of selling them just keeps the clutter in your home.
An organized home is one of the best ways to keep your life as a whole organized.
- They do one task at a time
Multitasking decreases productivity and increases errors in whatever you are working on. It actually decreases your efficiency by over 40% for ANY tasks that you are trying to accomplish in that time.
- They write things down
You can’t stay organized if you forget things! And if you’re finding yourself trying to be more organized then you probably are busy and have a lot of things to do and remember. And if you don’t write them down then you will never remember every single thing.
At work I walk around with a small notebook to jot things down on and it makes a world of a difference in keeping my work day organized and ensuring everything gets accomplished!
i feel like i am this type of person after reading your list – yay! 🙂 i especially love the cleaning as you go, it truly makes a huge difference