Change Your Life | Rock the World

OK, so this isn’t going to be the most exciting blog post in the world, unless you’re really into talking about organization and such, in which case hell’s a poppin’, but for most people, allow me to apologize in advance for boring you.

But I do think that there is something to learn here, which is this: by becoming more organized, you can become more productive, and get more done, and make positive changes faster.

I’ve talked before about setting realistic goals and achieving them, and this is somewhat along those lines, but with a bit different focus.

Now, when I say “getting organized”, I’m not just talking about cleaning your room, although that certainly helps, and that can be a part of it, but what I’m really talking about is organizing your tasks so that you can get get your head around them more easily.

When you have a big ole stack of whatever clogging up your inbox, it can be pretty overwhelming and intimidating, and as a result, we’ll often walk away from it and not get anything done. Or, conversely, we’ll try doing a bit of everything at once, which is chaotic and causes anxiety and still leaves us with nothing done.

There’s an old Japanese proverb that says something along the lines of “One who chases after two hares won’t catch even one”, meaning basically that it’s best to work on one task at a time, see it through to the end, and then move on to the next task.

So how do you do that? You guessed it, organization.

But how do you get organized? Well, it’s actually very simple, and you’re going to want to smack yourself for not thinking of it sooner. The first thing you have to do is decide that you’re going to do it, which you’ve hopefully already done. Then, every morning, just grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down all of the tasks ahead of you for that day. Write them down in whatever order you think of them. Just write until you’ve listed everything.

Then when you have a complete list, arrange them in order of importance. Number them, letter them, however you want, but make sure that the most important item is at the top of the list and second most important item is second, and so on down.

Then get started on that most important task, and work on it until it’s done. Then move onto the second job, and finish that one. And so on.

When your day is done, you’ll be shocked, yes shocked, by how productive it was. You may not get to everything in one day. That’s fine. You have many more days ahead of you. But that means that the next day you’ll want to do it again. Make a list and then start from the top.

This is supposed to have been Andrew Carnegie’s method for being productive, and he was one of the most successful people in history. So there’s some proof that it works. How ’bout that?

I understand that it isn’t always easy to find the time to do everything you want, especially if you’re just like all of us and you have a lot to do: work, family, dinner, laundry, calling your mother for her birthday, party time. I get it. But I’m sure you know that some things are more important than others. And no one can figure that out but you.

So it’s up to you to prioritize it all. Which means you need a list.

So, for example, if the most important thing today is that you read that self help book, then put it at the top of the list, and do that first. If the most important thing is calling AA to find out when there’s a meeting, then put that at the top of the list. If you want a new job, which requires a few steps, then put them down: talking to a career counselor, browsing through job listings, updating your resume, and whatever else, and then put them in order of importance, and then do them.

Some people will complain because it sounds like a lot of work, but is it really? Making a short list on, what, a post-it every day is too much? You can do this. It’s ridiculously easy.

And while we’re at it, why not clean you room? Organize your house, make places for things to go, and put everything away when you’re done with it. I’m not saying you need to be obsessively clean, in fact, I would recommend against that, but your life will be a lot easier if you can find everything you’re looking for quickly. So organization is good for you there, too.

And if it’s really impossible for you, then allow me to recommend looking into hiring a professional organizer. Yes, they exist. If you have the money, and if your organizational skills are utterly hopeless, then that might be the right move for you.

But I can assure you that doing nothing because you’re intimidated isn’t helping, and doing too much at once isn’t helping either. If you really want to be successful, and I think you do, then it’s important to stay focused on the task at hand.

Related posts:

1. Time Flies When You’re in a Rut
2. It’s Always Easier to Complain
3. The First Step is the Biggest
4. One Thing at a Time, My Friend
5. Give Yourself Realistic Achievable Goals