We seem to live in a society where most of us put the needs of others before our own. More often than not, we tend to place our own well being last on the list of priorities and before we know it, we are exhausted and out of steam wondering why our lives lack organization and structure.
This is not to say we should be completely selfish because life is about giving; however, the idea is to be able to achieve a balance so we feel in control of our lives and the situations we encounter while enjoying interactions with others. With other people, constantly doing what others expect may not be the case and instead your life can become disorganized and out of sync due to a number of other factors. The factors can include the manner in which you were raised, procrastination on your part, the tendency to accumulate things, your employment situation, and many other external influences.
If you were raised without structure you may not have a clue as to how to go about organizing your life. This is okay because if you have the desire to get control of your life there are hundreds of resources such as this website readily available to help you with your goals.
When you think about your life you get up in the morning, go through your morning ritual of getting ready, get your family ready, endure the commute to work, handle all of the headaches when you get to work, endure the commute home, run some errands along the way, pick up your kids, arrive home and prepare dinner, spend some time with your family, prepare your clothes and lunch for the next day, take care of a few personal tasks, help your kids get ready for bed, take some time for yourself or your spouse, and then finally go to bed only to start all over again the next day.
Whew! That is a lot! No wonder most of us are looking for ways to put organization and structure back into our lives, not to mention balance. Here are some tips to help you along the way:
1Start Housecleaning for Your Inner Self
If you are going to put organization and structure back into your life you must first slow down and take some time to yourself to decide what is important to you. With a hectic schedule as described above it is very easy to lose touch with what you feel is important in your life. Write down at least six things that are of utmost importance to you.
2Organizing Your Life by Taking Inventory of Your Daily Activities
List all of the things you are currently doing within a week’s time and then compare this list to the list of things that you think are important in your life. Do they match up? If you are reading this article it is highly probable you are looking at making some changes because they do not match up. Decide why they do not match up and then start thinking about how you can make some changes. Perhaps your commute it stressing you out, maybe your family schedule is getting crazy, or perhaps you are spending too much time on the job. Here are some ways to reduce the craziness to put structure and organization into your life:
- Reduce Commute Time: Try to reduce your commute time by scheduling your commute ahead of the rush hour and around the rush hour after work if possible. If the commute stresses you out altogether, consider car pooling or consider public transit and then use that time productively to work on organizing your life.
- Reorganize Your Family Schedule: If your schedule is filled with miscellaneous taxi services for your kids, haphazard errands, and other miscellaneous tasks, keep track of everything you are doing and write it down. Come up with ways to organize these tasks so they take less time, such as sharing taxi services with your friends by creating a carpool for transporting kids, organizing your errands so it takes less time, and any other miscellaneous car activities that are making you crazy.
- Get Rid of Your Clothes: I know, you are probably saying, "What? Get rid of my clothes? I need them for work!" Well, yes and no. Yes you need clothes for work and other activities in your life and "no" you do not need all of the clothes that you have. Let’s face it; all of us have clothes stuffing our closets that we never wear. This causes you to spend more time figuring out what you are going to wear to work. Get rid of the clothes you do not wear and narrow down your wardrobe so it is easy to make a decision and find what you want to wear each morning.
- Reduce Stress at Work: Keep track of everything you are doing at work. Chances are you have more work piled on you than is necessary. When you look at your list, decide what tasks you may be able to delegate, figure out how to reduce the time it takes to complete some of your responsibilities, ask yourself why you are spending more time at work and then find a way to reduce the work so you can leave at a reasonable hour. Whatever your situation is, figure out how to make better use of the time while getting everything accomplished.
- Have a Yard Sale: Get rid of stuff you do not need or use. Just the fact that it is lying around where you can see it affects your mind and makes you feel like your life is disorganized. Have a yard sale, donate to charity, or establish an online second-hand store. Clear the debris out of your life and you will clear your mind and feel like you are more in control.
- Organize Meals So You Eat Healthily: Ditch the fast food temptations by preparing more food than you need for a meal and then place in a tray and freeze it as a homemade meal for during the week. Homemade frozen dinners are a lot healthier than the ones you find in the supermarket contrary to what advertisers will tell you.
If you start taking some of these steps, you will be surprised how much better you feel mentally, simply by taking the first few steps. As you start developing it as a habit you will find that you feel more in control and like you can handle anything that comes along. The toughest part is just getting started so just do it starting...today!
