How to Organize your Life

Time to take control

Do you run around all day, only to find at the end of the day that you haven't achieved what you planned to get done?

Is your "stuff" taking over your home? Do you pay for a storage unit to keep things that are too valuable to throw away, but that you no longer have room for?

Do you make plenty of money, but have a hard time figuring out where it all went at the end of the month?

Do you spend your whole day doing what you have to do, only to find at the end of the day you have no time or energy left for what you want to do?

You may not need more time, a bigger house or more money, you may just need to organize your life!

Step 1: Remove what you don't need

Before you start to organize, do yourself a favor, and remove the stuff you really don't need. This is likely to be the most difficult part. Don't believe me? Watch an episode or two of Clean Sweep.

It's hard, but it's worth it. Later you will need to prioritize, so the more you let go of in this stage, the easier that will be.

Video Advice for removing the clutter

Clear The Clutter

Do you ever feel like pulling your hair out because of the clutter piling up in your house and your life?

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What clutters your life?

When I think about clutter, I usually imagine the physical stuff in my life (like the mail that has eaten the dining room table). This is obviously a source of clutter, but when we stop with the physical clutter we sell ourselves short.

I've started a list of the other things that create clutter in my life. Vote for the ones that trip you up, and be sure to add your own.

^#1

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Responsiblities

We all have real responsibilities. Then there are the things we feel responsible for or have been dropped in our laps without our permission. Knowing which is which is key to dropping the ones you don't need to carry.3 points

^#2

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Guilt

Any time spent feeling bad about all thing things I've not done, or how messy my house is, or what I should be doing is time misspent.3 points

^#3

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Rules

Sure there are laws and rules we have to follow. But then there are the rules we follow because we've always done it. What's your mom going to do if you don't keep your house up to her standards? Absolutely nothing.1 point

^#4

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Myths

These are the things we believe mostly because we've always believed them. Sometimes they come from childhood, sometimes they come from society. Sometimes they serve us well, sometimes, not so much.0 points

Step 2: Prioritize

Now that you've removed the things you don't need from your life, it's time to prioritize the things you've kept. This step towards organizing your life is more about your time and your energy than about your stuff--but it's absolutely key to living a happy, well organized life.

Prioritization Advice

from Internationally acclaimed time management expert Peter Turla

"The Time Man" says it much better than I, so I'll leave the teaching in this module to him. This video is a bit long, but it's absolutely worth it!

Time Management Tips: How to Set Priorities

Time management tips about how to set priorities by time management expert, Peter Turla

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Step 3: Make it easy to find what you need when you need it

more cat pictures
Once you've removed the clutter from your life, and prioritized what's left, you need to make sure you can easily access your things, thoughts, projects, etc. when you are ready for them. For your stuff this will mean shelves, baskets, crates and creative use of closet space. For your time, projects and money, your "storage solutions" will be a bit different.

Storing your stuff

must haves for organizing your home

Mission Natural File Cart

Stuffed Animal & Toy Orga...

Rubbermaid FG3G5900TITNM...

Whitney Design 01812 6-Sh...

Space Bag Storage Cube 2...

Organize your thoughts

try Mind Mapping

A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.

(Click here to read more on Wikipedia)

Organizing the rest of your life

because putting your toys away was the easy part

It's much harder to organize your thoughts, plans and values than it is to organize your stuff. But the pay off is worth it. The books and software below can help you make your brain look as good as your new closets.

Mindjet MindManager Basic...

Getting Things Done: The...

Day-Timers HomeLife (Win)

The Power of Purpose: Cre...

A Leader's Guide to Refle...

Easy Right?

well, maybe not so much

So the steps to organizing your life are easy--but they take a lifetime to master, so be gentle with yourself, take on what you can and remember that every little bit helps.

The links and books below are things that I use or that have been helpful to me. I hope they help you too.

Tools for your Journey

Some of these tools will help you organize the stuff in your life, some are focused on how you spend your time and energy. Some help you remember that you deserve to be happy with the result. Each of them (in their own way) will help you make the most of the one life you've got!

FlyLady.net: Your personal online coach to help you gain control of your house and home: Your free online coach, cheerleader, and fairy-godmother for decluttering and organizing your home and life! Find out how daily reminders can help you clean your house, keep the clutter away, and best of all, bring peace to your home and family!
Cluttered Life: Blog post on de-cluttering your life.
Airset: The AirSet concept - "a survival kit for busy people" - grew out of Dougherty's frustration to find a service that would let him coordinate his overlapping work, family and social commitments from a single place. When he couldn't find an existing solution, he began building one.
Slow Leadership: Blog about how slowing down and treating employees like humans and not just means to an end is good for people and good for business.
Chief Happiness Officer: Learn how to Love your Job, Love Your Life and Kick Butt at Work
Time Management Training Seminar by time management expert Peter "TheTimeMan" Turla: Internationally acclaimed time management expert Peter Turla presents his practical time management tips, strategies, and techniques with a unique blend of magic and humor that educates, entertains and inspires attendees.
Getting started with Getting Things Done | 43 Folders: I'll be talking a lot here in coming weeks about Getting Things Done, a book by David Allen whose apt subtitle is ?The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.? You've probably heard about it around the Global Interweb or have been buttonholed by somebody in your office who swears by GTD. (It probably takes a backseat only to the Atkins Diet in terms of the number of enthusiastic evangelists: sorry about that.)
Haiku Productivity: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential | zen habits: I've been wanting to write this post for a little while now, about an experiment I've been doing. For a few months, I've been purposely binding myself.

Not as a way to hamstring myself, but as a way to make me focus on fewer, but more important things. As a way to allow myself to do more in less time.
How to Organize Your Home, Kitchen, Closet, Living Room, Mail: At LifeOrganizers.com, our how to organize your home channel is a library of organizing articles for your kitchen, closets, dining room and living room. Quick organizing tips for your mail, coupons in addition to how to stop procrastinating, and how to clean your home are also provided.