Have you been thinking it’s time to figure out how to be more organized in your life? If so, these tips will help you create the ultimate organized routine for a happier, more balanced life!
Let’s face it, life isn’t perfect and some days life can feel pretty overwhelming! Once I moved to a new city, I strived to create organization and better routines across every aspect of my life. While I would say it’s easier to build new habits and routines in a new environment, the great news is that you can organize your life where you are today with the tools below!
This post is all about minimizing that daily stress with tips and tricks on how to be more organized at home and at work!
How to be More Organized at Home
There are SO many ways to be more organized at home, where do we even begin? From your rituals and habits to how each room is set up to taking inventory of your day and emotions, there are SO MANY WAYS to get organized at home! Keep reading for some of the BEST ways I have found to organize my space to create peace in my brain.
1. Clean Spaces
I’ll be honest, I grew up in a home that looked like a tornado ran through it. So much stuff, so much clutter. I lived in this chaos for so long, that once I left that environment, I realized how much I needed everything in my life to be tidy and put away so that I could relax. If you find yourself feeling the same way, I promise I have an easy solution. Clean as you go! You can ask my boyfriend, I am a stickler for cleaning up anything you use to cook dinner as you cook. This way you can have a nice meal and not have a disaster of a kitchen to clean up after! Wipe down the stove after eating so that you don’t have a major grease bomb building. Laundry gets folded and put away the same day you wash it. Mail gets organized as it comes into the house. I bet you can think of three things in your home that drive you crazy that would be a little less painful if you took care of it in the moment.
2. Tidy-Up Before Bed
Piggy-backing off of the point above, the best thing you can do to stay organized at home is to tidy up before bed! Before I go to bed, I make sure EVERYTHING is off the floor in my bedroom. This might mean making a pile of stuff to deal with tomorrow on my dresser, but there is never any clutter on the floor! By clearing the area on the floor before bed, you leave open space that allows energy to flow better. Tidying up before you go to bed, also means that you are keeping your spaces clean in shorter amounts of time. This means no big “cleaning day” at the end of the week to catch up with all of the mess that you have made throughout the week!
3. Make your Bed
Urban legend says that making your bed in the morning means that you have accomplished something in the first 5 minutes of your day! This means that you will take your sense of accomplishment and move about your day knowing that you can accomplish anything. It takes less than two minutes to make your bed in the morning, why wouldn’t you do it knowing that you are setting yourself up for success for the rest of the day?!
4. Plan out your Dinners for the Week
You can grocery shop like a pro when you start planning out your meals for the week. This is one trick that helped me avoid hitting the grocery store three times a week AND cut out buying extra stuff that just went bad before I ate it! On Saturday or Sunday make a list of all of the meals you want to eat during the week and decide which day you plan to eat each dinner. Next, go through and write out all of the ingredients you need to make each meal. Decide which days you are going to take leftovers for lunch and fill in the blank lunch spots with other meals you intend to eat. Pro-tip arrange your list by the layout of the store you are going to for a smoother grocery experience. This way you won’t miss anything or be tempted to buy anything extra!
5. Plan your Outfit the Night Before
Can you tell I’m big into planning? Let’s just say that I am NOT a morning person and cherish every extra minute of sleep that I can get. I have my morning routine down to a 22-minute science so I can snooze as needed. Part of this means preparing everything I need for work the night before. My bag is packed as much as it can be, my lunch is in a zip lock bag so that it is ready to grab out of the fridge and toss into my bag in the morning, and my outfit is picked out already! Take a look at the weather and think about any meetings you might have the next day. Head over to your closet and decide on the outfit (including shoes) that you plan to wear the next day. This takes the guesswork out of everything AND saves you those precious minutes in the morning so that you can sleep in a little longer!
6. Utilize a Planner
I won’t lie, I LIVE by my planner. I have been using The Law of Attraction Planner for over three years now! I love that it forces me to look at my week ahead of time and really plan out how I want to spend my time so that I am the most productive. It gives you space to note the most important tasks for the week and day. While the law of attraction planner is my absolute favorite for breaking down my goals into manageable steps, I know it can be overwhelming for others. If you are just starting out with a planner, note the most important tasks for the day and swing back at the end of the day to see which tasks you can check off and which ones need to be moved to another place. You can see my planner in the space above. Everything is on there- color-coded by type of activity of course! You will see my dinners, social media strategy, blogging time, work meetings, work-outs, and social events!
7. Create Routines
Just like I stick to my planner to achieve my goals and be the most productive, it’s important to build positive habits to move you closer to your optimal self! You might implement a strict 20-minute morning routine to get out of bed and on your way to work in the shortest amount of time. But, you may want to start your morning off with more than just checking the weather while brushing your teeth. If that’s the case, try waking up an hour earlier so that you can read or meditate for 15-20 minutes in the morning and get a 20-30 minute exercise in BEFORE you start your day! I’m trying to build a stronger night-time routine that includes brushing my teeth, washing my face, and reading my book before going to bed (you can see this on my planner page above). I recently read Atomic Habits by James Clear where he talks about Habit Stacking. Habit Stacking means that you start doing a habit you want to implement with a habit that you currently do daily. For me, face washing and teeth brushing at night are being stacked with the already established habit of reading before bed!
How to be More Organized at WORK
As the self-named queen of organization, you better believe I have tips for being more organized at work as well! I pride myself on starting a new job and implementing new systems to get the work done more efficiently. These are a few tips that go a long way in keeping you more organized at work!
1. Create a Flagging System
I have only ever used Microsoft Outlook at work, but I do believe this feature works across multiple platforms. In my day job, I follow a lot of shipments with tracking numbers. Often the emails have to be dealt with on a different day than I actually receive them. I used to just flag them all and try to dig through which one I needed to respond to. Then I discovered that you can flag for a certain date! GAME CHANGER! Now, I look up the tracking number, see when the package is expected to arrive, and list the date due as that day. This way, when I look at all my flagged items, they are organized by the due date and I can figure out which emails I need to attend to today! You can do the same with any tasks that need to be done by a specific date, but are not a priority today!
2. List out Major Tasks for the Week
This is one of my favorite tips. I usually do this Monday afternoon once I’ve spent the day working and can budget my time to account for any distractions and last-minute meetings that come up. Write out all of the big projects you are trying to get done throughout the week and break them down into smaller parts. Use a post-it or notebook to write out Tuesday – Friday and separate out these smaller parts under each day. The idea is to break down the big goals for the week into smaller manageable pieces. Re-evaluate at the end of each day before you leave work to see if you need to shift some of these pieces around.
3. Color-Code Your Inbox
If you haven’t already figured it out, I am a massive color coder! My eyes see everything in color! Naturally, I would recommend that you assign colors to certain people or groups that you work with! How often are we emailing about the same topic with so many different people? When you’re opening tons of emails each day, it can be hard to remember who is talking about what topics and why. I often am writing about the same exact product with three different vendors! By color-coding them, it adds an extra check-point to make sure that I am having the right conversation with the intended vendor. With Microsoft Office, you can assign rules )in this case specific colors) to specific emails. You just have to set it up once and it’s set forever!
4. Clean-Up Before you go Home
Just like cleaning up before bed to be more organized at home, you should tidy your workspace before you leave for the day. By doing this, you ensure that you are not walking into chaos tomorrow. You will be able to find everything that you need to find with ease. There won’t be any clutter or loose paper thrown about on your desk. Going to work can be stressful, by tidying up at the end of the day, you are creating a better environment for yourself to walk into tomorrow!
This post was all about how to be more organized in your life – both at home and at work!
Take these tips and tricks on how to be more organized in your life and you’ll start to see some of those daily stressors start to disappear. By being proactive and taking the time to be more organized and home and at work, you will be able to achieve more throughout your day. The best part is that you will find yourself on autopilot with your new habits! No more thinking required, you will just perform these actions and be more productive throughout your day!
