Do you ever feel like youโre behind in your organizing routine?
Maybe you went on a sunny vacation and came back with a stack of mail to sort? Or, perhaps you skipped a few days in The Productive Home Solution?)
You might feel anxious, worried, or even a little guilty. But, hereโs the truthโฆ
After you start, itโs physically impossible for you to be behind in organizing.
Donโt believe me?
Listen to this episode of the Organize 365 podcast to find out why your organizing journey is more like an endless escalator than a staircase with an infinitive first and last step.
The Organizational Journey
To put all of this into perspective, I want you to think about organizing in a similar way to how a baby learns to crawl, walk, and run.
In the beginning, a baby will learn how to crawl on the floor. In organization land, this is basically you when youโre decluttering your house.
Next, the baby might stand up and take a few steps while holding onto furniture for support. This is when youโve reached out for help and taken the first steps in organizing (congratulations, by the way!).
Maybe you signed up for The Productive Home Solution, or perhaps you hired a professional organizer to help you out. Itโs all going well because youโve got that extra support and encouragement.
Eventually, the baby lets go of the coffee table and starts taking its first steps on its own. Granted, theyโre wobbly steps, and the baby looks a little like a duckling with its bottom stuck out and arms flying everywhere. But, at least theyโre finally walking unaided, right? Sure, they might fall a lot but theyโre making progress, just like you.
When you โgo it alone,โ you might stumble and even feel like giving up at times. But youโll get there. Soon, youโll organize all the main areas of your life so well that when you return to re-organize them the following year, it wonโt take you half as long.
As you go through your organizational journey, your skills, or “organizational muscles” as I like to call them, will continue to develop and grow.
And, like the baby in this analogy, eventually youโll start running.
Organizing is Hard. Productivity is Fun!
In Episode 251, โDecluttering is Easy. Organizing is Hard. Decorating is Fun!,โ I talked about the fact that decluttering is easy. Organizing is hard. And, productivity is fun!
Once youโve got the hang of things and you start building your organizational muscles, youโll become so much more productive. Remember that organization is a learned skill. You canโt learn it overnight.
When you first start decluttering like a mad woman, youโll be left with things that youโre not sure if you want to keep or not. The things that you do want to keep will need to go into containers. At this stage of your organizing journey, youโve swapped your declutter hat for a productive one instead.
When you go through The Productive Home Solution for the first time, it can be a bit overwhelming. Youโll get a lot done in your first round. Youโll declutter the house, and by the time youโre done, youโll think, well, that should do it for another five or 10 years!
The truth is that youโll never be done organizing!
In fact, Iโd go as far as saying that itโs not until the second or even third time through The Productive Home Solution that you start having those big “ah-ha!” moments.
Youโll discover that organizing your kitchen for the second time with the program is so much easier and fluent than the first time. Youโll have productive formulas and routines in place for your paper. And, because your processes are more streamlined, youโll be able to get a lot more done in that 100-day time frame.
Snap Photos of your Progress
When youโre in the middle of organizing everything, itโs tough for your mind to see the progress youโre making. So, grab your camera and snap a few before and after shots.
Give yourself that instant gratification of seeing what things looked like before your inner organizing ninja got to work. You donโt need to show anybody the photos if you donโt want to. They can be there for you to look back at on those terrible days when you feel like youโre never going to be organized.
Whenever you feel that way, you can look back at the photos and see how far youโve come. Youโll know that you have made real progress, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem. Be proud of yourself. Youโve decided to start living a more organized life. Youโve put the gears in motion, and youโre building organizational muscles. That is something to be proud of.
Organizing Pays You In Time
In Episode 269 I talked about the time, money, motivation trifecta thatโs necessary for change. Organization always gives you more time. It doesnโt pay in cash, but it does give you the time you need to balance other areas in your life.
When youโve got more time because you donโt need to spend hours organizing paper, you can put that time to better use.
The The Productive Home Solution is designed to give you the freedom to live your best life without worrying about organizing your home 24/7. It gives you the tools you need to make a lasting, incremental organizational change in your home throughout the seasons.
Once you complete the program, youโll find that the areas in your home where you spend most of your time are all better organized. But, when youโre in the heart of the action all the time, itโs easy to look around and think about all the areas lacking the standard of organized heaven that you were reaching for.
But, if you take a closer look, youโll realize that youโve come a long way since taking those first baby steps. Your organizational muscles are growing. By the time you do The Productive Home Solution for the second or third time, youโll find areas that you perhaps didnโt address the first time. And, youโll realize that organizing comes a lot more naturally to you now.
Donโt aim for perfection, aim for progress!
Realize that reaching the perfect organized life takes time. Itโs not instantaneous. But, even by taking that first baby step, youโre already ahead of the game. Youโre one step closer to living a more organized life that gives you the time you need to live your best life.