By Elizabeth Hagen

Do you look at your office or home and feel totally overwhelmed by the clutter, piles, and stuff? Do you wonder where to start? Do you want to run out in terror?!

I know what it’s like to feel like your home or office is totally out of control instead of you being in control. I know that this feeling causes stress and anxiety. And, can make you a not very nice person to live or work with!

There’s hope. I work with overwhelmed people every day and help them get focused, organized, and productive in their home and office. But, you need a plan. Studies have shown that every one minute you spend planning saves ten minutes of execution.

Step 1: Get Ready

Take out your calendar and pick the date you are going to go through your entire home or office. This will take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Have a clean sheet for each room and write the name of the room down on the top of each page.

Step 2: Identify the Areas to Organize

Begin at the front door and imagine a big clock imposed on the floor. Choose where you want 12:00 and start there. Now, look around the room clockwise writing down any area that you’re tolerating or that bothers you on that room form. Before you leave each room put a * by the area that bothers you the most in each room. Go through each room in the home or office.

Step 3: Prioritize

Take a clean sheet of paper and title it “Priority Form”. Now, transfer each priority from all the room sheets onto this paper. Look at each area and decide which one you want to tackle first. You may want to pick an easy area to have a quick success story or you may want to pick a large task to get the worst out of the way right away.

Step 4: Choose a Date

Set a date to organize this area and put it in your calendar.

Step 5: Get Ready to Take Action

Look at the task that you’ve chosen to do first and decide if you’ll need any supplies. If needed, break this task down into smaller tasks and number in what order you’ll do them. Write down a reward that you’re going to give yourself when you’re done. Make it a GREAT reward!

Step 6: Do It!

The day is here and you’re ready to get started. Put on some fun music, some comfortable clothes and start organizing the area. Use my S.T.A.R.T. ™ method to get organized:

Sort

Throw

Appoint a Home

Restrict to a Container

Take Back Control

Take everything out of the area that you want to organize and START. Sort though and decide what belongs there and what doesn’t. Put the items that don’t belong there in a box and bring that away later. You need to stay focused on the area that you are working on. As you’re sorting you’ll also be throwing away items and/or putting in a box for donation or a garage sale. After you’ve sorted through everything you know that whatever is left belongs in that area. You’ve just appointed a home for those items. Now, restrict them to container if possible. Use baskets in a closet, drawer divider bins in a drawer, etc. to get ‘like’ items together into a container. Step back and look at what you’ve done! You’ve just taken control back of that area of your life and it feels great!

Step 7: Reward, Relax, and Repeat

Well done! Acknowledge yourself and enjoy what you’ve just accomplished and cross this task off your Priority Form. Be sure and enjoy your reward and when ready – tackle the next task!

It’s amazing what happens when you start to get organized in your life. You’re going to feel better about yourself, have increased self confidence, and get so much more done each day. You’ll love getting organized – I guarantee it!

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
Mark Twain

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all there is to do and all that’s on your brain? It’s so important when you feel overwhelmed to STOP and regroup. That feels counterintuitive to us since when we feel stress the logical thing is to try and work harder. But that’s not what you should do. Take time to think about all that has to be done.

Go out and purchase some really cool colored 3×5 index cards. My favorite color for the cards is neon green! Then when you feel overwhelmed take out the cards and write down one thought on each card. Perhaps one says go to the grocery store, another says call Mary, and another says clean out e-mail inbox. Keep going until you feel like your brain is completely drained. Then look at all the cards and ask yourself “What is the most efficient use of my time right now?” Take that card and turn it over. Then ask “What’s the 2nd most important thing to do?” Take that card and turn it over on top of the 1st card. Keep going until all the cards are turned over. Then flip the pile over and you have your thoughts in a logical order and in the priority in which they should be done.

If any of the cards is a large project take the project and break it down into small tasks with a card for each task.

Other uses:

To get the kids to help:

Write a chore down one per card, let the kids each pick 1 or 2 cards from the deck (they can’t see them) and send them off and watch things get done. Put a reward on the back that they get when they hand the card back in.

When you’re on the road:

Take 12 - 3×5 cards and clip them with a small colored binder clip – keep in your purse or pocket. As you’re out and about and think of things that you need to do write one item per card. When you get back home or to the office put them in your “In” basket and you won’t have to try and remember all those great things you though of when you were out.

Getting organized:

Look around the room and write down one area that needs to get organized on each card. Kitchen areas might be refrigerator, pantry, south cupboards, north cupboards, etc. Shuffle the cards around and whatever one ends up on top – DO IT!

Discover the power of 3×5 cards! They are the most inexpensive and simple way to get control back of your day and your life!