I often hear people ask me “How do you stay so organized?”

It’s easy! I wasn’t born with it; it’s just a habit I cultivated and it grew on me. There are various tips on how to stay organized for you also. 

Staying organized

Organizing your life is the foundation of success in every area of your life. What many people don’t know is that staying organized can affect your mental and physical health.

When I’m organized, I’m also more productive, as this helps me to stay focused on tasks. It also helps me complete these tasks quickly.

You can easily stay on top of things and avoid stress by staying organized. 

RELATED: Easiest Ways To Double Productivity

The benefits of staying organized

The ways are countless!

Being organized helps to reduce stress. When you know where things are, you can accomplish more without getting overwhelmed or feeling burned out. 

You will also have a more flexible schedule. Organizing and managing your schedule with time management tools can cut out time wasters and give you time for other things.

Staying organized also means you will be less stressed. You know where things are, when they’re due, and what steps you need to take to get work done. This also creates more space for creativity, as you’ve done away with that list of mental tasks in your head that’s taking up a huge amount of precious brain capacity.

There is less risk of burnout. When you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed, you’re more likely to make hurried decisions. This increases stress but getting organized helps you to feel in control of your work and reduce overwork.

SEE: How To Handle Burnout As A Creative Person

How to stay organized 

Let’s get something straight! Organizing your life is a skill that is developed over time through practice. You can’t just wake up one morning and decide you want to apply a ruler or a protractor to your life and start straightening things out when you haven’t been doing so before then.

Kolewerk! You’ll get frustrated.

Focus on one thing at a time and take baby steps as you learn how to get your life organized. This will prevent you from getting overwhelmed and giving up too soon.

Consider the following ways to stay organized:

Set goals

I believe this is the first one if you ever want to stay organized, it is mandatory you set goals. Not any kind of goals; Achievable goals! 

They can help you stay focused and productive. When you set specific goals with steps and a timeline, you can organize your work into more manageable tasks. Create both long and short-term goals and add milestones to your calendar to make sure you stay on task.

For example, “Set up LinkedIn page: April 20th”. Simple as that!

Track progress

While you have set goals, it is also important for you to track your progress. This can also help you identify when you’re most productive. 

For example, I notice that I am more active in the morning. With this information, you can decide when to work on your most important tasks.

READ ALSO: 5+ Steps to Set Priorities For Improving Efficiency

Use an agenda

Many professional people use agenda and they believe it is an excellent tool to evaluate your work organization and productivity. 

When using a planner, write down specific events and their details throughout the days, weeks, and months. This strategy keeps you aware of what meetings and due dates you have coming up in your schedule.

Create to-do lists

This! This is what has saved my life! To-do lists are simple yet highly effective lists to help maintain productivity throughout the day. Use this to write down very important tasks you want to achieve daily. 

Try to organize your work based on urgency-attend to what is very crucial. 

Consider writing your to-do lists on a sticky note or in a notebook. You could also think of ways to beautify your to-do list by using a color-coded scheme. 

Keep a journal

Journaling is a great tool for learning how to stay organized.

Keeping a journal can help you stay organized by giving you time to slow down and write down your thoughts. You may feel constantly overwhelmed or like you’re spinning out of control, desperately trying to check off a few items from your to-do list, because you never pause to take a break.

Writing can help you do that.

SEE: Journaling: Meaning, Benefits, How to Get Started

Practice accountability always! 

If you want to be successful, I believe you have to take note of your actions. 

Regularly check in with yourself to determine your progress and find areas where you can approve. You can also develop a system of accountability with your coworkers by holding regular check-ins with each other.

Limit distractions

We all face distractions. For some people, it’s social media, and it’s movies for others. It’s easy to concentrate in a work setting, but what happens when you’re at home? 

Limit distractions by keeping your space organized and straightforward. Avoid common distractions, like staying off social media for a particular period.

When you limit distractions, you maintain your focus on your current task.

Don’t Procrastinate

This is our enemy, aspiring organized people! Do not procrastinate! You need to write that where you can see it! 

The longer you wait to do something, the more difficult it will be to get it done. 

If you want your life to be less stressful and less demanding, putting in the effort to get things done as soon as possible will lift the weight off of you from doing it later.

RELATED: Procrastination: How to Beat It and Meet Deadlines

Keep a clean environment

I know… What does an organization have to do with the environment? News flash; it has everything! A clean environment is a comfortable one, which makes staying productive easier. 

In an organized office, you find supplies and materials efficiently, which makes your workflow more consistent. You can do this for your home also!

Once a week or month, take stock of your workspace area in your house and remove any items that you don’t use daily. Throw away any outdated to-do lists, and file away completed work.

Discard items regularly

Organization doesn’t always have to do with work but also with personal life too! As much as you need to declutter always, do whatever you can to get rid of stuff.

As an experiment, you can choose one space in your house to purge. Go through shelves, drawers, and boxes. Everything you find that you don’t need, set aside, then find a way to kick those things out the door immediately.

Don’t be a hoarder! When you’re not a dragon.

Use a timer

A timer can be highly effective as a to-do list also. Keep track of how much time you spend on different tasks to see areas where you can better use your time. 

At the end of the day or week, reflect on your use of time and be more productive.

SEE: 5 Apps That Improve Time Management

Delegate Responsibilities

As an employer or even a person in general, you don’t need to do it all by yourself. 

Give out tasks to people, and evenly distribute them for the sake of progress. Go through the list and find one task that you can remove from your list or give to someone else.

SEE: How to improve attention to detail

Conclusion on how to stay organized 

Staying organized is not easy. Organized people can also be disorganized when they don’t do this. It’s a habit that you must build on if you want a stress-free life.

These are all the tips you need on how to stay organized. However, what’s more important is to remember what you work for is meaningful to you. And this is how you can stay motivated and happy every day!