How to stay organized
( Hi Mom! )
When I was in high school, my mother’s favorite adage of me went along the lines of “If Allen’s head weren’t attached to his body, he’d probably forget it at home.” When it came to organization, time management, and sheer tidiness, I was a goner. These qualities weren’t my strong suit. I was often late and always forgetful. In fact, I’ve yet to own a hat that I haven’t lost within three months of purchasing it.
Now I know what you’re thinking: what exactly am I doing here giving you advice on how to be organized?
The thing is, at the beginning of every school year, my desk was actually in pristine condition for the first two weeks. Pencils were properly stored, my papers were put away in folders, and I would even wipe my desk down with sanitizer at the end of the day. You see, it wasn’t that I couldn’t be organized, I just had no endurance.
After two weeks, things would slowly spiral out of control, and by the end of the school year, my desk was a messy jungle of school supplies and miscellaneous items. I’m sure a few critters lived there as well.
I remember looking at the many messes and disorganized cacophonies I had made in my life and thinking: “mom is right.” It wasn’t until I started living on my own that I realized what being messy was a synonym for “I don’t care.”
While there are plenty of “10 Great Tips On How To Be Organized!” on the internet, most articles give you the methods but neglect one essential fact: until you start to care about being organized, you will never become organized. In fact, becoming an organized person is just like starting a diet. Most people quit last because it is a struggle that is no longer worth the reward.
Any discipline without a cause is doomed for failure. This is why, as with anything, I suggest you start small. When I moved into my first apartment, I made a promise to make my bed every morning. The rest of the apartment could be a mess, but the bed was my commitment. Not only was I effortlessly forming a new habit, but the increasing satisfaction of how it felt to come to a neat bed inspired me to do the same with not just my apartment but every facet of my life, including my thoughts.
You see, the beautiful thing about a clean room is that it has a profoundly positive effect on your mentality. As you progress from high school to college to graduate school to the job market, you’ll find that life gets more chaotic along the way. This is why being organized is more than just a positive quality, but can be an emotional and mental lifeboat.
To organize one’s room or workspace is to organize one’s life. And although I still ebb and flow through the process, the profound impact of simply tidying things up has made me genuinely care about the way I continue to manage my time and space.
So start small and the reward will be big.
Written by: Allen Vilenskiy
