Let’s be honest, a messy room can make your whole life feel a little chaotic. Getting organized often seems like such a chore on top of the loads of work we already have to do in our day-to-day lives. In the absence of motivation, we tend to be forgetful, and our forgetfulness causes more stress adding to that which stems from looking at our disastrous mess of a room. But the truth is, it can take just a few minutes, or even seconds, to feel like you’ve got your life together with a few very simple tricks.
1. Get a planner! (trust me)
I honestly have no idea how anyone lives without a planner! From elementary into high school, the school district in my hometown gave out agenda books to all of the students, and I’ll admit that I definitely used to take advantage of this, but having one of these to plan out my homework really became a lifesaver over the years. When coming into college, I ended up buying myself a planner because I knew how handy it was when keeping track of my school work. It makes life so much easier when you have all of your assignments listed in front of you as you write them down, and, not to mention, if you have one that is aesthetically pleasing to you (and comes with stickers) it becomes something you can’t live without. So stop writing your due dates on the back of your hand and get a planner!
2. Have a Place for Everything and Everything in its Place.
With unorganized clutter laying around, it can be impossible to find anything. It is critical to not only have easily accessible places for your things in your space but that the location of your items is practical to you within your daily whereabouts. I would suggest that when you have the time, really dig and sort through all of your things. Put comparable things together that will make sense to you, such as finding a good place for hair and makeup products, electronic accessories, school supplies, etc. Don’t just throw everything into a junk drawer! In order to keep your stuff orderly, though, your things need to actually be in their place. If you take something out to use, don’t forget to put it back as soon as you are done using it. This will prevent the piling up of random things all over your room.
3. Don’t Hesitate, You Will Just Forget About It!
I don’t know about you, but I forget just about everything. It’s so easy to forget things that are not right in our faces – out of sight, out of mind. Doing simple tasks as soon as you remember them, or writing them down to get done ASAP will prevent you from forgetting about them. If you left a mess of clothes on your bed in the morning while getting ready for class, don’t hesitate to do such a simple task of cleaning up after yourself. Put those clothes away as soon as possible so that you don’t get stressed by the clutter as you have loads of other more challenging work to do. It seems like such a simple concept, but once you actually get those quick and easy tasks done, you’ll feel better as you can go about your day and get other things done. This also goes for assignments and due dates. Write these tasks down somewhere that you will check frequently so that it doesn’t completely slip your mind and come up at the last second.
4. Use the Reminders and Notes apps.
There are so many apps on our phones that are extremely beneficial to us in our everyday lives. The Reminders and Notes apps that come with the iPhone are extremely convenient and easy-to-use apps that can help you stay organized more than you might think. The Notes app has checklists, numbered lists, tables, photos, document scanning, etc. It also has a feature that lets you lock a note so that it requires a password to view it, which I use in order to remember account logins. It’s a quick way to jot down things that cross your mind that you might need to remember later. With the Reminders app, you can set a date and a time to remind yourself of something, and it pops up as a notification on your phone until you mark it as completed. Without this app, I’d never remember to take my vitamins in the morning!
5. Hold Yourself Accountable – Make Daily To-Do Lists.
Lastly, making daily to-do lists (on your phone, in your planner, anywhere) is a very effective way to go about your day efficiently, allowing yourself to get to everything you need to do for the day. Nothing beats the feeling of physically crossing off every task you need to complete for the day. It makes you feel extremely accomplished! Holding yourself accountable in this way is a great way to make a busy day feel less chaotic.
There are such simple things you can do to make every day worthwhile and less disorganized. There is not one solution to make everyone’s crazy lives less stressful and full of chaos, so trying out new ideas to stay organized can make you feel a lot more accomplished. If one thing doesn’t work for you, try new things until you find a routine that you can stick with.
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