Getting Organized, Finding Balance
Source: my notes from a Telus Health educational session
Learning goals
Section titled “Learning goals”- Assess your organization
- Plan, get resources, do it
- Get organized in life (home, work)
Use Case for Organization
Section titled “Use Case for Organization”- Make room for physical and mental freedom
- Improve health: reduce stress, safer spaces
- Help with relationships
- Clean, appearance, save money
Background
Section titled “Background”Statistics support:
- Removing unnecessary cluster can reduce housework
- Clutter can be caused be disorganization
- Planning can reduce: redundancy later on, waiting for information,
lack of preparation
- “A stitch in time, saves nice”
- “Measure twice, cut once” - carpentry/construction
Challenges to Organization
Section titled “Challenges to Organization”- Life situations
- Family members
- Habits
- History, family - how you are raised
- Health (physical, mental)
- Indecision, perfectionism
- Body issues
Assess Your Organization
Section titled “Assess Your Organization”- Are you looking for things?
- Can you find important things?
- How much clutter is around?
- How does your organization affect people relationships?
- Paying for storage space?
- Good: free up space for other things, temporary use
- Bad: encourages procrastination, cost, might be left for others to deal with
Understand:
- Organization is opinionated, a skill you can learn
- You can remain organized and keep everything accessible, it is not necessarily about removing things
Getting Organized: Tools, Tips
Section titled “Getting Organized: Tools, Tips”- Book: The Complete Idiots Guides to Organizing Your Life
- Get boxes, label them like donate, sell, keep, throw out
- Plan:
- Go room by room and evaluate
- Put things in sorted boxes
- Keep similar things together
- Visualize your ideal space
- Sorting ideas, not absolutes:
- Keep goals small (one room, part of a room)
- Be simple
- Don’t need duplicates
- Keep an empty space like a cabinet
- Put everything in its place
- Choose a thing, only sort one thing at a time and complete it
- Clean work area: only keep what you are working on at moment