It doesn’t matter how much time you have on your hands, if you can’t manage it properly, you lose it. When you get organized you find there is suddenly more time to spare and things start to fall into place. Organized people are not born organized. They invent and implement useful methods which help them get and stay organized. Make the time to get organized and soon you will be enjoying your newly found leisure-time.

Write Things Down

We all know someone that remembers every birthday and sends something for every holiday. It’s not magic and it’s not about improving your memory. Trying to remember things will not help you to stay organized but it will add to your stress! Try writing things down. A list is a great way of remembering things. It doesn’t have to be pen and paper, you can use your phone or your computer. Write down as much as you can: shopping lists, holiday gifts, household chores and important dates, meetings and birthdays.

Make Deadlines

Organized people don’t waste time. They recognize that keeping things organized goes hand-in-hand with staying productive. They make and keep schedules, set deadlines and goals and most importantly they stick to them! By living a chaotic lifestyle, you will not have the time or space to meet your deadlines or achieve your goals.

Don’t Procrastinate

The longer you put off doing something the harder it becomes. If you want your life to be less hectic then you need to start getting organized. Putting in the effort to get things done not only gets things done but it frees up your mind. One useful tip is to give yourself time limits and break things down into smaller projects. For example, give yourself an hour to organize your wardrobe. If you need an additional incentive try rewarding yourself after every task accomplished. Once you have finished organizing the wardrobe, sit down with a glass of wine, you earned it!

Everything in its Proper Place

Keeping things organized means keeping them in a specific place. Make easy-to-access storage spaces for the things you use all the time and don’t let your storage spaces get cluttered. Never put something in a temporary place. If you have something in your hand and don’t know where it should go take a moment to find the best place for it. Those items that have no home and are “just put there for the time being” have a bad habit of piling up. Make time every week to organize as nothing stays organized on its own (especially with messy family members adding to the piles). If you make the effort to organize continuously and consistently it will become easier.

Delegate Responsibilities

A really organized life is not overflowing with responsibilities, meetings and deadlines. In fact, it is more serene, as through the process of getting organized you will have eliminated some of the things that create tension or stress. Take one job that you especially hate doing and delegate it. The very fact that you have taken it off your list and given it to someone else is a huge stress release (the stress caused by getting them to actually do it is an entirely different problem).

Stay tuned for next week's final resolution to “Be Happy”