[PODCAST 75]: 10 Quick Ways to Get Organized (From Our Feature in Parade Magazine!)

Hi friends! Today I’m sharing ten tips I recently submitted to Parade Magazine for their “Year of You” series.

At the bottom of this post, you can find the link to their full feature, which includes the following categories:

• Self Love
• Digital Detox
• Organize Your Life (My area!)
• Invest in You (Finances)

Now, there are a lot of great ideas here, but I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed. So here’s what I recommend:

1. Just listen or read through the tips first. Don’t worry about doing them right now–just look to see if anything stands out to you.
2. If there are a few that you feel drawn to do right away, use the 2-minute rule to add these ideas to your calendar or Next Actions list–or delegate them! (We show you how to create a Next Actions list in our free class, linked below.)
3. If you simply want to keep these ideas handy, we’ve included a link below to an Evernote with all 10 tips so that you can easily reference them later. 🙂

Are you ready to get started? Here we go!

10 Quick Ways to Get Organized

Clean ONE drawer. Preferably, you’ll want to select the one you use most often—like your top desk drawer or the utility drawer in the kitchen. Take everything out—and only put back the items you intentionally go to the drawer to find. (More instructions can be found in this podcast!)

Take 10 minutes to unsubscribe from email lists you no longer need. Scan all the emails you received in the last 30 days and click the opt-out link for any that you don’t feel excited to open. Or consider signing up for the free service Unroll.Me—that I have personally used and loved for YEARS. It stops unwanted emails from hitting your inbox and delivers a daily roll-up of the ones you DO want, so you can review them in less than a minute each morning.

Get a dishwasher magnet. Whenever you start the dishwasher, switch the magnet to “clean.” Then once you unload the dishes, switch it to “dirty.” It’ll save you and your whole family time and brain power.

Designate an inbox for your home. Most of us have “hot spots” all over the place where papers, bills, receipts, invitations, etc. sit around and take up space. Buy a pretty inbox (this is the one I’m currently using) or create an inbox out of something you already have—and let your family know that “Flat Surface Disease” is getting cured this year!

Check out Freedom Filer. It’s crazy to think that a few changes in your filing system will change your life, but that is EXACTLY what this system has done for me and my online community members. With a simple color code and file structure, my “to file” pile has disappeared, and I can find any piece of paper within minutes.

Use the two-minute rule! Coined by international bestselling author, David Allen, this rule states that if anything can be done in two minutes or less, you simply do it. Don’t take time to write it down or put it off for later. You’ll be amazed at how much brain space will be freed up when you quickly send that text, look up an item online, add something to your calendar, forward an email, pay someone on VenMo, etc.

Enjoy an episode of Marie Kondo’s “Tidying Up.” If you have excess clothing in your closet or dresser, Episode 2 is awesome. You’ll learn how to make a mountain of clothes on your bed—and then only put back those items that “spark joy”!

Establish a morning routine. This collaboration from Jeff Sanders (author of The 5am Miracle) and Michael Hyatt (one of my favorite online leadership mentors) is phenomenal. And while each of our routines will look different, having a general plan in place—that we actually follow most days—will set us up for success.

Buy clear containers for your pantry. After battling a constantly-messy pantry for years, I reached out to my friend/container expert, and she recommended these simple, clear, rectangular containers to help control the chaos. We put four or five on the main shelf of our pantry, and it’s made it SO much easier to see what we have, organize the bags, boxes, and loose items, and easily make our lunches for school or work!

Donate one trunk load to charity. A room-by-room, systematic purge of all the excess is ideal this time of year, but if there’s too much going on, set a goal to fill your trunk ONCE—and just go around your home finding items that are taking up space, but that you don’t need, want, use, or have room to store. It’s going to build momentum and feel SO great! (This photo is from our friend Beth!)

And one final thing to remember…. The goal is progress. Not perfection. You have meaningful things to do with your time and life, and sitting in clutter or feeling paralyzed by overwhelm is a very normal thing, but there is MORE for your life than that. If you’re drowning in the details of life, we’re here to help you create simple systems so you can do what matters most.

For today, pick one of these links or put one idea on your list that will alleviate the stress you might feel. And then stay close here at LearnDoBecome because there is so much goodness in store!

Related Resources

Parade Magazine’s Full Post for “Year of You”!

An Evernote version of this post! (To save for later….)

[Podcast 33]: Using Evernote to Track Everything You Learn. There is more knowledge available to us today than ever before. But what do we DO with everything we learn so it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle? Here’s one simple way to track (and easily find!) all the wonderful things we learn that we never want to forget:

Join our free class, How to Stop Drowning in Piles to learn more! Here at LearnDoBecome, we teach a full method to help you get everything organized in your life–from papers, emails, tasks, and projects to all the stuff that may be sitting around your home or office. This is all taught in our Steps to Everyday Productivity (STEP) Program, where you learn how to build your own Command Central. Click the link above for a class time that works for you!

***And as a quick note, this page includes affiliate links.  Please read our disclosure for more information, if you have any questions.