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It is so easy to become a disorganised mess when life gets extra busy. Sometimes it’s the smallest habits in our days that make the biggest overall difference in our lives. Making small changes to your daily routine can help you stay more organized and allow you to feel more in control so that your busy schedule feels less overwhelming to you. Here are 7 simple tips to stay organized when life is busy:

1. Create a Morning Routine
Creating a morning routine is a great way to start each day off less chaotic.

2. Use lists for everything
Instead of relying on your memory to remember to complete any to-dos you think of throughout the day, simply add them to various ongoing lists. The notes app on your phone is a good place to store them.

3. Use the 'one minute rule'
If a task is going to take you a minute or less to complete, then do it now instead of putting it off for later. A few tasks that come to mind are things like hanging up your coat when you walk in the door, putting away items from your trip to the store when you get home, and clearing off your plate and putting in the dishwasher right away after you finish a meal. It’s usually easiest to tackle these small tasks as they pop up instead of allowing them all to pile up so that you’ll need a bigger chunk of time to complete them later.

4. Do what you can with the time you have
Maybe you keep putting off tasks like doing a thorough cleaning of your bathroom because you simply don’t have the time to do the full deep cleaning you want to do. Instead of trying to do all the deep cleaning at once, perhaps you have time right now to just scrub the toilet, and then tomorrow maybe you will have time to clean the bathtub, and then the day after that you will clean the mirror and vanity. Sure, it might not be ideal or time efficient to clean the bathroom this way, but the important thing is that it’s all getting done eventually and you are breaking the bigger task of deep cleaning your bathroom up into bite-sized chunks that are more manageable for you right now.

5. Stay on top of the little things
Make sure your car is filled up with petrol so you don’t have to make a last minute stop when you’re already running late to get somewhere. Stay on top of your laundry so that you don’t have to hunt out items in the dirty clothes basket.

6. Make decisions quickly
If you’re typically indecisive about even the simplest of decisions in your day-to-day life, it could be causing you a lot of unnecessary stress and sucking time away from what’s most important. If you struggle with indecisiveness, try to start making decisions more quickly so that you can get on with your day and not waste your energy on the things that don’t really matter (e.g., what to wear for the day or what you want to eat for breakfast).

7. Make sure everything has a home
It’s harder to put things away and keep everything neat and tidy if you don’t have a dedicated place to put it all. Make your life easier by dedicating a place for everything in your home so that it’s quicker to clean up and stay organised. Decluttering the amount of stuff in your home can also be a huge help in staying organized and on top of things.

 

Sourced from: Being Organized - EAP Assist, viewed 2 March 2023,