Over the past few years, everywhere I turn, it seems that magazines, books, blogs and other media are inundated with information and advice on how to organize your life. Why is it that everyone is so desperate to improve this skill in the 21st century? What is it about society and our lifestyles that demand such efficiency? It is, therefore, no surprise that the January 2009 issue of Real Simple Magazine, a month of resolutions for most people, is dedicated to organization. And their suggestion to deal with the stress is to make lists.
I don't think anyone can disagree that "making a list and checking it twice" is a great strategy. It feels good to check off each item, one at a time, as it is accomplished. When the entire list is complete, we breathe a sigh of relief as a load is lifted off our shoulders. We feel calm, strong and in control. However, when lists become neverending we can feel overwhelmed and unable to focus. A strategy I like to use when I feel overwhelmed is to choose two important tasks for the day as a focus. In this way, the most important tasks of the day are assured to be completed. If anything else is accomplished, I consider it a bonus.
This issue contains numerous lists to help you organize every facet of your life. From lists on making dinner faster, to saving on home repairs, finding time to exercise, making your clothes last longer and simplifying your beauty routine, there is a list for every occasion. There are even lists about lists!
Despite the fact that I tend to be a highly organized person, I still gravitate to books about organization, hoping to find peace and control in my hectic life. It seems that the busier we are, the less time we have to spend on maintaining our homes and taking care of our families. With children involved in after school activities and us driving them to and fro most evenings and even weekends, we barely have time to have a social life and even less to relax at home. The demands involved in getting ahead - in our jobs, in our personal lives, in our finances, and in our possessions - are self-imposed. It's a little bit of the "keeping up with the Jones'" syndrome. We even sign up our kids for sports, music, math - whatever we feel they need to stay ahead of the other kids in their class and not miss out on the requisite opportunities to get ahead.
Instead of spending our time reading about organization, we need to take action. I've said that before, but I truly believe that taking action, even to tackle the smallest of jobs, will begin the positive cycle of change necessary to make progress. The first step is to reduce the number of commitments we have for ourselves and for our children. Not only will this give us more time to spend at home, but it will also give us a chance to unwind and to keep our belongings tidy. Children who are in too many activities will never become excellent in one area. It would be better to limit them to one physical activity and one academic or musical activity, than to overwhelm them with a gamut of activities that eat up a huge portion of their free time. In the book, The Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10, 000 hours needed to become an expert in an area. This would amount to 3 hours spent on a single activity each day for 10 years. That kind of practice will never happen if we spread ourselves or our children too thin.
I have enjoyed reading many other books and articles about organization and stress-control over the past year. Some of my favourites are It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, and the website FlyLady.net. These texts have been helpful and inspirational in their ideas and reminders about how to be happy in life by controlling needless clutter and finding peace in the love and activities of everyday life.
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