Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Does Organizing Ever Get Easy?




The answer to this question is Yes and NO.

One way to talk about this is to compare organizing to getting fit. Right now I'm doing a daily strengthening routine.

I use high-tension resistance bands instead of free weights. Every morning I do a series of eight simple (but strenuous) exercises that work the main muscle groups of my body.

And today I noticed that the exercises were getting a little too easy. So I added another band to increase the tension. And now the exercises feel about has hard as they did a month ago.

Wouldn't it be great if we could just keep exercising at the same level forever but keep getting stronger and stronger?

Unfortunately life doesn't work that way.

And the principle is exactly the same with your organizing. 

Right now I'm putting the members of my Organizing Mastery Program through the paces: Making decisions, sorting papers, dividing possessions into yes / no / maybe, clearing surfaces, creating visual *bang,* and making a commitment to their organizing.

And although they've been in the program for only a few months, it seems much longer! Everyone is exercising organizing muscles that haven't moved much in a long time.

A few weeks from now they will be doing more challenging things such as clearing entire rooms, clearing important surfaces, filing all of their papers, emptying boxes and more.

And these actions won't seem as hard as the actions they're taking now.

I have to be careful not to be too easy on them or their organizing muscles will begin to atrophy and they'll find themselves avoiding organizing activities that are essential to their long term goal of getting and staying organized.

One of the biggest struggles people have when they really get into organizing is how long things seem to take.

Making those important decisions and creating a plan can take hours and hours spread over several weeks.

At this point, many people just want to give up. "After all, what's the use? This is just too darn hard!"

And then they get a compliment from someone... a spouse or a child, or an important relative (like a parent or a sibling).

And it hits just like the results of exercising hit me. "I'm getting stronger. I'm more flexible. My back doesn't hurt as much." Sure there are ups and downs, but the progress is real.

If you don't have a plan and don't take action you can expect your organizing results to be pretty much what they've always been. In fact, you'll get weaker, not stronger.

But if you take your intention to improve your life and add a regular organizing routine, slowly but surely you'll have solid evidence that organizing does in fact work.

Are you ready to take the first step? It's often the biggest one.

Have a terrific day!

Marsha

If you're serious about developing an organizing routine and building your organizing muscles, often the first step is to gain the information so that you're working on the right organizing exercises. Until you know what to do it can be hard to make the commitment to take action.

Check out the SOS Organizing Program (where you will learn independently, on your own schedule), or the amazing Organizing Mastery Program (where you are guided through your organizing step-by-step).  Both programs contains everything you need to get your organizing going in the right direction.

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