Organize Your Life Day 14: Organize Your Future
Sometimes when we are cleaning, organizing, and decluttering, we get really caught-up in our to-do lists. We forget why any of that is important. When that happens, we might have a tidy home, but we still don’t have what we really care most about. Today we are going to end where we started, by focusing on the big picture.
Welcome to the Finale…Organize Your Life Day 14: Organize Your Future.
This is the last day of a mini-series on overcoming parenting (and life!) overwhelm and stress by organizing your life. Click here to see the introduction and links to other days.
Take yourself in your mind to the most stressful time of your life. (Sorry to do that to you.) Maybe it was a different stage of parenting or a particular life trial. Perhaps you are living it right now. One thing is certain; whenever it happens, those stressful stages of life are utterly exhausting. We finish each day physically and emotionally drained and can’t really look forward to tomorrow. It’s a terrible feeling to lose hope for the future, even if it’s just the immediate future.
Over the past week, we have covered the major priorities, skills, and routines that can help pull us out of those overwhelming times. When we learn and implement these principles, we begin to see a light. Life takes a manageable form and suddenly, tomorrow looks pretty bright.
Today we’ll review some of the important concepts we’ve covered in this series and turn our focus to claiming and maintaining a future life of calm.
The Important Difference
I hope this series has not been your normal “How to organize your home” series. We definitely went there, and I hope it was beneficial for you. However, the important difference between this and other organization help happened in the first three days and formed the foundation of everything else we did.
On Day 1, we wrote our Personal Vision Statements. We synthesized our desires and hopes into a description of the kind of person we want to become. We determined what a successful life looks like for each one of us. This personal vision should guide all of our decisions, both the big ones and the seemingly little ones.
As this big picture continually influences our lives, we will find contentment. At the end of the day, we may not have completed our checklist or accomplished all of our goals, but we will be able to say with confidence, “I am one day closer to becoming the person I want to be.”
Remember, who you are is much more important than what you do. Choose who you want to be, and you won’t have to think about what to do.
Open your Workbook or journal to Day 1. Read your Personal Vision Statement.
People Matter
On Day 2, we determined that if we want to truly organize our lives in a way that brings peace and prevents regret, we need to put and keep people first. We can’t just acknowledge or believe that people matter, we need to live by that truth.
We used a very simple framework to examine the important relationships in our lives. From a foundation of gratitude, we looked at each individual and determined how we could best meet their particular needs through our specific strengths and focused one-on-one time.
You are uniquely suited to help those around you. As you apply yourself in these endeavors, both you and others will come out better in the end.
Turn to Day 2 in your Workbook or journal. Review what you wrote about the important relationships in your life.
The Pivotal Shift
While the first two days determined our destination, who we want to become and how we can help others through that, Day 3 provided the vehicle to get there: our time.
The pivotal shift in perspective that we resolved to make is that time is not something that happens to us. We have complete ownership over our time. There is nothing we have to do. I am not “just too busy” to do something; rather, I choose to spend my time in other ways.
Each moment is in reality chosen by us according to what we desire. If we desire an income, than we choose to work. If we desire a healthy body then we choose to eat and sleep. We could forget it all at any time.
This shift in viewing time is liberating and empowering.
Taking ownership of our minutes, hours, and days, allows us to fill our time first with what matters most.
Maintaining Your Organized Time
The Weekly Block Schedule you set for yourself devotes your time according to your priorities. Using your Living Lists makes that time effective.
In order to maintain this organization, you need to trust it.
When your Home Management block is over, put down the dust cloth and close the budgeting book. When Family Time has begun, be present for your Littles. The other side of that trust is using your full block. If you have scheduled an hour, use it. Work through your Top Priority tasks first. If you have more time, start on your Soon and then Eventually tasks. This is how you avoid continually living in crisis mode.
In your Workbook or journal, revisit your Weekly Block Schedule. Make sure you have all of your block categories covered on your schedule and in your Living Lists.
Building Upon Your Foundation
In Day 4 through Day 7, we organized the parts of life that allow our homes to function from day to day. We covered finances, meals, cleaning, and clothes. For the remainder of the series, we concentrated on the physical organization of our space, with special focus on kitchens, paperwork, toys, and bedrooms. We practiced applying the key principles of simplify, organize, and systematize (SOS).
Through each of these days, we laid a foundation for an organized life that tempers parenting stress and overwhelm.
Organizing does require some upfront work, much of which you did over the last two weeks. Your routines allow you to maintain organization with minimal effort. That minimal effort in most of these areas will happen in small actions throughout the day and during your Home Management block. In general, I follow a Five-Minute Rule. If I see something that needs to be done and I can accomplish it in about five minutes or less, I do it right then. Otherwise, I add the task to my Living List. This allows me to be intentional about what I want to focus on each day, rather than continuously jumping from one task to another.
Review Days 4 through 13 in your Workbook or journal, paying special attention to any thoughts, take-aways, or future action items you recorded. Be sure your Living Lists are updated with any tasks you want to accomplish in the future.
For example, if on Day 9 you listed the bathroom and coat closet as spaces you want to organize, make sure you add “SOS Bathroom” and “SOS Coat Closet” to the appropriate section of your Home Management Living List.
By spending an hour a week on average, outside of your cleaning routines, you will be able to maintain and build upon the foundation you laid throughout this series.
The Big Picture
All of the organization you have accomplished and the routines you have set for your future have a spectacular purpose. They allow you to minimize stress and overwhelm, improving your health and mood and helping you be your best self for your family. Your work through this series also allows you to devote less time to dealing with physical and emotional clutter and more time to your Littles and the things that matter most.
Whether you wanted a quick reset or felt the need to learn many new organizational skills, I hope this series has been beneficial for you. I hope it really has met its purpose in helping you overcome parenting stress and overwhelm, empowering you to take control of your life and progress to the parent and person you want to become. As you continue to learn and hone your skills, this series (and I!) will be here to help.
Turn your Workbook or journal to Day 14: Future. Take a moment to write about how you feel now compared to how you felt before Organize Your Life. What is next for your future?
Lastly, I truly appreciate any and all feedback about this series. I would love to help you further in any way I can and improve this series for those who follow. Please share your thoughts through email or the comments.
I wish you all the best as you move forward with your organizational endeavors and hope you always find yourself Lovin’ Life with Littles!
