Why Can't I Get Organized??

It may make you feel better knowing that you are not alone in facing the challenge of clutter and disorganization. There are obstacles that prevent many people from getting and staying organized -- here are some of those obstacles. Perhaps you can relate. Sometimes identifying and acknowledging the obstacles help you to overcome them.

• Most of us wait for the problem to disappear on its own. No one really likes to perform routine tasks. But when we postpone today’s work until tomorrow, it creates double work for us. Most of us wait until the work piles up. So very often, disorganization is a result of procrastinating -- putting things off until a later date. Procrastination is really just postponed decisions.
• When people overestimate or under-estimate the time taken to perform a task it leads to disorganization. When we try to do too many things in one time slot it can be frustrating. It reduces our pace. On the other hand, when we do too little in a give time period we are wasting valuable time. This is also true if we try to do organizing or household tasks with children that slow us down because we really are not capable of focusing on the job at hand.
• We all have priorities that should be set up in the order of importance. When people indulge in the activity that is interesting but not really important for a long time it obviously leaves no time for the essential tasks. When the work piles up it makes it worse. Is the priority having a clean, organized home or having a lot of stuff? If your family acts according to “work before play”, members know there is positive reinforcement for work done.
• Interruptions and distractions reduce motivation to continue to work. Some interruptions are inevitable and can be accommodated without disturbing out schedule while others can be ignored. If we lose our focus and try to do too many things, nothing gets done completely. Have you ever gone from one room to another, only doing a little bit of a lot of rooms instead of a lot in one room?
• Being in a household with different personality types (neat freak, slob, etc.) makes it harder, but not impossible, to maintain order. Everyone’s got something they like to be organized, so it is a matter of capitalizing on individuals’ strengths. Either you are organized or you’re not, and if you say you were organized before the kids but aren’t now, you never were. To be organized means being that way no matter what, no matter who lives in your house.
• Habits are hard to break. Some say it takes 21 times doing something for it to become a habit. If you are used to clutter, then it is harder for you not to have clutter. Therefore start with baby steps to re-train yourself and others to make organization a habit, not an idea to strive for someday.