THREE SMALL CHANGES: EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE & A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING

So often, disorganisation is a result of procrastination. Part of being organised is realising that if you just do it now, you’ll save yourself time later on. Here are some tips to help you get organised and into action.

1 PUT IT BACK. As soon as you’ve finished using something, put it back where it belongs. It only takes a second, and you’ll prevent clutter forming. Don’t put it down anywhere else, or you risk that becoming its new home, and soon more stuff will migrate to that place, and you’ll end up with tons of clutter. Then you’ll have to spend precious time putting it all away.

2 DO IT DAILY. Many tasks, if left undone, end up turning into mountains of clutter or hours of wasted time. For instance, if you wash a load of laundry each day, it will never grow. Let it go for three or four days, and you’ll have so much to be laundered, you may not even know where to start.

3 HANDLE IT ONCE. Paper shuffling – picking up the same piece of paper more than once – wastes time and energy and can result in heaps of clutter. When you pick up something that requires an action, such as responding to an invitation or paying a bill, instead of putting the paper down, do what you have to do right away. Realistically, you won’t always be able to handle every action immediately, but if you keep paper shuffling to a minimum, things won’t get out of hand