A life more organised

The van driver was blowing his horn repeatedly as Rehan frantically searched for his science journal! Only last night he had finished his assignment and kept the journal … if only he could remember where! Giving his room one last searching look, he picked up his bag and ran to catch the school van. Disappointment was written large on his face as he stared glumly out of the window. “Why don’t I find my things on time?” he wondered to himself. He had worked so hard on the journal, neatly drawing and labelling diagrams till late into the night. But instead of getting the praise he was expecting from his science teacher, he was reprimanded by her for not submitting his homework on time! We often see that some of our friends always appear relaxed, are always punctual, whether it is attending an event or submitting an assignment at school. They are not jittery or nervous during examinations and seem to enjoy life better than us. This is because they are better organised than us and follow some rules which lead to a more successful and meaningful life. If we want to lead a well organised life, some habits have to be cultivated consciously.

A place for everything and the thing in its place

Often when we are in a hurry or in a lazy mood, we keep our things in the wrong place and then waste a lot of precious time and energy searching for them. Usually it becomes a habit for which we have to pay a price. To lead an organised life, we should make sure to keep things back in their proper place. Instead of keeping his journal in his bag after he had completed his assignment, Rehan left it on the carpet. And when he changed for the night, it got buried beneath his clothes because he did not put them in the laundry bin (which Mummy told him repeatedly to do!). Had he not been so careless, he would not have to face embarrassment at school.

Discard or give away

Clearing clutter usually makes life more organised, because the fewer things we will have, the easier it would be to manage them! Often we are reluctant to give away stuff we have a vague feeling we shall use sometimes in the future. This results in utilising more space for things (clothes, stationary, books, shoes, toiletries or any such thing of our personal use) and wasting time on managing them. The rule of the thumb is to ask ourselves, “Will I need it this week, this month or this year?” If the answer is “No” to all the options, we should just give the thing away, especially if it is not too expensive to replace. If you have not used something in six months, you may or may not need it again, and if you have not needed something for as long as two years, you are definitely not going to needed it. So, why keep it? Often after keeping something for years, when we try to use it, more often than not, it is outdated or no more in a working condition. “The bottom line is, if you do not use it or need it, it’s clutter and it needs to go,” Charisse Ward

Avoid multitasking

Often when we are trying to do more than one thing at a time, we cannot concentrate on our work properly, resulting in a downslide in our performance. A well-organised person does one task at a time according to his/her priority. We should be clear about what has to be done and what is just a pastime. For example, while doing our homework, if we keep our cell phone within our reach and keep on replying to friends’ forwarded messages, our quality of work will suffer.

Plan ahead!

Planning ahead is an important trait of an organised personality. But we should be realistic in our plans. There are times when we plan to do a lot but in the end, we find a big part of what we had aimed to do undone. Are we being over enthusiastic and planning to do more than what is possible, or we are not utilising our time properly? This is a question which only we can answer. Practically, planning our daily, weekly and even monthly goals and trying our best to achieve them will make life more organised and tasks more manageable for us. We should make it a habit to assess ourselves regularly to find out whether we are carrying out our plans effectively.

Value your time!

Another key to lead a well-organised life is to manage your time in the most fruitful manner. To make the best use of your time, decide on what is the most important thing you need to do right away. Leaving your homework or preparation for a test unfinished, just to watch your favourite TV show or to chat with a friend, is not a sign of an organised personality. Schedule your time each day to work on your top priorities and then stick to your plans. Often we are at a loss because we find ourselves unable to finish our day to day tasks. This is often because giving in to temptation usually results in wasted hours which we regret later on. The famous columnist Harvey MacKay said, “Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” Well-organised people are usually successful in life. Remember that the door to a successful future often opens with a combination lock. We can open it only when we use the perfect combination of planning, hard work, discipline, proper usage of time, sincerity, dedication and yes, a bit of good luck too!