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 Reclaim
Your Life™ & Get Organized for Good
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CBN.com –Glossy
magazines at the grocery checkout line promise
“order in a hurry” with their quick tip articles.
It’s so tempting to take this shortcutting advice
since we all want to find the silver bullet that
will bail us out of our mess. But have you ever
noticed that those shortcutting solutions never
last? If you long for lasting change, you will
need to replace the band-aids you’ve been trying
for an organizing process that works.
The Process Principle™ is the focus of this
second installment in my series “Getting
Organized for Good.” As much as we want to
remedy our disorderly life with a shotgun
approach, I think we all know deep down that long
term change comes with time.
Organizing is not a set of activities as the
magazines (and even a lot of books) would have us
believe. It is not something that is executed in
five and fifteen minute bursts. True organizing is
a discovery process. It is something that we
embrace as a lifestyle, not a frantic event at the
point of crisis. Authentic organizing is a fluid,
natural, revealing process in which you discover
solutions that fit with your environment and
lifestyle.
We don’t become disorganized in a vacuum. There
are many contributing factors to our harried lives
and spaces. In order to get organized for good,
you will need to discover the iceberg beneath the
surface of your messes. You will need to
objectively peel back the layers of your chaos to
discover the precipitating causes of your
disorganization. You’ll need to evaluate not only
the use of your space, but also how you manage
your time, tasks, and information as well. Your
organizing problems cannot be resolved long term
without examining your habits, which are likely
contributing to your clutter. In short, a good
organizing process BEGINS with zooming out and
investigating what has been going on behind the
scenes.
Instead of settling for the temporary
appearance of order, compliments of the “quick
fix,” I encourage you to begin your organizing
journey committed to a process that will deliver
real results. What does that process look like?
Well, let’s begin with what true organizing is
NOT:
A faulty approach to
organizing is:
- Stashing things out of sight
- Tidying up to achieve a “neat” appearance
- Waiting until critical mass to take action
- Endless attempts of 5 minute fixes
- Activities you do once a day to “clean up”
- A one-time overhaul followed by the
expectation that it will “stay that way”
- A goal you “arrive” at, never having to
address it again
- An end in itself; the outcome of a beautiful
space
A viable, lasting
organizing approach is:
- Digging out of backlogged accumulation
- Pruning your environment and schedule of
clogging elements
- Establishing and sticking to systems
- Breaking through old habits and practicing
new ones
- Ongoing choices to uphold order in your life
- A lifestyle you embrace and maintain daily
- A means to an end: making room for the
important things in your life
We’re so used to using products, tips, and
tricks to address our disorder we may likely be
confused about what an organizing process would
entail. We are used to immediate fixes and we
don’t know how to follow a process. Here is some
insight into the nature of organizing as a process
instead of an activity:
The three-fold nature of The Process
Principle is:
- A Discovery Process:
Imposing a solution that you read in a book
might seem like a speedy way to get to
“organized,” but often it short-circuits the
organizing process. Instead of settling for
cookie cutter solutions, a discovery process
aims to uncover the best solution for you, your
family, your job, your season of life, and a
host of other considerations. Using keen
observation, a discovery process taps into
what’s going on below the surface. Rather than
focusing on simply eliminating clutter, a
discovery process looks beyond your clutter to
see the floor plan, traffic pattern,
possibilities, and constraints of each space. A
discovery process also takes into account the
people living in or using the space. A discovery
process widens your view to see the whole
picture. When you use The Process Principle as a
discovery tool you can discern how your space
can actually support your priorities for your
family and your life.
- An Organic Process: As
scary as it might sound, a good organizing
process develops as it moves forward. That’s
right, even a professional organizer doesn’t
begin a process knowing exactly how it will turn
out. One of the most frightening but liberating
facts about organizing that I have learned “in
the trenches” is that you have to get
comfortable letting a project take shape over
time. That’s not to say that you can’t envision
how the space is going to turn out, but you may
need to wait for some solutions to present
themselves.
- A Self-Awareness Process:
If you are constantly facing the need to
organize, you may need to investigate what is
really going on. If you are continually buying
things, a shopping addiction may be the bigger
issue than a need to “organize” your belongings.
If you are creating a dramatic crisis all the
time or overbooking your schedule so that you’re
never home, you may need a reality check that no
amount of organizing activity will address those
issues. A self-awareness process must be
undertaken as part of your organizing journey if
you want to stop the cycle. Until you get
serious about leaving your baggage at the curb
you will likely drag your self-defeating habits
into a disorganized future.
If you can embrace organizing as a process, you
will give yourself an enormous gift. You will
liberate yourself from the defeat of backsliding
and unrealistic expectations. A good organizing
process reveals the bigger picture, develops
organically, and uncovers greater self-awareness.
If you practice organizing as an ongoing process
(instead of a frustrating, hit-and-miss activity)
you will begin to enjoy a lifestyle of greater
order, ease, and freedom.
Adapted from: Reclaim Your
Life™ copyright © 2007 by Vicki Norris (available
now at
www.RestoringOrder.com. Published by Harvest
House Publishers, Eugene, OR. Used by permission.
About the Author:
Vicki Norris is an expert organizer, business
owner, speaker, television personality, and author
who inspires people to live out their priorities.
She is author of Reclaim Your Life™ © 2007 by
Vicki Norris (available now at
www.RestoringOrder.com) and of Restoring
Order™ to Your Home, © 2007, a room-by-room
household organizing guide, both published by
Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, OR. Norris is a
regular on HGTV’s nationally syndicated Mission:
Organization, and is a recurrent source and
contributor to national lifestyle publications
including Quick & Simple magazine, Better Homes &
Gardens, and Real Simple magazine. |
