The Power of Organization

Every morning I wake up at 5am. I use this time to do yoga, journal and plan for my upcoming day. This can entail making to do lists, filling out my day planner and texting memos to myself or significant other. I find that this time greatly increases my productivity for the upcoming day.

I did not always start my day like this. While I was waking up at 5am I found myself often filling the time with things such as social media or YouTube videos. My morning was filled with procrastination and that sometimes built my day into frustration.

I do not know when or how I made this change to try and get organized. It may have stemmed from too many chaotic days and nights. It may have come from starting and failing so many projects from not being organized enough. I knew something had to change and slowly made the time to find out what worked for me and what didn’t.

I believe that how we start the day sets us up for what can be expected in the day. I like to be prepared and somehow starting the day in a haze of procrastination was my go to. While I enjoyed the time to relax, it did nothing for me. Of course, I’m not saying don’t take time for self care, however that may look for you. Everyone is different. I find many of the things I do to organize my day to be a form of self care.

Journaling can be soothing. It can help us discover our feelings. It can be a place to record memories. Journaling can be whatever you want it to be. I know people that use it to record stories while other people do it to record everything that happened to them that day. Some use stickers or drawings to jazz it up while others use straight pen to paper. Others prefer to journal on computers or even blogs. I find journal to be a great way to start my day because it helps me organize my thoughts. It also helps me to wake up. I even go an extra step by following journaling prompts. This gets my brain to start working by looking into myself.

I started doing yoga when I started working a very physically demanding job. My muscles were becoming stiff and I knew if I wanted to continue this job that I loved I would need to take care of my body to do so. I began searching yoga poses to practice on Instagram. Doing yoga has become so much a part of my life that I will do poses while waiting for other things in my life such as food to heat up in the microwave. Yoga is very relaxing and I love the benefits.

After yoga I began to map out my day. I check what is in my schedule for the day and start a to do list. Something I should mention is that though I make a daily to do list, there are things on the list that I know won’t get done that day but are on the list as a reminder that I will need to do them in the future. For example, we are renovating our house at the moment. I have tasks on the list related to renovating but don’t need done yet. One task at a time. It’s a great feeling to scratch something off the to do list. That maybe something that motivates even more to peer through the list. Even in the days I feel exhausted.

One thing that has changed how I organize myself is my partners involvement. We have shared our schedules on our phones so we know exactly when we can plan family events. We also touch base weekly to plan out what we have going on which greatly helps organize the family. Especially during the busy renovations that we are going through.

I have not always been an organized person and I am by no means perfect. This was only a step towards organization for me. Sometimes I falter and don’t get everything done that I want to. The key is to not beat yourself up over it. Tomorrow is another day.