The last couple of months, things have piled up on me: emails, tasks, random notes, a bunch of browser tabs with things I’m interested or need to do, financial stuff, etc.
For the past week, I’ve been allowing myself the joys of getting organized. It’s beautiful, and I just had to share with you.
Let me say a few things first: you don’t need to be organized all the time, or at all. This isn’t a “should” to add to your list of things you’re not doing. Also, there isn’t one way to do this, and my way isn’t the “right” way. Finally, this is about joy, not torture.
How can getting organized be joyful? Here’s what I’ve been noticing:
- I’ve started to feel lighter
- I’ve been feeling more settled
- I have been able to focus more, when I want to focus
- Sorting through things and putting them in order is deliciously fun
- It quiets my mind
- When things are sorted, my love for the world flows more easily
Now, you can get these things in many other ways — but getting organized can be one way! Let’s explore.
The Journey of Getting Organized
Let’s say things have piled up on you, like they have for me. The first thing is not to make that some kind of judgment, but more to ask yourself, “What would be really nice? What would I like here?” For me, what came to me was, “I’d like to sort things out!”
Once you have that intention, then it’s a matter of creating some buckets, and starting to sort. Where will you put things? Find some tools to capture and organize.
Then roll up your sleeves and get started. Start to sort things a bit at a time. As you do so, please do it with a sense of reckless play! Think of how a kid can dive into a toy chest and toss things around recklessly — that’s what you’re doing, except in reverse. You’re tossing toys in your toy chest with abandon and delight! Please don’t make it torture for yourself.
When you start to do it, it will seem like the piles will never get smaller. That’s OK, because you’re having a delightful time! Don’t focus on the end result, just play! Do it for 10-15 minutes at a time, several times a day. You have those times — just check social media or watch Youtube/Netflix a little less today.
Do this for several days, and things will start to feel more sorted. Now there are some empty inboxes and the like that might be in sight — when I got down to the last 7 emails, I knew my inbox would soon be empty. What a thing of beauty! Of course, it won’t stay that way, but the deliciousness of racing towards something so lovely is a joy in and of itself.
At some point, you’ll start to feel much more organized. Maybe 5 days in, maybe a week. Enjoy that feeling. It comes and goes, like warm sunlight in the transition between winter and spring. Eventually the warm light will bring blossoms, and possibly hay fever. This is the life of getting organized.
The Tools I Use
It’s important to have a few buckets to put things in. I don’t care what you choose — find something that you love using.
Here are some ideas, and things I’ve used:
- Notes: For me, this is the biggest place to organize everything — a notes app that can have buckets for things like your project plans, things you want to read and watch and listen to, random ideas, etc. There’s an abundance of great notes apps — Notion, Roam Research, Obsidian, Apple Notes, Google Keep, Evernote, are all really popular. There are smaller apps that are amazing as well: Bear, Supernotes, Mem.ai, Tana. Lately I’ve been using Lazy.so, though it’s in beta and invite only. I recommend Roam Research, Supernotes, or the default Apple Notes or Google Keep, depending on what kind of phone you have.
- Tasks: A good task management app is a bucket for putting all your tasks, both work and personal. Lately I’ve just been using the notes app with a few files for tasks (Inbox, Today, Next, and Later), where my Today note has about 5 tasks to focus on today. But there are some great task apps: Todoist or Things (Mac/iOS) are my top recommendations.
- Email: It’s important to note that email is not a bucket to put things into, it’s an inbox. More on that in the next section. That said, having a good email program makes it quick to sort through the inbox — I use Gmail and Superhuman, but whatever helps you move through your inbox quickly is good.
- Browser tabs: If you have dozens of browser tabs open, then having a quick way to send them to your notes and tasks apps is a good thing. I recently cleared a couple dozen browser tabs by simply sending each of them to my notes app inbox. I’ve also been using a browser called Arc, and I love it because it organizes your browsing life into different spaces (Work, Personal, Finances, Messages for me) that you can easily move between. Keeps things in buckets!
- Files: How do you organize files on your computer? It’s good to set up some simple buckets — an Inbox (or Downloads) folder, then folders for finances, personal and work stuff (or whatever makes most sense for you).
What other things do you have to organize that I haven’t mentioned? Find a tool or place for them. You’ve got this!
How to Overcome the Overwhelm
The hardest thing about getting organized isn’t choosing the tools or actually figuring out what goes where … it’s the daunting nature of the whole thing. There’s so much to sort through, that we will get overwhelmed and put it all off. Putting it off is often how we got here in the first place!
So how do you deal with that overwhelm? Here’s what works for me:
- Work in short bursts: If things feel daunting, I don’t try to get through all of it. I tell myself, “Just clear out 3 emails.” Or, “Just sort through 5 things here.” I do a short burst, I take a break, then I start again.
- Don’t aim to finish: If you are hoping to get to empty, it can be discouraging when you work for 30 minutes to clear things out and you still have a lot to go. That’s because success is having things done, in your mind. So I focus on the joy of clearing things out (see next item), and try not to focus on getting to done.
- Take pleasure in the clearing out: There’s a certain kind of deliciousness to sorting things, getting things organized. This is the part to focus on. When things pile up, it can be discouraging, because we have some ideal that things shouldn’t pile up. But what if they pile up to give us the gift of the joy of clearing things out? It’s like a pile of autumn leaves, just waiting to be gleefully dived into!
Take a few breaths. Dive in for a short bit. Take a break. Come back and practice returning, with love, over and over.
