In a world as demanding as ours, it is easy to feel hopeless or get lost in the clutter of everyday life. However, we can use many different tools and techniques to help us get and stay organized, which goes a long way toward helping us stay motivated.
Whether you’re looking to organize your finances, daily routine, work, or even your smartphone, the tips below may be just the help you need.
Here’s how to organize your life:
How To Organize Your Finances
To kick things off, let’s start with organizing your finances.
Make A Budget
One of the most crucial ways you can and should get organized is by using a budget and sticking to it. By making a budget, you know how much money you get in and where that money should get spent.
Though it may take a while to get used to it, setting up a monthly budget is essential to keep your finances organized and ensure you don’t spend money you can afford.
You can also change, add, or remove things from your budget every month, which is especially helpful if some costs slip your mind at the time.
Get A Second Bank Account
Getting a second bank account is also a brilliant way of organizing your finances since it allows you to separate where you save and spend from the account you use for absolute necessities.
By getting a second account that you use purely for paying your bills, you should have no problem ensuring that the money you need at month’s end, or when the bills come, is still available.
There is nothing worse than accidentally spending your bills money on something you couldn’t afford.
Pay Your Bills Immediately
Not only is paying your bills as soon as possible a good way to get and stay organized, but it also allows you to rest easy at night, knowing that you don’t have to worry about any money you may owe.
Paying your bills as soon as they arrive allows you to organize your finances and mind by handling the crucial things and not needing to pay interest or late fees if you forget to pay them before the deadline.
Save As Much As You Can
If you’re looking to organize your finances long-term, there are no ways to do this that are as effective as saving. Though you need to pay your bills and still have some money left, you may stay in the same routine unless you save.
If something happens to you and you need to have your car repaired, go to the hospital, or something else that may cost a lot of money, it is always best to have an extra savings account that you can use in emergencies to keep you out of debt.
In addition, savings goals can be beneficial and can allow you to save more and more effectively.
Use A Financial Tracker To Improve
An easy-to-use way to stay informed about your money and what you use it on is a financial tracker that you can use to analyze your bills and receipts to see where your income is going and how you can do better.
The effort you put into organizing your life’s financial side can significantly affect how happy and prosperous you become.
How To Organize Your Phone
Smartphones are a vital part of daily life, and having an organized phone is essential to organizing your life.
Here is how to organize your phone:
Sort The Apps On Your Phone
With bigger smartphone memory capacity comes the risk of having an utterly unorganized phone.
One of the easiest ways to counter this disorganization is to sort your apps into folders on your phone and arrange everything in an easy-to-understand and remember fashion.
Simply organizing your apps this way can help you reduce the scrolling and searching you need to find the apps you need and use more often.
Remove Unused Apps On Your Phone
Though the memory size of our phones gets bigger, having a bunch of apps on your phone takes up space, makes things disorganized, drains your battery, and can slow your phone.
An excellent way to organize your phone is to delete the apps you don’t use to keep it in the best and smoothest operating condition.
Remove Old Or Duplicate Contacts
Not finding the contacts you need or having to try three different numbers for the same person can be overwhelming and break your productivity.
It is always good to go through your contact list now and again to remove contacts you don’t need and any duplicates you may have.
If someone you talk to regularly changes their number, it is also best to remove the old number as soon as possible since it can help keep your contact list organized.
Backup Your Phone
One essential thing many of us forget is to keep backups of the devices we use regularly.
Having a cloud backup of your phone or a hard drive with a phone backup is a great way to keep everything organized and ensure that you don’t lose anything vital if you lose or break your phone.
How To Organize Your Computer
Like your phone, your computer holds many important documents and is a place where you most likely spend a considerable amount of time.
This is how to organize your computer:
Organize Your Desktop
There are few things as disturbing as looking at someone’s desktop and seeing a bunch of icons for different apps, folders, and files all over the screen, which is just one of the reasons why keeping your desktop clean is a great way to organize things.
You can manage your files and folders in many different ways, including organizing them based on their uses.
Organizing your computer and keeping it organized is a great way to ensure you know where everything is and are always prepared.
Remove Anything Unneeded From Your Computer
One thing that makes phones and computers very similar is the tendency to keep apps we don’t use because we have enough space for them.
However, if you keep your PC clean and remove the apps and files you don’t use, you will always stay organized and have a lesser chance of running out of space.
Make A Backup Of Your Computer
In the same way that something can go wrong with your phone, something can also go wrong with your computer, which is why backups are essential.
Having either physical or cloud backups is a great way to ensure you never lose any essential files and is great for staying organized.
An added way to keep your computer organized is by making regular backups and having a hard drive with all the files you don’t need any more; that way, you can always go back if you need something again.
How To Organize Your Day
It may be due to a lack of organization if it constantly feels like you aren’t getting enough hours during the day.
Here’s how to organize your day:
Make A To-Do List
Staying on top of things can be challenging if you keep getting more and more things to do. Making a list is one way to ensure you can always keep your to-dos organized.
Keeping a list and ranking the tasks via importance is a great way to ensure you don’t forget anything, get things done on time, and stay organized.
There are many great to-do list apps to get you started, or you can go the old-fashioned way with pen and paper.
Make Time For Exercise
Though you may not like hearing it, exercise is a terrific way to stay healthy and prepare for each day.
Organizing your day to ensure some time for exercise is vital if you don’t want to fall behind or get overwhelmed.
Make Time To Have Fun
Another great way to ensure you are always in good spirits and ready to tackle every day is to organize your day to allow you to have some fun.
Whether you make time to read a book, play a game, or spend time with friends or family, you should always put aside time for the things you enjoy.
Make Time For Hobbies
Though it may seem similar to the previous point, hobbies are an excellent thing to have when you want to be productive while enjoying yourself.
Staying healthy is essential for staying organized, and having hobbies and doing things that make you happy is a great way to ensure you stay happy and that stress doesn’t take over.
How To Organize Your Home
We spend over 60% of our time awake at home. To make this time more enjoyable, you should keep your home organized. Here’s how:
Declutter Your Room
Organization at home may feel like a chore, but there is no better way to get your day started than knowing where everything is.
Getting rid of the things you don’t use in your room is just one way to keep your life, home, and yourself organized.
Get Rid Of Unused Clothes And Goods
Another great tip for organizing your life is to keep the things you use and donate or eliminate the things you don’t.
Though I won’t go as far as keeping your closet organized by colors or days, getting rid of the clothes you don’t wear anymore can help you organize your life while helping someone less fortunate.
Organize Your House
As with your phone, computer, and everything else, everything you own should have its place.
Organizing your house ensures you know where everything is when you need it, and you never have to get overwhelmed by things you can’t find.
Get Rid Of Things You Don’t Use
If you have appliances you don’t use and have no place to store them, it may be time to get rid of them.
Though you don’t have to live a completely minimalist life, if you have less clutter around your house, your house and your life will feel more organized.
Selling unnecessary items can also be a great way to make some money fast.
How To Organize Your Work Hours
Whether you’re self-employed or have a regular 9-5, it’s important to keep things organized at work to reach your goals and get things done.
Here is how to organize your working time:
Declutter Your Desk
Papers, books, and documents from previous projects can quickly clutter your desk or workspace and cause you to feel disorganized and unmotivated.
It is always good to keep your desk clean, eliminate unnecessary paperwork, and store your office supplies in a manner you can understand.
Know When It’s Time To Work
Staying organized may mean sticking to the schedule you have planned out, and when it’s time to work, that needs to be your primary focus.
Though it may not be the easiest thing to do, if you have big or daunting tasks ahead of you, break them up into smaller tasks that can help you stay motivated by allowing you to track your progress.
Don’t Be Afraid To Take Breaks
Though it is essential to work hard when you need to, you also need to take some breaks to keep your brain sharp and on the matter at hand.
If you have a full day of work ahead of you, it is best to dedicate some time to taking small breaks that allow you to relax while staying motivated to get the necessities done.
Just Get Started
Everyone feels unmotivated sometimes, but staying organized requires you to start somewhere.
If you have an off day or don’t want to do a task you know you should, it is always good to push yourself just a little to get the task started.
Often, once we get started with something, it becomes harder and harder to stop, and pushing through a tough patch or a task that you don’t want to do is a great way to ensure you stay on schedule, stay organized, and allows you to look back in amazement when your task is complete.
How To Organize Your Meals
Lastly, what we consume plays a massive part in our happiness, productivity, and the weight of our wallets.
To help manage all of that, here are some ways to organize your meals:
Make A Grocery List
It’s easy to forget things you run out of at home or work, and making a grocery list is one of the best ways to keep that part of your life organized.
Making a grocery list of everything you need to remember to buy the next time you go to the shops allows you to avoid unnecessary trips and frustration and save you a lot of time.
Make A Grocery Schedule
Though this may seem a bit much, having specific times or days when you go to the stores allows you to manage your day better and keep your time organized.
Creating and following a grocery schedule allows you to always have the things you need at home or work and avoid unnecessary shopping trips.
Though you may set up a grocery schedule, this doesn’t mean you can’t go to the shops if you need something you don’t have; it simply allows you to take control of every aspect of your life and keep everything organized.
Plan Your Meals
Since one of the best methods for staying organized is to stay healthy, it’s only natural that you should do anything you can to take care of what you eat.
One excellent way to ensure you get all the necessary nutrients is to plan your meals.
By planning out your meals, buying everything you need, and being prepared when meal times come, you can avoid the need for fast food or other unhealthy foods that we often turn to after a hard day.
If you follow some of the previously mentioned tips for staying organized and have a grocery list and schedule, you can make your life much simpler by always being prepared.
Cook The Things You Can Manage Ahead Of Time
Another example you can use to organize your life and your afternoons and evenings is cooking some of the food you need to prepare for the week’s meals ahead of time.
By cooking things in bulk or cooking separate portions of food that will not spoil when refrigerated or frozen, you can save time and energy.
For any fresh ingredients you need, things like fruits and vegetables or salad ingredients, you can buy them on your next scheduled trip to the shops.
However, if you already have a meal planned out and ready for the evening, you can add the necessary ingredients or allow the food to cook for a little more time before it’s ready to eat.
Set A Morning Routine
Getting your life organized, and keeping it organized, isn’t always easy, which is why having a routine is essential.
Creating and following a productive morning routine allows you to do everything you need in as little time as possible, which can also help you have enough time to do other things before you leave the house or get to work.
By getting ready for your day in a shorter amount of time, you take advantage of the extra time you have to do things you would usually need to do after a work day.
One example is washing any morning dishes before you leave to ensure you have less to do at night or starting a washing cycle to ensure you always have clean clothes.
Set A Night Routine
In the same way, a morning routine allows you to take advantage of the extra time you may gain in a day; a night routine can give you a bit more time in the morning.
Setting out the things you will need in the morning allows you to get into your morning routine quickly and can allow you a little more time at the start of the day.
One example of things you can do the evening before to help you in the morning is scheduling your coffee machine, filling the water, and adding the ground coffee before you go to bed.
Another way to help yourself in the morning is to set out the clothes for the morning the night before, allowing you to bypass the need to search for what to wear.
Final Thoughts On Organizing Your Life
Now that you know 30 effective ways to organize your life, it’s time to put them into practice. Use these tips to declutter your finances, your phone and computer, your day-to-day routine, your home, your working times, and your meals.
You’ll feel lighter, more positive, and more in control of your life.
Soon, organization will become a habit – something you naturally do without even thinking about it.
And that’s when you’ll really reap the benefits of a calmer, more efficient lifestyle.
So what are you waiting for? Get started today!