I have a theory…

If your life feels disorganised or chaotic you likely have one of the following problems:

1. You have too much (too much stuff, too many commitments)
2. You don’t have systems

Too Much

If you are drowning in clutter it’s nearly impossible to feel organised. The same is true of over committing your time. My pet peeve in any planner is hourly time slots. If you fill every hour of your life you leave yourself no time to switch between tasks (which does take time by the way) and you certainly don’t leave yourself time to relax. If you find yourself feeling disorganised and overwhelmed the first thing I would do would be to reduce your possessions and be really intentional about what you say yes to.

If you have tackled the clutter and cleaned out your diary but still feel disorganised the problem might be…

No Systems

I realise this sounds like the most boring concept ever, but stick with me. Systems is how I get nearly everything done. I’ve previously mentioned that I never write regular tasks into my Essential Planner and this is why. I systemise my laundry, food shopping, tidying, my work, even the places I store things.

Although it might sound obscure, a system is really simple; it’s just a process you implement to achieve something, and you can have a system for anything.

I’ll give you an example:

Laundry

1. Every evening I put on a load of washing
2. Every morning my husband hangs it out/tumble drys it
3. During the day I fold and put away the clothes
4. And repeat

This is probably the most obvious example but it perfectly illustrates how a system works in this context and how much lighter it makes the load. Sure we still have to do the laundry but we don’t have to think about it. There are loads of times (my husband will attest) that this system falls by the wayside and things definitely start to feel more chaotic, but it’s there to pick back up again.

Systems can be created for anything you like, and that’s the beauty of them. You create them to work for you.

Please note, I’m not suggesting using systems to squeeze more into your life. Let’s get real, however much you simplify, if you’ve got a career, a home, children, friendships and personal commitments, you already have a lot of “essentials” in your life, and systems can be a way to make sure the wheels keep turning with as little effort as possible.

I’d love to know which of these two problems you struggle with most and what systems you use to make life run smoothly.