Numerous tips and tricks are upon us thanks to spring cleaning. Clean out cupboards, dust bookshelves, wash walls, oh my! While none of these are included in my list, I’m writing to share my must-dos to bring a bit of balance to daily life.
1. Set MITs: These are your Most Important Tasks. Choose three to five projects to focus on each week and align your daily actions with making them happen. These can serve as your week’s road map. You can also set meeting MITs or day MITs. Focus on what matters most at that moment.
2. Clear Clutter: Piles of paperwork will build if not handled regularly. Take time each week to reduce clutter around you. Focus on a drawer, create blank space on flat surfaces, make room for every day necessities like keys, and open mail daily. Less physical clutter leads to less mental clutter.
3. Clarify Priorities: Consider your top areas of priority each season and let these focus points drive your daily to-dos. What would you like to see brought to fruition or surrendered by summer? Maybe a container garden for your patio? Or a clean up of the pile of magazines in the corner? Or a daily practice like writing, yoga, or meditation?
4. Clean the Closet: Tuck away your out of season wear like bulky coats and heavy gloves. Pull everything out of your closet and toss it onto your bed. Then go through each piece one by one and determine whether or not you’ve used it in the past few months and still love it. If not, donate it. If so, start a love pile that gets put back into the closet color coordinated.
5. Build a Capsule Wardrobe: I live in a few staples from the TranquiliT Capsule Wardrobe that I rotate for yoga, writing, meetings, and seeing clients. Pull out your go-tos from the love pile such as black pants, crisp white shirt, blazer, or shift dress. Narrow your favorites down to pieces that can be dressed up or down and will mix and match. Sticking with neutral colors such as navy, black, or beige helps with pairing pieces.
6. Carry an Idea Book: A tiny 3×5 notebook (usually coated with a sparkly Eiffel Tower) is always at the ready. I use it to jot down ideas, take conference notes, capture a moment in words, list resources to explore, note to-dos that come to mind when I’m sans Daybook, and more. Ideas and moments are fleeting and so worth capturing.
7. Try Evernote: It took me awhile to understand how Evernote could help me organize my ideas, projects, data, and notes. Once I started creating notebooks, I was hooked. If I get an email with data I need to keep to access later, I cut and paste it into a notebook. If I want to track suppliers, costs, or specs, I create a notebook. It’s a wonderful app for documenting and it’s searchable.
Taking time to set up a few organizational tools can save you time, money, and energy—our precious resources. What are your favorite ways to get organized? Bisous. x
