As we blast into the 21st Century, I am finally hitting the cyberspace community with my own blog. Congratulations to me! And you found it; Congratulations to you! It seems appropriate to start off an organizing blog with the most common question I hear:
Why is staying organized so difficult? I used to be organized, what happened?
Here is what I have come to understand. Western society is moving through an age of accumulation. We are bombarded each day by ads, through many different media, that encourage us to buy, buy, buy. If we were to believe them all, our lives are incomplete if not meaningless without one of each of the latest _____________ (fill in the blank). Add in a pinch of easy credit, a heavy helping of parents or grandparents who have lived through wars, depression and/or evacuation and are therefore reluctant to part with anything. Now bake in an environment where we expect our brains to move at the same speed as our laptop computers, information is available with a key stroke and the pressure on families to arm their children with multiple talent, skills, experience and extra curricular activities in order that the children can succeed, is greater than ever.
Clutter is a delayed decision. It doesn’t matter whether it is clutter in your calendar, on your desk or in your garage. Most people’s clutter reflects an inability to decide what to do with objects or an inability to part with them. Making decisions takes energy (emotional) and acting on those decisions takes energy (physical). If you are worn out from a day managing work, family life, traffic, news and cyberspace communication there is likely little else for managing the stuff or planning your time.
I am left to wonder, not why any of us might be disorganized, but how anyone stays on top of it all?
