If order is half the battle, both halves are fun
The title is a quote from Detlev Fleischhammel. Or:
"Order is half the battle - I prefer the other half." I used to say this sentence a lot.
Today I see things differently. Tidiness is rarely a chore for me anymore. I usually find it beneficial when my life is tidy. Nature itself is full of order and structure. The skeleton of a leaf gives the individual cells support and ensures that they are nourished. Without order, many things would collapse - in nature, but also in social life.
We Germans are already out of step when the train is twenty minutes late.
It's clear: order and structure make life easier - once you've established them. This can be challenging because it requires a great deal of thought and action. And if the chosen structures are efficient and fit your own personality and life. This is often not the case.
I didn't always find the available books and tips on organisation helpful - for example, the recommendation to divide upcoming tasks into four quadrants:
Urgent and important
not urgent and important,
urgent, but not important, and
neither urgent nor important.
Sometimes I think: people who come up with such organisational systems seem to belong to the human species, which is super structured anyway. Occasionally I say: "People who come up with organising systems seem to have a brain that thinks in quadrants!"
In recent years, I have worked intensively in theory and practice on how to create an organised life even for those who find it difficult to establish good structures in their possessions and processes. And how to make this as simple and uncomplicated as possible. I describe one of my most helpful insights in this article.
Every thing has its place.
Clean-up rule
If things are lying around, it may be that you simply haven't found the time to put them back in their place. This is the case when the bags are still in the hallway after shopping because you don't have the time or energy to put them away. But it can also happen that things are standing around because they don't have a fixed place yet - you don't actually know where to put the flower pot you've been given. Or there's no room for new books on the bookshelf. Or there's no room in the wardrobe for another item of clothing. So things are left standing or lying around somewhere.
Disorganisation often occurs when it has never been clearly decided where individual things belong. In my ship, for example, the tool cellar is not yet organised. There was no time to build customised shelves. Everything is currently lying on or under the storage area. Searching costs energy.
To remedy this, you can sort and think about it: What can I dispose of or put somewhere else to create space so that what is lying around goes to the right place? Or - if it is not yet clear where something belongs: What place do I want to give the item?
Thinking, i.e. thinking properly, takes energy. But once you've decided that all the vases, magazines, cushion covers etc. will go in a certain place, it takes the pressure off spatially and mentally.
■ Think about it
What do you have lying around? What is the reason - lack of time, lack of space, lack of decision about where to put it?
■ Have a go
Go through your home or workplace and find the right place for five things that have been lying around.
PS. If you don't want to tackle the "tidying up my life" project alone, I would be happy to accompany you as a coach
