Do you feel: frazzled, overworked, strained, anxious or just plain stressed out? While many problems take a lot more work to solve, there are at least a few ways that you can organize your life RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT, and it won’t even take that long.
Sometimes, the smallest things can lift a huge weight off your shoulders, help you accomplish other tasks more easily, or otherwise just make you feel even the tiniest bit better about your life and where it’s heading right now. Sometimes, you just need to do something small to help get your life organized and get you a little less stressed.
Here’s five things you can do – right now – to help get your life organized!
1. Purge your email. Most of us are constantly connected, but sometimes emails can build up… whether they’re important contacts you need to respond to, spam emails you need to delete, or coupon offers you’ve been holding on to. Sort through it. Respond to the emails that require a reply; mark items as spam as appropriate. Delete coupon offers that have expired or that you know you won’t use. If you’re feeling extra ambitious, go in and unsubscribe yourself from half of those email lists you’re getting but never even bother to read.
2. Make a to-do list. Whether it’s short-term tasks you need to accomplish in a few hours (or a few days) or longer-term deals that entail a lot more work and time, make a to-do list. It’ll give your life and time some structure, set some goals for yourself, and keep you on track. Plus, there’s nothing like the quiet satisfaction of crossing a task off once you’ve accomplished it.
3. Plan out your calendar. Doctor’s appointments, birthday parties, meetings, soccer games, etc. Buy a planner (if you don’t have one!!) and write everything down. This will help in a few ways: first, you won’t have to worry about forgetting events if you’ve got them in your planner! Second, it’ll make it a lot easier to schedule future events if you have a handy calendar ready for easy reference.
4. Clean up your cell phone. Delete old texts. Move old photos to your SD card to save space, or better yet, delete photos you don’t want anymore. Remove apps you don’t use, and clear your cache to free up even more space. Our mobile devices are some of our most precious items nowadays, and it’s important that we make sure these things aren’t contributing to our stress.
5. Do that one thing you’ve been putting off. What is it? I don’t know. Maybe you’ve been dreading making that doctor’s appointment, or calling your mother-in-law. Maybe you don’t really want to go to the grocery store (but hey, you have to eat sometime). Whatever that “thing” is that you’ve been postponing…. go and do it. You’ll feel a lot better without the stress of that impending event weighing on your shoulders.
I hope these tips can help you feel less stressed and more organized! Anyone else got any tips they’d like to share?
Exactly two years ago, I hopped a Megabus to visit NYC for the first time. It took me over 22 years to visit The Big Apple, but it was well worth the wait — and I’ve since returned a few times, having made the eight-hour journey five times in the past two years. (That doesn’t include a bus layover in NYC on the way back from DC, either.)
thoughts of Melissa 