Maeve Catherine

Is there such a thing as being too organized? Everything I own or create has a place.

The state of my room is a great tell of how organized the rest of my life is. Currently my room is not as organized as I would like, there is a clean basket of laundry in the middle of my floor, the bed is unmade and the closet doors are open. However, the inside the closet is organized by type of clothing and color, the basket of clothes looks like its over flowing because most of it is laid flat over the sides so it doesn’t wrinkle. My organized mess does keep my brain clear but only to an extent.

Sherri Gordon explains that researchers found clutter depletes ones ability to focus, “Clutter and mess can create more stress and anxiety, but by cleaning, organizing, and reducing the clutter, people are able to take control of their environment and create a more relaxing environment that helps them focus better on the more pressing issues in their lives”. This concept is not unknown to me or anyone I know but more times than not we are faced with this predicament.

Digitally I am much more organized. Every file is organized into a folder on my laptop in one of 3 primary folders: Personal, School, Work and within each of those are more labeled folders. Otherwise I know I wouldn’t be able to find an project I completed for work or an assignment I previously did. Despite utilizing to do lists and Notion software I am bound to forget something.

My mind is constantly thinking of things to do as if I have all the time in the world. In efforts to be bring order to the chaos I write lists, physical and digital lists. At the end of a week I look at the compiled lists together and see what I actually completed. If a task is no longer relevant at the end of the week I discard it and if it is relevant I had it to the upcoming weeks list of to dos. Majority of the time the important tasks get done throughout the week because it lives on my phone and laptop that I use every day.

Thanks to Apple my phone is organized for me by type of app and I usually do not have apps on my home screen because it looks too cluttered. I made a home page of my school related apps and widgets that are only scheduled to show based on my location, such as my towns public library or on Quinnipiac University’s main campus. This helps my gazing eye not get intrigued by social media because it will force me to be off schedule.

Preparing for Change

Changes to a schedule are not great but they are not the end of the world. One of the approaches that I just learned about but already doing with myself to prepare for change. Meghan Casey’s book, “The Content Strategy Toolkit” introduced me to the DAISY Framework. Having the talk with myself about what is going to change and why helps me process it more.

The steps are:

• Define: Know what change you are communicating.
• Anticipate: Understand that everyone will have different feeling about this change.
• Introspect: Check in with yourself. Change affects others but don’t forget about you.
• Speak: What way will you communicate this change. In person or Remote?
• Yield: Acknowledge and commit to being better so the change is smooth.

Where is my mind when I am not organized? Think about the Inside Out movie when Joy and Sadness were looking for the core memories and left Disgust, Fear, and Anger in charge

Where is the content that I do not need anymore? Usually I delete things three months after they’ve been turned in to a boss or professor. I also do a quarterly clean out or back up my emails, files, photos, and apps.

Source

Gordon, S. (2024) Mental health benefits of cleaning and decluttering, Verywell Mind. Available at: https://www.verywellmind.com/how-mental-health-and-cleaning-are-connected-5097496.

Casey, M. (2023) The Content Strategy Toolkit Methods, guidelines, and templates for getting content right. S.l.: NEW RIDERS.