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As the New Year begins, many people try to become more organized and de-clutter their hectic lives. Making the resolution is easy; keeping it is the difficult part. To help with this factor, we’ve asked a few trustworthy professionals to share their most useful tips on becoming and staying organized.

Coco Duckworth, Encourage Consulting

Give up on guilt. It’s a worthless emotion when it comes to motivation or most anything else. Don’t beat yourself up for resolutions you didn’t keep or day planners and journals you didn’t write, etc. Start fresh!

I need reminders and memos but don’t like a lot of clutter. I use small dry-erase boards in several areas in my home. Then, before I go shopping or run errands, I take pictures of the boards on my phone and use them as my shopping list. Here’s where I use them:

Inside my bathroom mirror cabinet and another inside the kitchen pantry door where I write down things as I run out of them
On an easel in my office – I’m always losing sticky notes
On a ribbon in my closet with mending or shopping needs – “sew button on grey jacket,” “need scarf for red dress”
Sometimes I have one beside my bed for those ideas that come to me in the middle of the night.

My favorite time-management tip comes from Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro: Every day at 4 p.m. (pick a time that works best for you), I spend a few minutes planning the next day. This helps my brain download before I go into home-mode and saves valuable time the next morning. I can grab a cup of coffee and hit the ground running.
I have to police my email and social media time. Technology can be a valuable business and personal resource, but it’s also very absorbing. I set specific times to check email, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. so I don’t lose whole blocks of my life.

Jody Macinis, professional organizer
Keep a spiral notebook to jot down phone messages, To-Do lists, books you want to read, party ideas, any little thought you want to keep. Using a notebook instead of scraps of paper and sticky notes eliminates clutter and the chance you could lose something important. I carry my spiral notebook (it's a 5x7) with me in my purse, in the car, and it's by my calendar in my house. You can transfer the information from the notebook later, but having it in one place keeps you together.
The best time-management tip I have is to be realistic regarding your goals for the day. When we schedule too many things on our To-Do list or calendar that realistically could not be done in a week, let alone one day, we are only setting ourselves up for failure. Prioritize what needs to be done each day.
I read somewhere, “As our lives get fuller, organizing is more than a task – it's a full-fledged strategy for bringing calm and control to our homes.” When making the decision to get organized, look at it as a life-long habit.
Be realistic in your goals to get organized. Too often we talk ourselves out of trying to become organized because it is an overwhelming task. But breaking the job down into smaller pieces makes it doable. You will be pleasantly surprised by what you can accomplish when you make the choice to begin!

Nancy Altschwager, member of the National Association of Professional Organizers
Time management is about being able to find what you want when you want it. You want to feel in control and be able to achieve your goals. Whether you are looking for a file or trying to remember your schedule for the day, it is all about time management. Nine million hours are wasted looking for items misplaced by Americans, things such as the remote control, keys, homework papers, files and phone numbers. The one thing you can’t recycle is wasted time.
Write everything down on your calendar and only use one.
If time has a habit of getting away from you, use a timer or alarm as a reminder 10-15 minutes before an appointment.
Use your voicemail to leave yourself messages and reminders throughout the day.
Set your clocks and watch five minutes ahead.
Equalize your workspace at home and work. At the end of the day, take a minute to put everything away and make a To-Do list for tomorrow. This will give your day closure and enable you to return to a clean and organized workspace.

by Maddy Cunningham
Maddy is a senior at Randall High School where she is the co-editor of The Silver Streak, president of the National Honor Society and an actress in the varsity Productions Theatre. She is passionate about writing and loves striking conversations with others.

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