What is disorganization? According to the Oxford Dictionary, it’s the lack of proper planning and control and it’s the inability to plan one’s activities or affairs efficiently. Sounds simple, right? In laymen’s terms, disorganization is allowing life to control you rather than you controlling it.
So what does disorganization look like? It could be a messy house, a messy work desk, a schedule that’s over-planned and overbooked or just having too much stuff. Look around you right now? What do you see? Do you see disorganized spaces? I ask because guess what. . .I do too! We all have some sort of disorganization in our life and if we’re not careful, it can rule and ruin us.
If you did see disorganization around you, how did you feel? When I see disorganization around me, I feel overwhelmed, anxious and stressed. You may feel the same or you may feel like your life is all over the place or like you’re not yourself. And disorganization definitely doesn’t allow you to focus so you may even feel scatterbrained. But let’s take it one step further. If you see disorganization that looks like it’s literally everywhere, it might even feel like you’re on an episode of Hoarders and that you’re stuck in this giant black hole that you can’t escape.
Besides making you feel like you’re going insane, disorganization can have effects on you physically too. You might experience weight gain, headaches, stomach aches or nausea, a short temper, forgetfulness and you might even be quick to respond to statements and find yourself judging people too quickly. No one wants that. But where do you start?
Some people are born organized and others have to learn. I truly believe I was born with the organization gene. I’m very structured and like things in order. My mom likes to say that I have obsessive compulsive personality, and I might. But organization comes easy for me because I can quickly make a determination on what to do with an item and decide whether I want to keep it or discard of it. For my husband, organization does not come easy. He has a rule that he leaves things in the last place he used them. The problem with this rule is that he never remembers where he last used the item. Whether you’re like my husband or you feel like you’re like me, you can start to get organized. Next week, I’ll have another post that tells you how to get started.