Time management, organization, shopping

[no_name]

Hi all,

I was wondering if I could get some tips for time management, planning my day, organizing myself.

I was never taught these things and there was 0 discipline in my house growing up. I like things clean and tidy, but I am a very messy person. For example, when I get home, I would take off my jacket and leave it on the couch, or take off my clothes and leave them on the floor. When I eat, I don’t put away the dishes until the evening. I spend at least 30 minutes every night cleaning up the mess I made during the day. It would be so much more efficient if I put my clothes away right away when I take them off. I also never make my bad when I wake up, I just leave it and do it when I wash my sheets.

Same thing with grocery shopping, I always over shop and then throw things out. Same thing with shopping for clothes, I have so many clothes that I never wear. 

I am also having a problem scheduling my day. Like today I slept in my gym class, and basically all day went to hell because I can’t decide whether I should go for a run, go to the gym, go for a walk… it’s all lost now..

Do you have any kind of suggestions for this? Are there any books I can read on organization? Time management? 

[Adodd]

There's surely a ton of books and even probably some YouTube channels.

Try journaling! It's easy to print off your own journal entries if you just have a computer and printer. example:

PM

1.What could I have done today to be less messy/more organized. 

2. How could I have organized my day more efficiently?

AM

1.What is one thing I should make sure I do today that will contribute to less cluttered living?

2.What might trip me up today and how can I prepare for that?

 

10 mins in the morning and 10 mins at night. starting and ending your days like this will give you great results if you can stick with it.

Edited August 7, 2022 by Adodd

[Yarco]

I think of time management and organization as larger categories that contain a lot of smaller life skills and life hacks, rather than one big thing you can learn.

21 hours ago, no_name said:

For example, when I get home, I would take off my jacket and leave it on the couch, or take off my clothes and leave them on the floor. When I eat, I don’t put away the dishes until the evening. I spend at least 30 minutes every night cleaning up the mess I made during the day. It would be so much more efficient if I put my clothes away right away when I take them off.

This one will solve the majority of your problems.

Anything that will take you less than a minute to do, do it right away instead of putting it off. Rinsing off a knife and putting it in the dishwasher, hanging your jacket up, etc.

Think longer-term about how much extra work you're creating for yourself in the future. You can walk an extra 3 steps to put your dirty clothes in a basket, or you'll have to spend a minute bent over uncomfortably to pick everything up in a week.

When I'm cooking, I'll start rinsing stuff as I'm going, instead of dumping it all in the sink until the end. It's actually too overwhelming and anxiety-causing to leave stuff sitting even while I eat now. I'll clean up as much as I can before I eat, and I go and rinse my plate off and put it in the dishwasher as soon as I'm done eating. It's just a mindset you have to get into at least.

It'll just take time. You have to make it into a habit. Lots of people watched Marie Kondo and learned some cool way to fold and organize their t-shirts. But then it's easier to just go back to throwing your clothes on a shelf or in a drawer without folding the next time you have to do laundry. You have to commit to it and see the benefit in it.

21 hours ago, no_name said:

Same thing with grocery shopping, I always over shop and then throw things out. Same thing with shopping for clothes, I have so many clothes that I never wear. 

I think this is an entirely different issue to do with impulsivity.

When you go grocery shopping, make sure you take a list and try to force yourself to only buy things on the list. If you plan all of your meals for the next week, you'll know exactly what you need to buy and how much.

With clothes, go shopping one time and find the stuff that you want. Then force yourself to go home without buying anything, and wait a few days to ask yourself if you really need all the stuff you wanted to buy.

Shops use all kinds of tricks with sales, limited-time offers, etc. Last time I went to the mall I noticed that nearly every single store had a sign out front saying they were having a sale. We're at a point where every store is having a sale all the time.

You have to get a bit cynical about it and get out of a scarcity mindset. "Oh that store is trying to trick me into thinking it has great deals again."
You aren't going to miss out, it doesn't matter if you pay an extra 10% for the things you really want if you're buying 5x less things in total, and it's very unlikely that they're going to sell out and you'll miss your chance if you wait an extra couple days.

21 hours ago, no_name said:

basically all day went to hell because I can’t decide whether I should...

Same thing as groceries. Plan your entire day out so you know exactly what you're doing at which times in advance. That way you can't sit around and wonder what to do. It's already planned and you don't have a choice unless you want to break your schedule.