"Busy busy busy!" Professor Hinkle in the animated Christmas special Frosty the Snowman, famously proclaimed he needed to get busy writing his apologies to Frosty so he might get some Christmas presents from Santa. When it comes to getting organized, lots of folks use being busy as an excuse to avoid it. Well perhaps it's an excuse or maybe they really believe they're "too busy" to get organized. I'm not sure which. Either way, "I'm too busy!" is Organizing Myth #5 in our ongoing Organizing Myths and Mistakes series.
Getting organized is supposed to make you less busy, but if you're too busy to organize, you're caught in a nasty cycle of always playing catch up but never actually being caught up. Listen, I get that you're busy. We all are. That's why it helps to put simple, easily sustainable systems in place that will save you time, energy and most importantly, stress.
Sure, you could continue to spend all that time paying bills the old fashioned way, writing checks and putting them into the snail mail because you think you're too busy to automate the process. Or you could take ONE chunk of time to set up online bill pay for some bills and auto-pay on a credit card for others. Yes, you do have to invest a little time to streamline the process, but you immediately begin recouping that time every month.
Sure, you could stand in your closet for 20 minutes every morning sighing heavily and lamenting your "nothing to wear" chaotic mess of a wardrobe. Or you could take a few hours to clean out what you no longer love and organize your clothing by color family or type. Yes, you'll need to invest a little time in the process, but you'll begin to recoup that time immediately when your morning routine is quicker and easier. Plus, you'll stop buying so many items you already have but couldn't see.
Everyone's busy, but smart people know they're never too busy to organize the important parts of their lives.
