Stress Management: 10 Universal Laws to Get and Stay Organized

1. The Law of the 1st Step

A good first step in getting organized is to 3-pile everything:

pile one is for those things to throw away

pile 2 is for those things that need immediate action

pile 3 is for those things that can be taken care of later, or filed, or both.

2. The Law of the Past

One of the curious things that seem to hold people back from getting organized is wanting to avoid dealing with things left over from the past. Working your way through the clutter can bring you face to face with past mistakes and failures. The best thing to do is face them, learn from them, and then really put them behind you, in the past.

3. The Law of Time

Many people use the excuse of "I just don't have enough time to get organized." If you really don't have enough time to get organized, then you desparately need to get organized! While it does take some time and energy to get organized, it also brings the gift of adding much more time to your life.

4. The Law of 3-D

When something comes your way, a memo, an announcement, a piece of mail, whatever, there are three and only three things you can do with it to remain organized:

Do it: get it done and out of the way.

Delegate it: get someone else to get it done and out of the way.

Dump it: get it to the nearest trash receptacle and out of the way.

5. The Law of SYSTEM

Having a system, a step by step repeatable plan, for just about everything you do is simply invaluable. This is because SYSTEM stands for:

Saves Your Self Time Energy Money

6. The Law of Stay

Once you get organized, do what ever it takes to stay organized. It takes a lot less time to stay organized than to get organized all over again. Trust me on this one.

7. The Law of Freedom

Most of us who are organizationally challenged have resisted organization because we don't want to be controlled by anything or anyone. Quite the opposite is true, however. Getting organized allows you to experience more freedom and control than you thought possible.

8. The Law of Simplicity

Whatever system of organization you use, make sure you keep it simple. The more simple and easy to use, the more likely you are to use it.

9. The Law of "Put Your Hands On It"

You can tell you are getting organized when you need to find something and you can immediately "put your hands on it." Saves time.

10. The Law of Place

Remember the old cliche "a place for everything and everything in it's place?" The reason it became a cliche is that it works!

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