FEATURED ARTICLES

It’s already the middle of February, which is about the time you start relaxing on some of your New Year’s resolutions.

Whether your 2021 goal is to increase your savings, go after a new career, lose weight, earn extra money, or find ways to enjoy life more regularly, it’s hard to stay motivated and focused when distractions surround you.

How many times have you sat down to read and within the first 10 minutes were distracted by notifications on your phone? How many times have you needed something and can’t find it easily? Or how often have you been late trying to find something to wear? It happens to the best of us. Each of these seemingly mundane occurrences could be holding you back from reaching your goals.

There are simple ways to bring organization to your life that can reduce the daily distractions. We have laid out an easy daily task list to help you get back on track in just one week.

Day 1: Clean out your email inbox

Are you guilty of signing up for sales emails and then letting them pile up in your inbox until one day you have 2,000 plus unread emails? If you have that many sales emails flooding your inbox and they’re continuously unread, you don’t need them. It’s easy to miss important emails or even sales information that’s actually useful with so many unnecessary emails.

• Delete old, unread marketing emails
• Create folders for your important emails and organize your inbox
• Unsubscribe to product emails that continuously clutter your inbox

Day 2: Delete unused apps on your phone

How many times do you swipe through your apps to find the one you need? Maybe you have too many apps, or maybe they just need a little bit of organization. Either way, that’s an easy fix.

• Delete old, unused apps
• Group your apps in categories that make sense to you
• Silence notifications from apps for less distraction

Day 3: Clean out photos on your phone

This may take a little more time than other projects. After all, it’s a trip down memory lane. But, often a fun one. Grab a drink and a snack, put on your favorite music, and get to work.

• Delete duplicate or meaningless photos
• Consider saving important photos to a designated hard drive or cloud-based drive like Google, where you can easily organize and keep track of your memorable moments

Day 4: Clean out your closet

Cleaning out your closet is a commonly mentioned tip in articles about organization, and for a good reason. If you’re like most Americans, you probably have more clothes than you need, and worse, than you can remember. Having too much of anything makes decision-making a challenge. If you want to simplify your life and gain more time in your day, start paring down your closet. It will take less time to get ready, you’ll actually wear the clothes you have more often, and spend less on clothes you don’t need.

• Let go of the items you rarely wear and don’t love
• Donate or sell items to give them a longer lifespan
• Do the same for your shoes and your dresser

Day 5: Clean out the pantry

It’s grocery day. You’ve been busy and haven’t had a chance to take stock of what’s left in the pantry. You make the trip to the store and stock up, only to come home and find that you already had some of the items in the pantry. In a month or so, you do the same thing again, but this time you take a quick look before going to the store. You get home to realize a few items were hiding behind other items, and now pantry items are stacking up and are soon to expire.

• Toss out expired items
• Donate unexpired, unused canned and dry goods that you won’t use
• Organize your pantry in a way you can see all items (think of lining similar food items in crates or a row, back to front, where each item is visible)

Day 6: Clear out the cupboards

Somehow, you are collecting more to-go containers than you are giving out these days, and the cupboards are getting so full you nearly spill its contents everywhere, digging around in a hurry.

• Match all containers with their lids and toss the ones that don’t have matches
• Donate dishes and serving items you no longer use or give them to a friend
• Get rid of your junk drawer along with anything deemed junk, and find a suitable space elsewhere for purposeful items

Day 7: Clear out bathroom products

It’s incredible how quickly old shampoos, hair gels, makeup, scrubs, beard balms, and lotions can pile up. You would feel wasteful getting rid of it, so you hang on to it in case you need a back-up. If you don’t use it, it takes up unnecessary room and creates clutter.

• Try giving your unwanted products to a friend first
• If your friend doesn’t want it, let it go

Bringing organization to your life lessens distractions and helps you reach your personal, professional, and financial goals faster. After just one week of getting organized and decluttering, you should feel much lighter and inspired to keep moving forward.