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How to Motivate Yourself to Tackle Organization Projects In the New Year | Guest Post

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Guest Post: Hey there! My name is Bri and I am a high school lifestyle blogger over at http://simplylifebybri.com! I love love love organization, productivity, cooking, baking, reading, and photography. Throughout my blog, you will find a little bit of all these passions! My goal is to help high schoolers, college students, and young adults, whether it be by creating a functioning living space or learning how to cook healthy meals. I am so excited to be guest posting for Lynn, and with all that said, let’s jump into the article!

How to Motivate Yourself to Tackle Organization Projects In the New Year

Organizing, especially big projects, can seem extremely overwhelming. The stunning before and after pictures on Instagram make it look easy, but sometimes taking on a big project is far from it. As someone who is constantly organizing, I can tell you from experience that one of the hardest parts is just getting yourself to start. However, once you get yourself motivated, you are seriously halfway to the finish line.

Contrary to popular belief, organizing can actually be fun. And I promise I am not just saying this because I love to organize (okay, maybe a little but it can be fun for you too!). Many times, though, it isn’t enjoyable because instead, it is overwhelming. So how do you get over that hurdle from a stressful project to a fun activity? Let me tell you my tried and true tips to motivate yourself for even the hardest of organizing projects. 

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First things first, you have to figure out what your pressure points are. What is causing the most hesitation in getting started? What is causing you the most stress?

  1. Are you worried you aren’t going to finish the project?
  2. Is there a specific area that looks extremely daunting? 
  3. Do you think that you are going to create a bigger mess than you started with?

Whatever it may be, it is so important to determine what it is so you can move forward. If you commit yourself to the project, and I mean truly commit your time and energy, a lot of your hesistations will be solved. 

If you are most worried about a specific area, target the hardest parts first. You want to organize the most troublesome areas first and then work your way to the easier parts. If you don’t follow this method and instead save the hardest parts until the end,  you may lose motivation and end up not finishing the project. However, by starting with the hardest tasks first, the majority of your motivation will go towards what needs it most.

Once you determine what is causing you the most stress, the next step is to set realistic and specific goals for the space. This does not mean, organize this space by next week. The more specific your goals, the more likely you are actually going to follow them. Your goals should be a specific plan of action and include these three components: WHAT section/area do you want to organize, WHEN do you want to organize it by, and HOW LONG do you want to spend on this section. 

One thing to keep in mind when creating these goals is to make sure that they are realistic for your space and situation. If you only have a limited amount of time per day you can devote to organizing, stick with this structure. Likewise, remember that everything takes time and this is not going to happen overnight. 

I prefer to allot myself more time than I think I will need. If I end up organizing slower than usual, the time is available. But, if I organize faster than my allotted time, I am able to either jump start the next space or have some time for other tasks. 

It is so important to set these goals to make sure you are diving up the work over time. This significantly helps alleviate the stress and hesitation when trying to start an organizing project. If you tell yourself that you need to spend an entire day organizing, that even sounds stressful to me and I love to organize. However, breaking it into 1 or 2 hour periods over the course of a week or two sounds a lot more manageable. This goes not only for organizing projects but for any long assignment or project.

Setting goals is such an important step to help yourself start the project. And remember, these goals should be specific, realistic, and manageable. This will without a doubt set you up for success going forward.

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Going back to making organizing fun, you can do this in so many ways. I cannot go through an organizing project without music. Sometimes, that is the only reason I actually want to organize. Listen to your favorite songs, try out a new artist, or tune into a motivational podcast. Especially when the project may be getting a little tough, some upbeat and motivational music can be so encouraging and go a long way. 

And finally, reward yourself. You are doing something absolutely amazing and should act accordingly. If you are working on a big space, reward yourself periodically with your favorite snacks, drinks, or whatever you love. Give yourself small prizes as you go through the process and then maybe something bigger at the end. For smaller projects, just reward yourself when you finish. Something to remember: your treats should not be very costly, just something to incentivize and reward the incredible work you are doing.

Organizing is a process, both with the space and within your own mind. And your mindset is so important to the process. If you tell yourself you can organize like a pro, I promise you can! And as tempting as it may seem, comparing your space to those of professional organizers and stunning instagram before-and-after pictures is going to get you nowhere. They are without a doubt great inspiration for your projects, but do not discount your work because it does not look like these. 

Organizing is not about fancy products and clear bins and stylish labels. Yes, I completely agree that these all enhance the final product. However, organizing is about making your space as functional and maintainable as possible. It is about setting up the right systems in your spaces to alleviate the burden of a messy home. 

To recap, the key to motivating yourself to organize is (1) target your pressure points, (2) set proper goals, (3) make the process fun, and (4) have a positive mindset throughout. Once you master all of this, I promise it becomes 100 times easier to get started on any project. 

Thank you thank you thank you to Lynn for allowing me to write this guest post for her incredible blog. I hope you all learned a thing or two to get yourself organized as we go into the new year! For more organization tips, productivity hacks, and cooking ideas, check out my blog and follow along on my social media!

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Comments

  1. This is definitely great motivation to get organized for the new year! Wonderful Post!

  2. “Organizing is not about fancy products and clear bins and stylish labels.” This is so true. Years ago, I went to a time management course. The instructor introduced a planner and said “This won’t make you organized. You use it because you are organized.” That really stuck with me through the years. All the fancy tools in the world won’t make you organized. You need to do the work and get in the right mindset.

    • Totally agree! Thanks for your comment Michelle 🙂

    • Agreed! My organizing month is January so I’ll be fixing things up here and there. Thanks for reading Grace! 🙂

  4. Great tips to! I hate organizing but I love my space being organized. ?? I love your tips about music, I do that too and it helps a lot. I also like to just chip away at it a little at a time. Like my garage really needs a lot of work right now so I try to do just 20 minutes every day, that’s not so bad.

  5. This is such a great motivating post and contains some really helpful tips. I love organizing and decluttering and rarely struggle but I know other people can find it overwhelming. This post will help so many people to finally feel motivated to accomplish those tasks.

  6. This is so motivational – it’s made me want to start organising everything today! Love the idea of starting with the big projects first so they receive most of your motivation! Thanks for sharing!

    • Haha! I’m the same way whenever I read or watch something about organizing, I always want to start immediately. Thank you!

  7. When I am organised, I am so much more efficient! If there is mess or clutter, I literally can’t concentrate!

    This post is giving me the bug to get organising my entire house!

    Rosie

  8. I love these type of posts! They give you such motivation to get organised and start of the year on the right foot. Such a great motivational piece!

  9. This is such a great post, Lynn! I will share it with my sister who’s the pro organiser in the house and always tries to show us how fun it can be, even if it doesn’t work much! Thanks for sharing x

    • Haha! I love when people are crazy about organizing and try to get other people on board. Thanks Cristina! xo

  11. I NEEDED this post right now. I just can’t seem to get organized. I know my project is a big one and I’m just not ready for the storm before the end result

    • Agreed! I’m organizing a little bit everyday and it’s helped so much! 🙂

  12. These are amazing tips! I really need to re organize my house, especially after the holidays!

  13. This is such an amazing post! I hate being unorganzied yet I never have the motivation to organise lol!

  14. This is a great post for motivating me to get those closets cleaned out! Thanks for sharing! Bri – You sound wise beyond your years!

  15. Amazing post! Thank you for these tips! I’m going to organize my wardrobe soon so these tips are so useful! Also, I can totally relate to listening to music while tiding/organizing as it motivates me a lot too!

  16. Making the process fun and the positive mindset is what drives me to finish my organization goals!!! Playing Ariana Grande ‘Just Like Magic’ in the background whilst I’m organizing helps a lot too.

  17. Functional and maintainable — I’m so glad you said this as I find a lot of my motivation goes when there is this feeling that I won’t be able to keep up with the organization. Really great tips!

  18. I love organising, tidying and productivity, so I really enjoyed reading this guest post with some really great suggestions. A new year is the perfect time to get organised and tidied for a new year ahead. Thank you for sharing.

    Lauren

  20. Love this post! It’s so motivating to read, and great to come back to once my goals are set and I’m ready to be productive. Thanks for sharing!

    Anika

  22. I have always used the approach of tackling the hardest things first in my professional life, so it makes sense to apply it to your organizational efforts too. I always compare it to a hilly course when you’re biking – if you’re deciding which side of a linear course to start on, always go uphill first because it’s A LOT easier to go downhill when you’re already tired than it is to try to rally yourself to then make it up those steep slopes!

    • Thanks for your comment Britt! Love the analogy, it makes a lot of sense! 🙂

  24. This post is exactly what I needed right now. I have been putting off all my organization projects. I’ve allowed it to overwhelm me. I have to remember that I don’t have to do it all in a day. I can break it down into smaller chunks. I think what I need to do is just turn up the music and start with the most daunting job. Thanks for this!

  26. This post is so helpful! When it comes to new projects the organization isn’t my strongest side so I always need as much help as I can get. I’ll definitely try and use some of the mentioned tips.

    Antonia || Sweet Passions

    • I love cleaning out m closet too! Partly because I get to introduce new clothes 🙂 Thanks for reading!

    • Yes! It can definitely get overwhelming. Thank you for reading 🙂

  30. LOVE THIS! I started my closet clean out project yesterday and I just hope it keeps me motivated to hit every room in our house. Thanks for the tips!

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