Organizing Your Life with a Life Coach

If you google “organize your life,” you’ll find hundreds of tips and posts and books to guide you. Yet, that can be overwhelming. It can feel like just another thing you’ll try that just doesn’t help you, right where you are.

Sometimes, you need help to organize your life.

You feel disorganized, out of sorts and overwhelmed.

You have piles of papers to fill out, reports a mile high.

You feel anxious just thinking about all the to-do’s you have to figure out and manage.

You have a disorganized stack of who knows what mail and email waiting for your full attention. Receipts, slips of torn paper, printed emails, notes, and voice notes to sort through.

The house needs cleaned. There’s a list of phone calls, plans with a friend, family schedules and school events that all need to be done. But when?

The great collision of personal life and work life makes a big mess. A perfect storm.

It’s overwhelming.

Just when you think you made it to the bottom of the pile or get that next report filled out, your email fills with something new to do. Your phone dings a new text, a new message, a new task.

The lists to organize your life never end, never go away and never get easier.

Truly, this organizational chaos is a part of life but there has to be a way to organize everything in a way that makes sense for you.

I often get asked, “How do you do that?” or “How do you keep things going like you do?” or “When do you have time for…”

How do you organize your life?

My answer is two fold:

1} Find simple changes that help you every single day like the ones in the list below.

2} Go through your work, processes, thinking, and goals with a coach.

Everyone organizes differently but there are some common ways that everyone can organize their lives in simple, helpful steps.

Then, with your unique organizational style, a coach can help with processes, accountability, personal development, motivation and goal setting in a way that is personalized to you.

How does that help you?

Here are my top tips to organize your life:

1} Know your gifts and weaknesses. Can you get a lot done at the same time? Can you complete a lot of tasks in an hour? What does your day of running errands look like? Do you get easily distracted? Can you accurately put together a plan of attack or set a good working calendar? Find out these things about yourself and work with it. Capitalize on what you are good at, work at what your not and get help if you need it.

2} Come up with methods that work for you. And use them. For example, I’ve tried every kind of highly organized filing system, folder system and color-coded whatever system. They do not work for my personality. Everything goes in one pile until I’m ready to mess with it. Then, I attack it just like I would anything else. Sort, organize, respond, schedule… all at once. For some people, that would not work. For me, a big filing system just sits there half filed and then I can’t find a thing because I can’t remember how I planned to file it all when I do it one thing at a time.

Pro Tip: Do what works for you. But you have to do something. A coach can help you figure out what that something is.

3} Schedule purposeful days. Because of the big piles of things to do, I have to schedule blocks of time to get the work done. Admin days help me stay up-to-date, cleaning hours help me stay on top of laundry and bathrooms. Purposeful, dedicated time to very specific things will keep you organized and less overwhelmed.

Pro tip: Schedule a time to come back and actually DO the things listed in this post!!

4} Stay on top of email/texts/messages. I have 5 email accounts coming into my mail app. Blog stuff, writing deadlines, report info, statements, financial updates, newsletters, promos… some stuff can easily go in a file or get deleted right when I open it. Do it. Don’t wait until a ton of emails pile up. Only keep in your inbox what needs attention RIGHT NOW and the things that you are currently working on. Keeping it in your inbox will help when you need access to the info repeatedly. This saves the whole “What file is it in?” search later. Keep up on email, what needs a response, what needs printed, what needs scheduled… otherwise it gets lost in email world, never to be found again. Randomly look back through your inboxes and make sure you didn’t overlook something. Because that totally happens. A lot. Sometimes we think we did something and we never did. We thought the response but never typed it out.

5} When you have time, do it. Don’t waste time. If you can make a phone call, do it. If you can respond to emails, do it. If someone messages you and you can answer them now, do it. Be someone who responds in a timely way which helps you stay organized and helps the person or place that you’re communicating with. Waiting and putting it off helps no one. It does not help your to-do list or theirs if they have to wait on you. Even when I don’t feel like it, usually once I get going, I’m happy I just got it done! Have a big pile of receipts that need recorded? Do it. Turn on some music, grab a snack and dig into the project. You’ll sleep better knowing it is done and off your list.

Pro Tip: Have days where you don’t do any of this at all. Give yourself a break. The emails and messages will be there tomorrow.

6} Check for things that bog you down. Do you spend hours scrolling and watching reels? Do you go down rabbit holes before you get anything done? Do you have work sitting there that drains you or makes you feel overwhelmed? Do you have responsibilities that you could share with someone or let go of? Gaining some focus of what God wants you to be doing and letting go of things that are bogging you down is very helpful for getting organized, staying purposed and feeling on top of your to-do list. Catch the beginning of the last sentence. PRAY about this.

What does God really want you to be doing and focusing on?

7} Schedule, schedule, schedule. Paper calendar, cute little organizing calendar, app on your phone… Pick a calendar and use it. Look at it. Write in it. Connect your family to it. Our schedule is crazy. Organizing takes intense scheduling. And, it means a lot of time working through details. Put ALL the details in the calendar. Even the things you think you’ll remember. Write/type it into the calendar.

8} Social Media is a part of life. In today’s culture, to organize your life you must organize your social media. It often feels like a tight rope in that it’s a drain of your time yet it’s something that you have to do to stay connected at work, church and school. The tight rope can be walked and your time can stay organized. It means a schedule on your time and paying attention to the time spent. Staying organized often includes communication online which then means utilizing social media well.

9} Simplify. You might be reading this and think, how? Let’s talk. Simplifying is very individual and depends on your unique situation. It takes journaling and figuring and talking and praying. But organizing is much more manageable when you simplify across all areas of life.

Pro Tip: If you’re in a season of healing or burnout or challenge, start building a healing team to help you.

10} Have a notebook. Just a plain, old notebook. I keep mine by my computer. Everything gets written down there. Lists, details, event info, blog ideas, writing deadlines… anything I’m currently working on goes in that notebook. Then, cross it off, check the box, draw a line through it… whatever works for you, and show yourself it is DONE. When a page gets too messy or I finish it, I tear it out and start a new to-to list page and so on. There is something so good about tearing out a finished page. This is how I organize, prioritize, remember and bring together everything from email/text/facebook/messenger/calendar. This notebook tells me what to work on TODAY. I review my list in the morning, pick something and get to work.

Shop journals, calendars, pens, and more of my favorite things

11} Speaking of mornings… this is KEY time to organize your life. Even 15 minutes of responding to email, checking facebook and looking over the calendar helps me feel more focused and prepared. After that, I can dig into whatever is needed that day. I can work, plan, and organize with fresh information.

12} Be prepared. Put in the time and gather needed information to organize or work on whatever project is next. I am so much more productive when I have a plan and correct information with the right supplies and tools.

13} Abiding in Jesus. I only put this last on the list because I want you to remember it. As a personal goal, before the morning begins, I spend time in the word and in prayer. It doesn’t always happen and sometimes it is messy, but I’ve learned it is the most important organizational thing I can do. It sets the tone for the rest of the day. Then, at night before bed, I will read a Psalm or Proverbs or devotional. This ends my day with Jesus and gives us me a phrase or word to fall asleep with. Organize your life with abiding in mind.

Need some motivation or encouragement or accountability as you work on the above list?

You can connect with me about 1-1 coaching. I’d love to help.

What is one thing that stands out as helpful on this list?

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