Do you have tons and tons of Pinterest pins dedicated to organization saved? You’re not alone! We all want everything in our lives to look like those perfect images on Pinterest. We want our homes to be immaculate. We want our rooms to be perfect with everything stacked, folded, and exactly where it should be. We want our offices, cars, and planners to be perfectly maintained.
Everyone strives towards organization. It makes sense, being organized gives us a false sense of being in control. We feel like we are being productive and this “productivity” will lead us to accomplishing everything on our to-do lists. We justify it with the whole “when everything is in order, I will be too” logic.
But, are we really being productive or are we just keeping ourselves preoccupied as a nice distraction from reality? Is trying to be organized the enemy of productivity? Is it possible for a person to be too organized for their own good, to get caught up in the process of organizing to the detriment of the outcome? Absolutely!
Have you ever neglected the most important thing on your to-do list for a task of less importance? “When I finish cleaning my room, I will study for my test.” If you’ve ever said any version of “When I finish this, I will work on that,” you know what I’m talking about. You put your most trivial tasks ahead of your competing priorities. These organizational efforts rarely translate into positive outcomes.
You try so hard to make things absolutely perfect. You feel like you’re working hard, but nothing is actually getting done. Your to-do list has nothing ticked off while your workload is growing. The whole idea of why you wanted to be organized in the first place is lost.
Newsflash: No matter how many times you do the laundry, the dirty clothes will re-accumulate. No matter how many times you wash the dishes, the dirty dishes will re-accumulate. No matter how many times you vacuum, the dust will re-accumulate. It is impossible to get caught up!!
This never-ending mission to be organized is killing your productivity. There will never come a day when everything is completely organized. Instead of being preoccupied with trying to get organized, go and work on the actual priorities, you know the ones on your to-do list.
Happy productivity!
