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I’m an organised person. But I wasn’t born this way.

I was the kid who was always late for school. I’d forget things. I’d lose my stuff. I’d regularly have to check the grimy lost property bin.

When I was younger, I admired people who were organised. Seeing someone with colour-coded files, a neatly arranged bag, and a tidy bedroom was inspiring.

I figured I was just wired differently. Being messy was just how I was—a simple fact of life. My boyfriend (now my husband) even affectionately nicknamed me Mess Pot.

It never dawned on me that perhaps these ‘organised’ people I was so in awe of had been exposed to other organised people and practices from a young age.

It wasn’t until I was in my early twenties that the penny finally dropped.

Here’s what I realised . . .

No one pops out of the womb knowing how to be organised.

Being organised is a collection of small, learnable skills.

If you know how to learn, you can learn how to become organised. It’s not rocket science.

So, that’s exactly what I did.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve taught myself to be organised.

I’ve read many books on the topic, from Marie Kondo’s bestseller The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up to David Allen’s Getting Things Done.

I’ve experimented with numerous organisational methods, systems and strategies that the authors promised would transform my life from chaos to freedom, control, and ease.

In this article, I share what I’ve learnt from all these books, organisational gurus, and personal experiments I’ve conducted to become organised. I hope this inspires you to develop your own systems and strategies that work for you.

What I’ve learnt from my 15-year quest to become organised

You can follow other people’s systems and methods, but I’ve discovered that it’s best to develop your own organisational system. The organisational system you adopt must align with your values and goals. If it doesn’t, abandon it or tweak it until it feels right for you.

For instance, I love books, and I own many. This is why I yelped out in pain when I read Marie Kondo’s advice on how to deal with books.

In her book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Kondo advises readers to rip out relevant pages from reference books and discard the rest of the book. There was simply no way I would do that to my precious books!

Central to her KonMari method is holding an object in both hands and feeling the emotion that arises.

If the object sparks joy? You keep it.

If there is no joy? You get rid of it.

I can see how this strategy has enormous appeal. It simplifies the decluttering process. You don’t have to think too hard. But there are dangers in the spark joy approach.

You can end up on a consumer treadmill of discarding items that no longer spark joy and constantly acquiring new ones that do. However, you can bet that the joy will soon dissipate from those new items as you habituate to them.

In addition, this ‘Spark Joy’ strategy also overlooks the functional role of many items in our lives.

My toilet plunger doesn’t exactly spark joy, but it’s incredibly useful when I need it!

The point is you need to trust yourself. Don’t give all your power away to a stylish organisational guru with a cult following and a Netflix series!

Trial and error is the key to getting your organisational groove on. And patience.

Your life won’t be transformed in a day or a week. You have to trust that the solutions will come, but it will take time.

This may sound a bit woo-woo and new age. So, let me frame it another way . . .

On your journey to become organised, pretend to be a scientist. Run some personal experiments.

In the book Tiny Experiments, Anne-Laure Le Cunff encourages us to come up with a research question and then turn it into a hypothesis. She states:

“Don’t overthink it. Formulating a hypothesis is an intuitive process based on your past experiences and present inclinations. It should simply be an idea you want to put to the test- an inkling of an answer to your research question.

If you observed that you dread giving presentations, maybe improv classes could help build your confidence. If you feel anxious in the morning, maybe meditation could help regulate your emotions. If you enjoy graphic design, maybe freelancing could help strengthen your portfolio.”

Don’t be put off by this scientific language (e.g., ‘Hypothesis’ and ‘research question’). Running a tiny experiment and formulating a hypothesis is easy.

Here’s an example from my own life . . .

I’ve noticed that when clutter piles up on my desk, I am more easily distracted and feel overwhelmed. So, I came up with the following research question:

“How can I decrease feelings of overwhelm and increase my ability to focus when I’m at my desk?”

My hypothesis to this question was:

“Decluttering my desk by removing all non-essential items will decrease feelings of overwhelm and increase my ability to focus on the task at hand.”

Then, I put this idea to the test and observed what happened.

Some experiments you run will work. Others will flop, but that’s okay. The point is you won’t know unless you run some tiny experiments.

As Anne-Laure Le Cunff states:

“Once you have a hypothesis, you can design an experiment and turn your life into a giant laboratory for self-discovery.”

My personal discoveries

Through running tiny experiments, I’ve come to realise that being organised isn’t about having a beautifully colour-coordinated filing system or a nicely decorated home.

It’s also not about following 10 simple steps and waking up one day to find that you’ve magically become an organised person.

In our materialistic culture, we are sold a particular idea and image of what it means to be organised. But I’m not buying it. And you shouldn’t either. Why? Because it’s a lie designed to make us feel bad about ourselves, so we buy more stuff!

In stark contrast to the slick images you see online and in glossy magazines, life is messy. It’s a constant struggle.

Purchasing pretty storage containers and having a tidy, organised home won’t make your life less messy and uncertain.

But I can say this: being organised will make it easier to navigate the mess and chaos of life. It will help you focus your time, energy, and attention on what matters most to you.

So, I’m suggesting that you block the influencers and ads from your feed and burn the home lifestyle magazines. You’re going to create your own personal philosophy for organised living.

Here’s what being organised means to me . . .

Being organised is about helping my day go a little more smoothly.

It’s about removing friction and resistance between me and the tasks I need to do. When I’m organised I can easily find what I need, which allows me to dive into my projects: filming that video, cooking that new recipe for dinner, and mind mapping that book I’ve just read.

Being organised is a way to enjoy the present moment more. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by mess and clutter, I feel calm and grounded. It’s easier to focus on the task at hand.

Is it worth taking the time to become more organised and experiment with your own systems and strategies?

Yes. 100%.

Being organised has decreased my stress levels and boosted my confidence. It has also saved me a significant amount of time and energy.

Creating guiding principles for organised living

I’ve found that developing a few guiding principles helps ground you in your quest to become organised.

Below, I share my guiding principles and how I’ve integrated each one into my life.

I’m not here to tell you to copy what I do (it’s best to develop your own philosophy, guiding principles, systems, and strategies). However, if you’re unsure where to start, feel free to experiment with the systems and strategies listed below.

Principle #1: Embrace mise en place

Give every item a home. Everything should have a special place in your space.

Professional chefs do this. Before they start cooking a dish, they prepare the ingredients and take out the kitchen utensils they need. There’s a term for this practice. It’s called the mise en place.

Mise en place is a French term that literally translates to ‘putting in place’, but it means a place for everything and everything in its place.

When it comes time for a chef to start cooking a dish, they know where the ingredients and kitchen utensils are. This allows the chef to work efficiently and focus on the task at hand: cooking the dish.

In the book Work Clean, Dan Charnas explains how this concept can be applied outside the kitchen to our everyday lives.

Charnas encourages us to arrange our spaces to remove resistance. He states:

“The less friction we have in our work, the easier it is to do, the more we can do, and the quicker we can do it; and thus the more physical and mental energies we can preserve for other things.”

Mise en place changed my life for the better. I used to spend a lot of physical and mental energy trying to find my keys, wallet, etc., but not anymore.

I now have a designated spot for my keys, hat, wallet, and bag. After using these items, I return them to their special place.

With the mise en place, I no longer waste time searching for items. I can quickly and easily find what I need. You can read more about how I apply mise en place to my life here.

Principle #2: Make your stuff visible

If something is important, I can’t have it stuffed away in a cupboard, drawer, or file. If it’s hidden away, it doesn’t exist.

This is why you’ll see vertical wall hangers in most rooms of my house. These hangers contain key items I frequently use in the space.

By having one item per pouch, I can easily find what I need when I need it.

Principle #3: Fight piles of stuff with the rule of 3

I get easily overwhelmed by piles of stuff, so I have to be vigilant and stay on top of the mess.

I have a simple trick for keeping my space relatively tidy. I tell myself:

“All I need to do is put away three things. That’s it!”

The sink is overflowing with dishes? I tell myself, “Just do three dishes!”

Laundry is scattered all over the bed? “Just put away three pieces of clothing!”

The kitchen bench is covered in random stuff? “Put away three spices!”

Putting away three items feels easy. And when something feels easy, I’m more likely to get started.

When everything has its special place (see Principle #1: Embrace mise en place), it’s easy to implement this principle.

Principle #4: Have capture tools

There’s nothing more frustrating than having a brilliant idea and having no way to capture it. You need to be able to catch thoughts as they occur.

This is why I have whiteboards, markers, pads of paper, and pens placed in key locations.

These random ideas that I capture get thrown into my in-tray to process later on.

Principle #5: Make your space a distraction-free zone

Distractions keep you from doing what you need to do. Like a pile of clutter on your desk or boxes obstructing your entryway, distractions are a barrier to your goals and intentions.

If you want to be more organised, you need to deal with anything that could distract you before sitting down to do your work.

Like most people, the biggest distraction I face is my phone.

If I’m constantly checking my phone, I feel scattered, frenzied, and overwhelmed. Everything speeds up. I start to feel like I’m spinning out of control.

I know I have to avoid this mental state at all costs if I want to have any chance of having a productive, enjoyable day.

This is why I have a morning ritual of placing my phone in pocket 1 of my vertical wall hanger in my dining room (well away from my workspace) before I start my workday. Out of sight is out of mind.

Principle #6:  Make rubbish plans

I used to feel intimidated by the idea of planning, so I rarely planned my week or day.

But over the past few years, I’ve become a planning machine. Why? Because plans are powerful. Even rubbish plans work wonders!

As Ned Brockman says, plans “help make you less anxious about the howling chaos of modern life.”

Here’s how I create my ‘rubbish’ plans for the week and day:

At the end of every week (on a Sunday), I create a plan for the week ahead.

I do this by reflecting on the week I’ve just had (What did I do this week? Can I claim any wins? Are there any unfinished tasks or people I need to get back to?) and looking at the week ahead (What do I need to do this week?).

I write out all the major to-dos for the next seven days on a list.

This list usually overwhelms me (there’s always a lot to do!). To combat this feeling of overwhelm, I transfer a few tasks from the list to an index card. This is my daily card (the to-do list for the day).

As I complete each task, I mark it off my daily card. As I see more items being marked off, it builds positive momentum and a sense of progress and satisfaction.

Principle #7:  Orient yourself in time with planners

I use a paper-based planner and a massive year-in-a-glance calendar to help me keep track of my commitments.

When I can see how many days I have before an important presentation or my next holiday, I feel calmer and more in control.

Using planners also frees up precious mental space for learning as you’re not trying to hold so much information in your working memory.

Principle #8: If it’s not useful or beautiful, move it on

I’m far from being a minimalist. I love my stuff. But having too much can be overwhelming. More stuff means more things to manage, making it harder to stay organised.

As someone who loves to op-shop, I frequently have to remind myself of the following quote by William Morriss:

“Have nothing in your house which you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

Every few months, I’ll collect some items to donate to my local op-shop. Reducing my possessions makes cleaning and organising a lot easier and quicker.

Principle #9: Remind yourself of your goals and what matters most to you

It’s important to remember why you are striving to be organised in the first place. It’s not to impress other people. You are doing this for you.

Being organised helps you pursue your goals and live in accordance with your values. You have to keep your goals front and centre of your mind; otherwise, the goal of being organised can dominate your life. Organising can become a form of procrastination.

This is why I keep coming back to my values and goals (which I have captured on a mind map). This reminds me that being organised helps me to live a good life. But it’s not the point of my life. There are more important things I want to do with my time, energy and attention.

That said, it’s hard to focus on and work towards my goals if I’m completely disorganised. I lose sight of them! You need to find a healthy balance.

To sum up

If you want to be more organised, I encourage you to experiment with developing systems and strategies that work for you. Come up with an organisational philosophy and set of guiding principles that align with your values.

Why not treat your life as a laboratory and run some tiny experiments to become organised?

Through trial and error, you’ll discover what works and what doesn’t.

Remember, this isn’t about having a perfectly decorated home or trying to impress others. The point of being organised is to allow you to do the things you want to do without as much friction. It’s about living a good life.