Everyone has habits, but people categorize certain habits as bad or good. While some habits are innocent enough, others may be greatly impacting your life – and not for the better. If you find yourself binging on junk food or losing your possessions on a constant basis, you may need to re-evaluate your life and think of ways to improve yourself. By becoming more organized, you’re refining your life, whether it be your work-life or life outside of the office.

Write Things Down

You probably look in awe at those people who can remember someone’s birthday and even get them a card in plenty of time. Or those people who go into grocery stores and come out with what they need. The truth is that it isn’t a great memory that helps them, it’s just the ability to write things down. The human mind is great at recalling information, but sometimes it is impossible to commit everything to memory. That means you need to start writing a list of all the things you need to do each day. Start in the morning by thinking about all the jobs you need to do, and write them all on a paper list, or on your phone. This will help keep you reminded of your tasks, without having to try and recall anything.

Make Schedules and Deadlines

Being organized means not wasting time and learning to stay productive all day. One of the best ways to do this is to have a schedule of things you need to do, including details of when you need to do them. For example, if your car needs to go in for a service, write down what needs to be done and give yourself a deadline of a week to do it. By setting a time limit, you will avoid forgetting it or simply saying you will do it next week. The same applies to other things such as birthdays; if you know of a birthday coming up, then note down that you need to get a card the day before and give yourself a deadline of the birthday date. It will help you to remember and give you the urgency to do it.

Try New Ways to Remember Objects

Are you always forgetting where you left your keys or your phone? Although this is annoying, there are ways to make it less so by trying new ways to remember them. Try adding a locator keyring to your keys so that you can quickly find them if needed. You can also try and have one dedicated place for all the things you need when you go out, keys, wallet, and phone. There are now many smartwatches that can help you find your phone if you lose it in the house, as it will make the phone ring, even if the device is on silent, so that it is easier to find. Some also have an alert if you move too far away from your phone, in case you leave it while you’re out. Another good way to remember your glasses, for example, is to have some that are small enough that you can leave them in your pocket. There are some useful and fashionable readers on the market that are small and light enough that you can take them in your trousers or bag.

Don’t Waste Time Overthinking

Although you need to think carefully about some decisions, there are probably many that you take far too long to think about doing. For example, if you are thinking about clearing out your garage and taking everything to the charity shop, then this can be done as soon as possible. The longer you don’t commit to doing it, the less likely it will get done. It is this type of procrastination that can affect all of your tasks to the point that you never get anything finished. If you think of a job that needs doing, write a reminder in your schedule to do it on your next free day. That way, you are using up your time effectively and not leaving anything till the last minute. Those who are organized simply do things as they think of them which means jobs don’t pile up.

Declutter Your Home and Your Mind

They say, “tidy home, tidy mind,” and in some respects that’s true. If you have a cluttered house with paperwork all over the floors and nothing sorted, it can be difficult to find anything or remember where anything is. By having a routine to declutter your house, you will start to know where you put things and throw out things you no longer need. Start with one room at a time and spend as much time as possible to get it done quickly. Only when you have finished that room should you go on to the next. If you keep doing the rooms in order like that, then eventually you will only need to spend a few minutes in each room.

Find a Place for Everything

While you are decluttering, create spaces where you can store items you need. Organized people will have labeled boxes with everything in order and the same things all together. It makes it much easier to try and find something which will save a lot of time and deliberation. You can use anything to store things in such as cardboard boxes, just make sure they are clearly labeled and placed where they can be easily reached. Paperwork is probably the most frustrating thing to lose, especially if you have a lot of it. You might be able to get hold of an old filing cabinet that you can use to sort and store all your paperwork. If you cannot get hold of one, then a series of sectioned storage boxes will work just as well. Try to reserve a box per year to make it easier to search later.

By doing a few simple things, you can transform your forgetful mind into one that will never forget anything again, hopefully.