What is Organization?

For most of us it would feel absolutely wonderful to always be completely on top of things and always know exactly where everything is; but the thought of wading through the “stuff” in our life to get to the point of organization can be very intimidating, and overwhelming. Rest your weary mind - the time has come to reveal the answer to the meaning of (organized) life. Ready? Here it is: Things need to go where they need to go.

When something is "organized" it means simply that it's where it needs to be. Where is that? In a place that reflects what the thing specifically means to you. You are disorganized if you need something somewhere that you don't have it or have something somewhere that you don't need it.

Try this. Reach into your purses or wallet and see if there's something that doesn't belong there permanently and which has been there longer than a few hours (besides money). Almost everyone has at least one thing in that category - a receipt, a business card, a scrap of paper with scribbled notes, an old shopping list, or piece of mail. These are things whose location does not map to their meaning for you. If the item has no further usefulness, it is trash, but it's not in the trash. If it's something you need to do something about, it's not in a place to remind you to do it. There is a mismatch between what the thing is and where it is.

Lots of folks will say that their "stacks" are what they want and that's the best way to be organized. But most piles that people have around them have a blended mixture of stuff to read (actions when they have time to read), stuff to store away that they want access to (reference), stuff to throw away (trash), and stuff they still need to decide what they are going to do about. The background stress from those constipated stacks generates a mental callous - we stop noticing the piles, at least enough to really do something about them.

So why do so many people feel like they need to be more organized? Because most avoid deciding what so many things actually mean to them, which makes it impossible to know what to do with them. And what's even tougher is that even if they "get organized" according to this simple criteria, it is highly likely that they can become disorganized rapidly. Over time (and often not that much time) things change in meaning. The magazine is no longer the current issue, the project is no longer something we're committing to action, and the good idea isn't so good any more. So even if we get our ducks in a row, they wander of their own accord.

Being organized is a dynamic process, demanding consistent reevaluation, rethinking, and renegotiating the relevance of things in our physical and psychological environment.