From stay-at-home moms to employees or entrepreneurs, modern life stress affects everyone these days. There’s not much to worry about if you’re feeling a bit stressed every once in a while, since you can’t avoid stress completely unless you choose to live in a bubble. However, that doesn’t mean you should just accept stress as a normal part of your life and learn to live with it. If stress is ubiquitous and follows you around everywhere, turning from an isolated issue into a chronic condition, you should do something about it.
The internet is brimming with advice on how to keep stress at bay and live a worry-free life, making it difficult for people to figure out which of these tips actually work and which don’t. The search for de-stressing solutions can be stressful in itself.
But what if we told you that the secret to relieving stress lies in getting organized? Proper organization might not provide a magical solution to completely eliminate stress from your life, but it can reduce it significantly and make a world of a difference for your mental health. So, here’s how you can use organization as a tool to combat stress and restore balance in your life.
Declutter Regularly
Becoming a well-organized person takes time and practice, but you can start the process by taking small steps. The first step is to schedule a decluttering session each week and get rid of all the things that you don’t use or need. Creating a decluttering routine is important because chaos and disorder set in pretty quickly if you only take the time to organize your stuff once in a blue moon. But if you do this regularly, you’ll be able to keep your space clean and tidy, and a clean space equals a clean mind.
With each unnecessary item that you get rid of, you’ll feel a weight being lifted off your shoulders. Having everything around you in perfect order and knowing exactly where your items are will make you feel more in control, so there will be fewer opportunities for stress to set in.
Learn to Prioritize
Looking at a mile-long to-do list is enough to trigger a stress response from anyone. Sometimes it feels like there aren’t enough hours in a day to fulfill all the tasks that need to be done. When you are overwhelmed by your responsibilities, it’s hard to get anything done. And that’s where pressure and anxiety rear their ugly heads.
But these unpleasant situations have a rather simple solution: prioritizing. Chances are most things on your to-do list are not urgent. Some tasks are more pressing than others, so we suggest you order them based on their importance and urgency. By solving the most important matters first, you’ll have the rest of the day to deal with lighter issues and so you’ll reduce your stress levels.
Organize Your Workspace
No matter where you work and what your job is, chances are there’s a certain amount of stress associated with your professional activity. Contrary to popular belief, work stress is not something that only people who hate their jobs experience. People who have successful careers and love what they’re doing are also subject to work stress. That’s why it’s extremely important to organize your workspace, including your desk and laptop/desktop. A properly organized workspace will help you work better, improve your productivity levels, and therefore reduce work stress.
You can keep your office tidy by choosing a proper desk setup, and employing smart storage and labeling solutions. When it comes to organizing your desktop, you should start by decluttering and deleting files and programs that you don’t need. Then you can search for tools and software that can make your daily activity easier. For example, a tool that can help you manage your PDF files effectively, whether you want to split PDF pages or merge them, can be of great use if you work with these types of files on a daily basis. Similarly, if you work on several projects at the same time, tools like Trello or other project management software can prove extremely useful.
Organize Your Time
Most people are in a constant rush to get things done. They rush to get to work, keep up with project deadlines, run personal errands, and so on. The marathon never seems to end. When you have to juggle tons of responsibilities every day and you feel like you’re in a race against time, stress becomes your daily companion.
It’s no surprise that people who have better time-management skills experience lower stress levels than those who struggle chaotically to do ten things at the same time and end up doing nothing right. If you feel like time is never on your side and you have trouble accomplishing all the things on your to-do list, you might want to create a daily schedule and try to stick to it. Plan each day the night before and aim to accomplish only as many activities as you have time for. That way, it will be less likely to miss appointments, run late, or forget important things.
Don’t Leave Things for Later
Procrastination is the biggest enemy of productivity and the reason why so many people have low self-worth. Those who procrastinate have higher levels of stress and lower levels of well-being. But procrastination doesn’t mean you’re lazy, it just means you’re putting things off because you associate the tasks you need to accomplish with negative emotions.
The more you procrastinate, the harder it will be for you to get things done. And when you have endless piles of unfinished work, stress will make an appearance. There’s no easy way to end this cycle, and sometimes you’ll still procrastinate. So, you have to put in some effort and find the will to start something because the first step is always the hardest. Once you do that, you’ll find the task less daunting and everything will run a lot smoother.
As you can see, getting organized is not exactly a walk in the park. It takes commitment and determination to improve your organizational skills, but once you do that, you’re going to feel less stressed and a lot happier.