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Want to learn how to sort your life out and get organized? If so, you’ve come to the right place.
I can remember, what feels like 100 years ago when I was a college student, having a class schedule.
I knew what my classes were at the beginning of the semester, I had a school counselor that I spoke to throughout the school year to make sure I was on track, I had professors that gave me due dates for projects, and I had study groups that met up every so often.
Plus I lived on campus with other students, there were tons of activities for me to do, mentors to help me through challenges, groups to support me. It’s like my life was perfectly planned and I knew exactly what to do every day.
Then something happened- I graduated and entered the real world. In the real world, there was no one telling me what to do, no groups to support me, no fun activities. I had to become an adult and figure it all out for myself. Sound familiar?
Trust me, you are not alone. Being an adult can be challenging when you are not sure what your next steps are, not happy with your surroundings, not feeling physically or emotionally well, and not excited anymore.
It’s like you want to have a magic genie come in and fix everything, tell you what to do to be happy, and how to live a fulfilling life.
Well, I’m not a magic genie, but I can tell you how to get control over every aspect of your life so you can start making smart decisions that make you happy.
Sorting out your life is not just about cleaning your car. It’s about getting clear on what really matters, your physical, mental, and emotional health and wellness.
Once you realize that you want to make a change it’s important that you start with 7 essential steps. These are the essential steps that will support you in making sure you are knocking out the tasks that are going to propel you forward in life faster while giving you peace, joy, and a sense of accomplishment.
Here’s how to sort out your life in seven easy steps:
1. Build a Morning Routine
2. Create Life Goals
3. Get a Calendar Planner
4. Clean Up Home/Living Environment
5. Schedule Health/Preventative Care Appointments
6. Develop Healthy Habits
7. Eliminate Time Wasters
Let’s cover these steps in more detail.
Building a morning routine is essential for sorting out your life and getting organized. How you start your day dictates how the entire day is going to go. When you wake up and your frantic and rushing it’s hard to get back in control.
Research has shown that the most successful people in the world get up at least 2-3 hours before they start their workday. Now if you are new to all of this don’t try to get up 2 hours early. Try to get up at least 15 minutes before you have to start getting ready for your workday.
Use that extra time to stretch your body and drink some water to hydrate your cells. Then do some type of activity that is going to help you calm your mind and feel at peace. I suggest meditation or journaling or both.
In my course, The Confident Women’s Healthy Lifestyle Guide, I have several guided meditations that are all less than 10 minutes long. During these meditations, I guide you on how to breathe and I talk you through a visual experience in order to help calm your mind and feel at peace. I intentionally made them short and to the point so that you can do them in the morning, in the middle of the day, or in the evening. If you want to learn more about these meditations then CLICK HERE to get access to the course.
Journaling is also a great way to express your thoughts and your feelings. You can write down what you are grateful for, your intentions for the day, and what you want to manifest or create in your life.
You can use a hard copy journal where you are actually writing or if you are more tech-focused, there are digital journals that you can download on your smartphone, your computer, or your tablet.
Digital journals have the same function as the hard copy accept you can type in your thoughts, your gratitude, and even affirmations.
Two journals that I think are great especially if you are a beginner are The Five Minute Journal and the Digital Gratitude Journal. The Five Minute Journal is a hard copy journal that gives you a section to write your thought for the morning and night. It specifically gives you prompts that help you jot down your thoughts in five minutes.
The Gratitude Journal is digital and also gives your prompts to quickly write down and reflect on your thoughts for the day. I think they both are very useful for people that don’t have a lot of time and want to create a simple but effective morning routine. CLICK HERE to take a look at The Five Minute Journal and CLICK HERE to take a look at the Digital Gratitude Journal.
Whether you meditate, journal, or just go for a morning walk the point is to create a simple morning routine that helps you start your, day, calm, focused, and in a positive state of mind.
Creating life goals helps you get clear on the next direction that you need to take for your life. The easiest way to do this is to write out what you want in the 8 essential categories of your life. These categories are:
These are the essential life categories that you absolutely need to focus on if you want to sort out your life. I discuss these categories in detail in my CCC Bringing Balance To Your Life Workbook.
In this workbook, you have an opportunity to rate how you feel about each area of your life, your level of satisfaction, and what goals you want to create to improve in each area. I love this workbook because these were the exact steps I used to get my life in order and create a step, by step plan for taking action and moving forward.
When you are working on these 8 essential areas, keep it simple, just write 2-3 goals for each category so that you don’t overwhelm yourself. Then if you are able to complete these goals earlier, just write new goals.
Once you are able to see your entire life in these 8 essential categories, it’s going to be so easy to implement the next steps to sort out your life and start creating a life you love.
If you don’t already have a calendar planner, it’s time to get one. I have had so many different planners over the years, some super complicated and some that did not have enough of what I needed.
Currently, I am using and loving The Simplified Planner by Emily Ley.
I love that this calendar has colorful tabs that separate each month and a full-page spread of the entire month. After each month are the individual days for each week. In this planner I write out my goals for the month, then I chunk the goals down into simple achievable tasks for each week. I decide which tasks I will do on which days and schedule them on my calendar.
Having a calendar planner gives me a visual of what I need to do and helps me schedule the task. Trust me, if it’s not scheduled on your calendar you will not get it done. So, be sure to get a simple calendar planner to remind yourself to take action.
The 4th thing you can do to sort out your life is to literally clean up and organize your home. When I was a kid every Saturday was clean-up day. My mother and grandmother would have a chore list ready for me and my sisters to divide and start cleaning.
I’m so thankful that they taught me the importance of keeping a clean up neat home. When your environment is clean, neat, and organized it literally affects your mood. You feel less stressed and overall are able to focus better when you are not surrounded by clutter.
My biggest tip for keeping a consistently clean environment is to schedule a clean-up day. Pick a day where you have time to clean. For example, mopping, dusting, sanitizing your bathroom, cleaning up your kitchen, etc.
For my busy ladies who don’t have a lot of time, try to simplify the process. You could get a cleaning service to help and you could use technology. For example, the I-Robot Rumba is a self-cleaning vacuum that you can program to clean the floors of your entire house or apartment without your involvement.
Also get some tools that you can use over and over again like microfiber towels, antibacterial wipes, or environmentally friendly house cleaning products. Keep everything in the same area so you know exactly where your cleaning supplies are and can get to them easily.
Once you get into the habit of keeping a cleanup day on your calendar, you’ll realize that cleaning is actually a stress reliever.
Plus you can listen to podcasts or audiobooks while you clean. Every week while I’m cleaning I listen to my audiobooks on Audible. Using Audible to listen to my books has saved me so much money while being able to learn so much in a short period of time. If you are interested in Audible, check out their free 30-day trial.
The other way to specifically get organized is to pick 1 or 2 days a month where you focus on decluttering and organizing. So for example pick one area of your home like a closet. Go through all of your clothes and take out anything that you have not worn in 6 months. Decide what you want to donate, throw out or recycle. Put each in a bag or box and take them to the places they need to go.
Also write a list of things you need to buy like organizers for your drawers, make-up holders, storage shelves if you have things you use daily but need to keep organized.
Trust me, you are going to feel so much better when you start making cleaning up a part of your normal routine.
The greatest gift I ever gave myself was making an appointment with an amazing therapist after my divorce. She didn’t just help me talk through the pain, she helped me take ownership of my role in the situation, and even how my childhood experiences played a part in the type of partners that I chose as an adult.
If you have never experienced counseling or therapy- I highly suggest you give it a try. Don’t just settle on any therapist, look at what they offer, make sure they are licensed, and if you try one and don’t like them then find someone else.
Next, schedule a dentist appointment if you haven’t already for a check-up. You would be surprised at how much our dental hygiene affects the rest of our bodies.
Call your doctor’s office and get a full physical at least once a year just to make sure everything is working correctly.
Get your vision checked to make sure your eyes are healthy.
Schedule a massage. If you have insurance, it’s a possibility that your insurance will cover therapeutic massages. If you don’t know, call your insurance company and find out.
Also, for those of you like me who are over 40 make sure you are getting your mammograms and your gynecology appointments. I have had women in my family diagnosed with breast cancer including my mother and so I am passionate about advocating for women getting preventative care services and taking the necessary steps to be mindful of their overall wellness.
Create a nutrition and physical activity/exercise regime that keeps you feeling energized and vibrant. When we don’t get enough nutrients and physical activity our bodies suffer. Plus, when we don’t physically feel good, it can negatively affect our mood. This is something I discuss in my course The Confident Woman’s Healthy Lifestyle Guide. I have an entire section on eating whole nutritious foods, and a workbook to help you create a weekly meal plan as well as a 41-page recipe guide.
When you feed your body the nutrients it needs to thrive you feel better. And when you feel better you have the energy you need to get the rest of your life on track.
You also need to make exercise a part of your habits. Try scheduling 2-3 days a week on your calendar where you get in some physical activity. That can be low intensity like walking, or light weight training, or high intensity like jogging, hiking, or dancing.
One way to get in physical activity without leaving your house is with online fitness classes. To make my life easier I’ve been using Beachbody on Demand. With Beachbody on Demand, I get unlimited access to all of the fun Beachbody workouts like P90X® INSANITY®, PiYo®, 21-Day fix, and all the other workouts they have in their fitness network. Plus I can watch it on my laptop, my tablet, my phone pretty much anywhere I have access to the internet. It makes working out so much easier especially if you have a super busy schedule. CLICK HERE to try Beachbody on Demand for free.
The bottom line is when are intentional about creating a healthy lifestyle with nutrition and exercise you start to feel better physically and mentally.
If you have relationships where dealing with people that are needy, narcissistic, selfish, mean, or just unhealthy you must for your own mental health get rid of them. Now, I know that is a hard pill to swallow but it’s the truth. The biggest situations that waste are time are toxic relationships.
Even family or friends that you have known for years can be toxic especially when they see that you are trying to change your lifestyle. I cannot tell you the number of women that have told me how their family and friends did not support their efforts around their goals.
I’m not saying you have to cut family off completely but you may need to distance yourself or decrease the amount of time you spend. If you are really struggling then this is something you may need to discuss with a therapist (hint: number 5 on the list).
If you have great relationships then look at the other parts of your life where you may be wasting time.
Maybe you spend too much time on social media or television. If that’s the case go back to number 3- your calendar planner. Schedule a time frame that you will be on social media or television. For social media, give yourself 1 hour a day and chop that hour up into 15-minute intervals. Make sure you time yourself as that way you still get your social media fix without wasting time.
The same applies to television; if you have a favorite show, then write it down on your calendar the day/time you will watch it. Just make sure you are not mindlessly watching television. Remember that’s time that you can use to clean, organize, or take care of your health.
Also, look at the groups you are involved in or the habits you have, and ask yourself if they are wasting your time. This is something that will probably come up for you when you are working on #2, Bringing Balance Your Life Workbook.
Time is more valuable than anything in this world because once it’s gone, you cannot get it back. So be mindful that you are utilizing every minute of your day wisely.
If you are ready to get unstuck and really move forward then use these 7 steps to help you sort out your life and get back on track. Understanding how to get organized on your goals, get focused, build lifestyle habits and prioritize your happiness will transform your life. Don’t wait to get back in control- start today!
P.S…
Ready to start the process of gaining more clarity, confidence, and courage? I have created 3 simple steps to help you on your journey.
Don’t let more time pass by, reclaim your life today!
Tiffiny has a B.A. in Psychology, and master’s degree in Public Health Education. She worked in consulting for over 16 years, as well as previously owning a fitness and health business. In her personal life, she used personal development, mindset and health strategies to go from being overworked in a demanding corporate career, emotionally drained in a toxic marriage, physically unhealthy, and depressed to becoming an award-winning figure level bodybuilding athlete and entrepreneur. As a women’s empowerment coach, she works to help women get clear on their goals, build confidence, increase self-esteem, take action on their deep desires and create a life they love