Do you feel like your house and life are disorganized? Have you been getting less than 7-9 hours of sleep a night? If you said yes to both questions, then sleep deprivation may be playing a big part in your disorganization.
Sleep deprivation can lead you to experience:
– Low motivation
– Lack of energy
– Limited working memory
– Decreased ability to focus
– Decreased creativity
– Moodiness
This means that when you need to put stuff back where it goes, you have no energy or motivation to do it. It means you have a hard time remembering where you stored stuff and when you have appointments. It means that when you bring stuff home from a shopping trip you can’t concentrate long enough to put the stuff away (or think logically enough to figure out homes to store new stuff). So it is no wonder that people who are sleep deprived have a hard time staying organized.
So what can you do to be organized when sleep deprivation is unavoidable?
– Don’t rely on your brain to keep track of your task list or your calendar commitments. Instead find a calendar to put your appointments down in right away. Use a capture tool (smart phone or notebook) to write down all of your to-dos. Create the habit to look at it on a regular basis so nothing gets forgotten.
– Make your organizing systems very simple. Don’t keep a complex file system but try to gather your files into more generalized categories. Better yet, go paperless so that you don’t have to file anything.
– Try to simplify your belongings. The more you have, the more energy, motivation, and memory you will need to organize and maintain your belongings.
– Ask for help. Hire organizers, personal assistants, productivity coaches, bookkeepers, house cleaners, or babysitters to create a team that will help you maintain an organized home and make sure that you fulfilling your commitments. They might even help you earn some more time to sleep.
– Review your commitments to see if they support your life goals or if you need to finally let go of them for your health.
So the next time you feel like you just can’t get organized, try getting more sleep. Try getting 8-9 hours of sleep each night for a week and see if you suddenly have the motivation, energy, focus and creativity to get organized.
Image used under licensed agreement: © Ion Chiosea
