Getting Started: Organization
For most people, outer order contributes to inner calm. Getting control of our possessions helps us feel more in control of our lives.
The Benefits of Being Organized
In the context of a happy life, a messy desk or a crowded coat closet is a trivial problem—yet getting control of the stuff of life often makes it easier to feel more in control of our lives generally.
Outer order saves time, money, space, energy, and patience. By getting rid of the things that you don’t use, don’t need, or don’t love, you can make room for things you truly value. When you’re surrounded by less clutter, you spend less time being distracted, looking for things, trying to put things away, and feeling guilty or over-burdened.
“Outer Order” Manifesto: Tips for Getting Organized
- Outer order contributes to inner calm.
- Nothing is more exhausting than the task that is never started.
- Something that can be done at any time is often done at no time.
- It’s easier to keep up than to catch up.
- When in doubt, toss it out—or recycle it, or give it away.
- Remind yourself: I have plenty of room for the things that are important to me.
- If you can’t retrieve it, you won’t use it.
- One of the worst uses of time is to do something well that need not be done at all.
- Accept yourself, and expect more from yourself.
- What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.
- Creating outer order isn’t a matter of having less, or having more; it’s a matter of wanting what you have.
- Things often get messier before they get tidier.
- There’s no one “right” way to create and maintain order.
- Little by little, you can get a lot accomplished.
- Without delay is the easiest way.
- Clutter attracts clutter.
- Store things at the store.
- The days are long, but the years are short.
Tools for Getting Organized
Outer Order, Inner Calm
With clarity and humor, Gretchen Rubin illuminates one of her key realizations about happiness: For most of us, outer order contributes to inner calm. And for most of us, a rigid, one-size-fits-all solution doesn’t work.
Memento Journal
The Memento Keepsake Journal is made for those who want to collect keepsakes of their experiences, but are overwhelmed by souvenirs or the prospect of scrapbooking. Recalling happy times can boost happiness in the present, and mementos are a powerful way to keep those memories vivid.
The Happier™ App
The groundbreaking Happier app puts transformation within reach, by taking happiness from the abstract to the concrete. How? Habits. Research shows that around 40 percent of behavior is repeated daily, so when we change our habits, we change our lives.
Dive Deeper
Essential reading on organization
- 7 Tips for Clearing Clutter in the Office
- Nine Tips for Tackling Sentimental Clutter This Spring
- Do You Like Spring Cleaning? Here Are Some Ideas If You Do (Even More Helpful If You Don’t)
- Dealing With One of the Most Challenging Forms of Clutter: Paper Clutter
- 10 Tips to Beat Clutter…in Less Than 5 Minutes
- How to Use Quick, Easy Habits to Create & Maintain Outer Order
Essential listening on organization
- 10: Special Episode! Live from Elizabeth’s Cluttered Closet
- 160 Very Special Episode: Live from Elizabeth’s Cluttered Home Office
- 210: Very Special Episode! Elizabeth’s Favorite Clutter-Clearing Ideas from “Outer Order, Inner Calm.”
- 213: More Ideas about “Outer Order, Inner Calm” That Didn’t Make It Into the Book, a Tech Hack to Make Mornings More Fun, and Do You Have Dog Sense?
- 319: Ask Yourself, “Do I Use It, Need It, Love It?” Using the Return to Work as a “Clean Slate” for Habits, and Rebels Give Advice about the Rebel Who Won’t Read Emails
- 397: Stop “Phubbing” People, Plus Hacks to Get Organized, Clear Clutter, and Take Medications
- 443: Clear the Decks! We Try Something New to Get Ready for September, the Other New Year