How Organized Are You Really? Take Your Personal Organizing Audit Here

How organized are you, really? Put a checkmark beside the habits that you practice every day – or even if it is just 5 days/week. For every checkmark – give yourself 2 points!

Which of these habits do you do every day?

1. Wake up and think about the day ahead.

Do you have a plan in place for your day before it begins? If you have a plan at least 5 days a week before the day begins give yourself a BIG checkmark!

If you don’t have a plan, diving right into your tasks before you plan will greatly impede your productivity. Not only do you risk the possibility of becoming a pawn to someone else’s ideas about your important projects, you will waste time trying to figure out what task to tackle first.

When you are able to look ahead at your day before it begins, you will be mentally prepared for any interruptions that might happen. Remember this: If you don’t know what you should be doing, you will not know what you did not do to get closer to your goals.

Interruptions are inevitable. If you know what you want to accomplish before your day begins and things happen to throw you off your plan, you will know what you did not do.

Yes – I am repeating myself because this is something it pays to always remember. Knowing what you did not accomplish is almost as important as knowing what you did accomplish and helps you plan the next day.

Planning in advance will not only help you manage your time more efficiently you will have less days where at the end of the day you ask yourself ~ what did I actually do today?

2. Do you maintain a current calendar or planner?

Do you use any type of calendar? If so, what calendar system do you use? If you regularly use ONE and one ONE calendar, give yourself a check mark here.

If you use more than one calendar, subtract one point. Sorry to be such a Debbie-downer but using more than one calendar can cause complete chaos.

Using one calendar, be it paper or digital makes planning for future events easier. It also you to prioritize your life and goals by knowing what’s ahead.

3. Do you create to-do lists?

If you take the time to create To Do Lists, give yourself 2 points!

We talked about planning your day before it plans you and I am wondering if when you plan, you create your list of tasks to finish? Organized people make note of electronically or on paper. It’s hard to stay organized if you only store things in your head.

Writing out what you need to get done on a daily basis makes it easy to keep track of what you have actually done. It’s satisfying to be able to cross things off your list and you’ll always know what’s left to be done.

If you use paper for your task lists, another tactic that works amazingly well is to keep all of your tasks in one bound paper note pad. Mark the date on top left of page and cross things off as they are completed. Use a notepad no post it notes.

Deduct one point if you have more than 3 post it notes hanging on your computer and or surrounding walls. Post it notes add to your visual clutter and after they are there for over one week, you become blinded by their call to action anyhow so ditch your post its and invest in a small spiral note pad.

4. Do you keep your email inbox under control?

There are three kinds of people in this world: those with hundreds (or thousands) of unread emails, those with zero unread emails, and those in between.

Are you the person with zero – 200 emails in your inbox? If so, give yourself a checkmark worth two points here!

If you have 201 – 500 unread emails you can give yourself one point. Anything over 500 means you need to begin unsubscribing and remove yourself from mailing lists.

Reading every single email sent to you can be time-consuming, but letting them sit forever doesn’t do too much for you, either.

Remember that every email sitting in your inbox is a call to action. If you find yourself with way too many emails screaming for your attention, take time least once a month to unsubscribe to the emails that you never find the time to read.

5. Do you reflect on what still needs to be done by the end of the day and make a revised list?

If so – this is worth 2 more points to your total! Before you end each day, it pays to go over what’s left on your to-do list and move things around as needed for the next day. This way, all you’ll need to get started in the morning is a quick refresher and you are ready to go!

6. Have you replaced a bad habit with a neutral or good habit this month?

If so – great job and give your self a BIG checkmark here! If you did not check this one and your target is to lose weight, have you replaced frequent junk food snacking with eating a small bowl of fruits or vegetables?

Fitness is a personal choice and can be quite a struggle in the initial phase. However, once the pace is set, nothing can stop you. Note that it might take some time before you find a habit that you will enjoy engaging in that will replace the bad old habit.

Try out different practices like jogging, salsa classes, swimming, or enroll in a health gym. Find what suits you and stick to it. It takes 4-6 weeks to change your habits so make sure to mentally and intentionally give yourself a 6 week trial period when you begin.

7. Do you regularly purge your home of the unused, unneeded or unloved?

Do you have a system set up to rid your home of the unnecessary, unused or unloved? If you go through your home on a regular basis, give your self a check mark here. Great job!

If not, set up a system now. It is incredibly easy to do this. In fact it is as easy as figuring out where to place a donation station within your home. The ideal spot to place an empty box for donations is in your hall closet. Adding another spot inside your master closet will be a huge bonus. As you live day to day and find items you no longer need, use or love, take them immediately to your donation bin. When it is full, take it away to your local donation station and move good onto the world!

What does your score mean?

OK now it’s time to count your checkmarks and grade your organizing skills. The highest possible score is 14. Make sure to deduct points where you have habits that need sprucing up.

• ✅ If you scored 14 – you are amazzzballs and very quite impressive.
• ✅ If you scored 10 + you are on your way to becoming a masterful organizer and are fairly proficient at maintaining order in your life. Good job!
• ✅ If you scored 6-8, well, you might have dabbled in the organizing space before, but it appears that you might have forgotten a few things you learned along the way. Just saying. . . Probably time for a brush up. Start with 3 Questions to Help Alleviate Clutter Overwhelm.
• ✅ If you scored 0-4, you need a professional intervention! Just kidding, kind of… There are so many habits you can implement to increase the freedom and happiness in your life. Getting organized will increase your amount of free time to pursue your interests and reach your goals more quickly. Download Kathi’s free book, How to Master Your Muck to feel better about your organizing habits and to learn a few more.

Running a business and scored under 10? The habits above are the symptoms. Overcoming the Friction Tax in Your Business explains the cause, and a Business Logjam Session fixes it.