Declutter Your Life! Become More Organised with PNA In 2023
Sometimes life isn’t fair, we know. We don’t get to pick and choose parts of our personality, even if we really want to. Unfortunately, in this go-getter, fast-paced world, not all of us are born with the “organised” gene that seems to be so ingrained in others.
If you’re more of a “head in the clouds” person, it can feel truly challenging to stay on top of your tasks, chores and must-dos with the ease of the Instagram gurus. We also know that there are ways around that feeling of absent-mindedness and we’ve compiled some useful tips for the daydreamer to keep their ducks solidly in a row, cut through the whimsy, and turn 2023 into their most productive year yet.
PNA is your one-stop shop for making this year your most organised one yet!
- Write things down
Even if you have an incredible memory, trying to store everything in your brain is not a viable way to keep everything catalogued. Sooner or later, something is bound to slip through the cracks and you’ll feel really silly for not just whipping out a notebook and jotting down a quick reminder.
To make your thoughts much more permanent, try writing down everything you need to remember using old-fashioned pens and paper. Even the act of writing something out helps you more solidly retain the info, as you’re assigning a real-world physical action to the thought.
Write down whatever you can, whenever you can. This includes shopping lists for groceries, holiday gifts, home decor, and important dates like meetings and birthdays. A life hack we love is writing down people’s names shortly after we meet them. This makes remembering which name belongs to which face much easier, and makes you look really good in professional and social settings!
To encourage yourself to write down more things, start with a high-quality notebook you’ll want to keep with you. We really love this funky Croxley notebook with a cool quote.
- Make schedules and deadlines
One of the biggest indicators of an efficient person is that they don’t waste time. Your time is a precious, finite resource and your life will start to change for the better when you treat it as such. By purposefully making schedules – whether daily, weekly, or monthly – and setting personal deadlines that you want to adhere to, you’re likely to drastically improve how streamlined you are.
When you plan your time, you’ll be surprised at how much more you can achieve, and you’ll start to wonder why you didn’t do it sooner. A great way to do this is visually! By colour coding and laying out your tasks in a visual planner or on a calendar, you’ll be able to recognise where you have gaps and where you’re overcommitted, as well as prevent long swathes of underproductivity or intense periods of burnout.
We’re keeping these weekly visual planners hanging above our workspaces, and they’re optimising our productivity in a big way!
- Make sure everything has a “home”
For those among us who are messy by nature, keeping our lives uncluttered can be a bit of a struggle. It’s difficult to feel like we’re on top of things when it takes 20 minutes to find the car keys and then another 20 minutes when we realise we misplaced the house keys in the middle of the frantic search.
One way around this is being disciplined about creating a designated space for our belongings, especially those we use often. When everything has its “home,” there’s never unnecessary time being wasted searching for the one essential component you can’t do without (and spaces will never seem stressfully cluttered and untidy). It’s imperative to create labelled storage spaces that you can access easily, and never fall into the trap of labelling one of your spaces as “miscellaneous” – those drawers are where useful things go to get lost!
Want to start by organising your workspace? Try this desk organiser from PNA!
- 4. Keep only what you need
It’s easy to feel disorganised when you simply don’t have the space in which to keep all the things you own. It’s also unlikely that you’re actively using all your possessions to their fullest potential. To become a more orderly person, decluttering your spaces by simply getting rid of things is essential.
Let go of your sentimentality and set aside time to discard or donate those items that are getting in your way. We know, it can be challenging to say goodbye to that tin of old powder paints from 2003, but are you really going to get around to that craft project you once saw on the back of a cereal box? Probably not. Make room for new, exciting projects when you clear out space. We promise a lack of clutter in your surroundings will likely make your head feel less cluttered, too!
As an example of this, why keep buying disposable pens when you could buy a set of prestige pens that will last you years?
- Keep all your essentials in one place
There’s bound to be a list of things that you use every day. Your smartphone, your wallet, your ID and your keys are likely to be on that list, but you might have a few personal items too – like asthma inhalers or cosmetics. Keeping them all in one place might sound like pretty obvious advice, but in the heat of the moment, it can be difficult to consciously gather your things and keep them bundled. An easier way to do this is to keep them in a designated spot or bag, which you like enough to always remember to bring along.
We really like this denim pencil bag, which is easy to slip into a purse or briefcase and bright and fun enough to remember.
We know it can be tough to watch everyone around you coast through life seeming effortlessly efficient and organised. It’s okay to be a little chaotic if that’s who you are and it’s also fine to not always be perfectly on top of it. Many of the people around you secretly feel the same way. What’s critical is that you’re doing your best and here at PNA, we want to help you win at life! Not everybody is Marie Kondo, but with the right help, you can take a few steps closer to living your optimal life.
