In my books, these blog posts and on the YouTube channel you find me talk alot about organised habits.

You might think, Sabine, this is all lovely but I still don't feel like it! I hear you!

Personally, I find maintenance tricky because on many occasions I am either too busy or "I don't feel like it".

This is probably a common sentiment when faced with a large amount of chores, it could mean many things, it relates to putting things away or completing a prickly task or project. You don’t feel like doing it, this could be; putting things away, clearing, cleaning or decluttering spaces.

But do you have to feel like it, in order to get up and do the chore? No, not really.

Habits to get you moving

You can make organising easier by starting to create small habits that will improve your space a tiny bit at a time. Doing this daily or multiple times a day will start to have an cumulative effect.

“Having simple ways of doing things (habits), will help you get and stay organised. ”

— Sabine Straver

Part of the physiological aspect of organising is having habits; simple ways of doing things, which help you stay organised. Routines are an extension on habits, as they are a sequence of habitual things we do. For example; getting dressed, having breakfast etc. Your routines are done at different times during the day and cover different areas of your life. Routines can after a while become a reward in and of themselves.

Have you thought about routines for:

Your mornings?
What about a habit with emails, you could be answering them in batches, only at a set times each day.
Routines and habits can also be extended to weekly things.

Routines and habits can be perfectly used with:

Chores like cleaning and maintaining
Starting or continuing creating a clutter free space

Why are routines and habits so useful?

They create a frequency and an actual space in your day to do them. It also shortcuts or limits (on most occasions), the chatter that states; I don’t feel like it. We just know it is morning and in the morning we do a set number of things in a particular order that end on a positive note like getting a cuppa or reading a book.

If you think about it, everyone has habits and routines. Why not try to deliberately create some for yourself this week? Start simple and work your way up. What would make the most impact on your day or week, if you could do this on autopilot?

Finally, note to give new habits and routines time to settle in. It takes a minimum of 21 days for things to become second nature with days 7 to 14 being the hardest, because, we might not feel like it. This time, however, we are not going to let that stop us - are we?