Ever look at someone who seems to have it all together (a clean home, a handled schedule), and wonder, “How do they do that?”
For the longest time, I thought that kind of organization was a superpower you were either born with or not. I believed it required giving up all my free time just to keep a few things in order. My own attempts always fizzled out; I’d start strong, but after a while, I’d slip back into old habits, feeling more defeated than ever.
But then I had a lightbulb moment: I couldn’t stay organized because I was focusing on the wrong things. I was trying to act organized instead of building the simple, sustainable habits that make a person organized.
So, I decided to learn from the best. I dove into research and started testing out the strategies that truly organized people swear by. The best part? I discovered that staying organized is about adopting a series of small, manageable habits that compound over time.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and ready to find a sense of calm and control, you’re in the right place. This isn’t about perfection; it’s about progress.
This post is your starting point. I’m sharing the 19 most impactful habits I’ve learned on how to be more organized. These are the game-changers that have helped me, and they can absolutely help you build a life that feels less chaotic and more in your control. Let’s dive in!
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How to be more organized: 19 tips and habits
1) Write things down
Seriously, our minds are brilliant, creative places, but they are terrible filing cabinets. The number one, most game-changing habit you can start is to write everything down. And I mean everything.
That random thought about needing milk? The birthday card you have to send? The brilliant project idea that hits you in the shower? Get it out of your head!
Why does this help so much? It’s like closing all the 50 tabs you have open in your brain. The mental relief is instant. And don’t worry about being fancy, a beat-up notebook and a favorite pen work perfectly. If you’re glued to your phone, the Notes app or a tool like Google Keep is your new best friend. Trying to remember everything is like carrying all your groceries in your arms without a bag.. It’s just unnecessary stress!
2) Use the start of the month to plan and get organized
Here’s a cozy ritual I’ve come to love: a “Monthly Preview.” Instead of letting the calendar surprise you, take charge! At the beginning of each month, I grab a cup of coffee and spend just 20-30 minutes looking ahead.
I ask myself: What big things are happening this month? What’s that one project I’d love to make progress on? Any birthdays or trips I need to prepare for?
Doing this tiny bit of planning means you won’t be blindsided by a deadline or forget your best friend’s birthday. It’s not about scheduling every minute; it’s about giving yourself a gentle map for the weeks ahead so you can breathe easier.
3) Do tasks right away
I used to be the queen of “I’ll do it later.” But “later” has a way of turning into a huge, scary pile of chores. The best advice I ever got was this: If a task will take less than two minutes, do it right now.
Hang up your coat instead of tossing it on the chair. Rinse your plate right after you eat. Reply to that quick email as soon as you read it.
It sounds almost too simple, but this one tiny habit stops clutter (both physical and mental) from ever piling up. The first time you finish a small task immediately and feel that little burst of “Hey, I’ve got this!” you’ll be hooked, believe me on that!
4) Find your organization sidekick (Planner, App, or trusty Notebook)
Trying to keep it all in your head is exhausting. You deserve a sidekick! This is where you find the tool that feels right for you.
Maybe it’s a beautiful paper planner that you love opening every morning. Maybe it’s the calendar on your phone that sends you alerts. Or maybe it’s a simple, satisfying to-do list app.
The goal is to have one happy place where all your commitments, goals, and appointments live together in peace. When you know you can trust your system, a huge weight lifts. You’re no longer constantly trying to remember everything, because your trusty sidekick has your back.
5) Follow a daily to-do list
This is my secret weapon for a calm, productive day. Each morning (or the night before), I take five minutes to write my daily to-do list. But here’s the key: be kind to yourself. This isn’t a list of everything you could possibly do; it’s a short, realistic list of your top 3-5 priorities for the day.
Seeing your day on paper makes it feel manageable. You can tick things off one by one and actually see your progress. And the best part? When everything is checked off, you can truly relax. Your work is done, and you can enjoy your book, your family, or your favorite show with a clear conscience, knowing you’ve nailed what you set out to do.
6) Clean along the way
This one is a total game-changer. Instead of letting messes pile up for a big, dreaded “cleaning day,” if you want to be more organized, tidy up in the moment. It’s like being a kitchen ninja; wash that coffee mug right after you finish it, or put your shoes in the closet instead of kicking them off by the door.
I started doing this by just making my bed as soon as I get up. It takes 30 seconds, but it instantly makes the whole room feel more put-together and sets a productive tone for the day. This tiny habit creates a ripple effect of tidiness without ever feeling like a huge chore.
7) Give your tasks a time slot
A to-do list tells you what to do, but a schedule tells you when to do it. This is the secret weapon against that overwhelmed feeling! Try blocking out specific times in your day for specific tasks, like “9:00-10:00 AM: Work on project report” or “2:00-2:15 PM: Answer emails.”
This keeps you focused, prevents procrastination, and stops you from over-scheduling your day. You’ll quickly see how much time things actually take, which helps you plan more realistically and protect your precious free time.
8) Become the master of your lists
Let’s talk about one of the most satisfying and powerful tools in your organization’s arsenal: the humble list. Now, I’m not just talking about a basic to-do list for the day (though that’s a great start!). If you want to be more organized, use lists as an external brain, a trusted system to offload all the little details, ideas, and reminders that clutter your mental space.
Think about it: your mind is a brilliant processor, but it’s a terrible storage device. When you try to remember your grocery needs, a birthday gift idea for your mom, the name of that book your friend recommended, and what you need to pack for your upcoming trip, it creates a low hum of background anxiety. It’s mental static. Writing it down is like hitting the “mute” button on that noise.
You can have a list of go-to dinner recipes, a wishlist of books you want to read, a running grocery list on your phone, or even a list of your favorite passwords (stored securely, of course!). This brings incredible simplicity to daily life and saves you so much mental energy.
9) Use your Sunday to plan your week
If there’s one habit that can single-handedly transform your relationship with Mondays and set a positive tone for your entire week, it’s the Sunday evening reset. Instead of spending Sunday night with a sense of dread about the week ahead, you can use this time as a gentle, empowering launchpad. Take 20-30 minutes on Sunday evening to look at your calendar for the week ahead. What are your big meetings? What do you need to prepare? Jot down your top 3 priorities for each day.
The key is to also schedule time for yourself, like a workout, reading, or just doing nothing. This “power hour” means you start your week feeling prepared and in control, not already behind.
10) Meal prep on weekends
That 5 p.m. “What are we eating?!” stress is real, trust me. If you want to be more organized, conquer it by doing a little meal prep on the weekend. This doesn’t mean you have to cook all your meals for the week! It can be as simple as chopping some veggies, marinating some chicken, or just deciding what you’ll eat each night.
Knowing what’s for dinner all week makes grocery shopping a breeze, saves money, and turns a chaotic daily decision into a no-brainer. It’s one less thing to worry about when you’re tired after a long day.
11) Create a daily routine you actually like and stick to it
Routines aren’t about being rigid and boring; they’re about creating autopilot for the good stuff. People who are highly organized often have gentle routines for their morning and evening that help them start and end the day feeling centered.
Your morning routine could be as simple as 5 minutes of stretching, making your coffee, and writing down one thing you’re grateful for. Your evening routine might involve tidying the living room, laying out your clothes for the next day, and reading before bed. These rituals signal to your brain that it’s time to shift gears, making your days flow more smoothly.
12) Keep your workspace clear and organized
Let’s be real: a cluttered desk often leads to a cluttered mind. If you have to dig through piles of paper just to find your charger, you’re already starting your workday feeling behind and frustrated. One of the most transformative habits for staying organized is curating a workspace that actually works for you, not against you.
This is about creating a dedicated, functional space that makes you feel calm, focused, and in control. Highly organized people treat their workspace as a command center. They know that when their physical environment is in order, their thoughts can be too.
Walking into a clean, bright, and organized space the next morning feels amazing and helps you focus immediately. It’s like giving a gift to your future self.
13) Take advantage of downtime
We all have those little pockets of time that seem too short to do anything “important.” It’s the 10 minutes before a Zoom meeting starts, the 5 minutes while your coffee is brewing, or the time you spend waiting in the school pick-up line. The default for many of us is to pull out our phones and mindlessly scroll. But if you want to be more organized, you have to see these moments as hidden opportunities.
This habit is about strategically using these tiny windows of time to tackle the small, nagging tasks that otherwise pile up into a mountain of “I’ll do it later.” By chipping away at them consistently, you free up your larger blocks of time for deep work, relaxation, and the things you truly enjoy.
14) Do one task at a time
Let’s have a heart-to-heart about multitasking. We’ve all been sold the idea that being busy and doing multiple things at once is the hallmark of productivity.
The most organized people I know have completely abandoned multitasking. This constant task-switching is mentally exhausting, makes you prone to errors, and ironically, slows you down. It creates a sense of frantic energy, where you feel busy all day but have very little to show for it.
By focusing on one task from start to finish, you not only do a better job, but you also create a clear, organized path through your day. You finish one thing, feel a sense of accomplishment, and then calmly move on to the next. This is so much more peaceful and effective than having ten tabs open in your brain and making partial progress on everything.
15) Only keep things with a home
Walk into an organized person’s home, and you’ll notice something wonderful: there’s no “miscellaneous” pile. Why? Because they live by a simple but powerful rule: if something doesn’t have a designated “home,” it doesn’t get to stay.
This is the ultimate cure for clutter. Before they even buy something, they ask, “Where will this live?” This stops random items from accumulating on countertops, tables, and floors.
Start small. Ask yourself if each item deserves a spot. This process is incredibly empowering. Soon, you’ll find that cleaning up is no longer a major project, but a five-minute ritual of returning stray items to their homes. The mental peace that comes from knowing exactly where everything is is absolutely priceless.
16) Shop with purpose, not on impulse
In our consumer-driven world, it’s incredibly easy to accumulate stuff. We buy things on sale, we buy things for a hypothetical future version of ourselves (that was me), and we buy things to give us a quick hit of happiness.
To build a more organized life, you must become the conscious gatekeeper of what enters your space. This means shifting from impulsive buying to intentional acquiring.
Adopt the “one in, one out” rule. If you buy a new sweater, an old one must be donated. This forces you to consider what you’re bringing in and helps prevent net clutter.
Remember, an organized life is a simple life, and simplicity is achieved not by having perfect organization for all your things, but by having fewer things to organize in the first place. Fill your space with items that are truly useful or that spark genuine joy, and let go of the rest.
17) Set small and achievable weekly and daily goals
We all have grand aspirations, but we get paralyzed by the sheer scale of the project. The secret to consistent progress is to break these monumental tasks into laughably small, daily, or weekly goals.
The magic of tiny goals is that they feel achievable. “Organize the entire garage” is overwhelming. But “spend 20 minutes sorting through one shelf in the garage” is something you can do without dread.
Instead of a daunting to-do list, create a “done” list. At the end of each day, jot down the small wins. Watching this list grow is incredibly motivating. It shifts your focus from the distant, unfinished mountain to the steady, satisfying path you’re building, one small step at a time. This is how you achieve big things without the burnout.
18) Create a decluttering and cleaning schedule
For many of us, “cleaning” is a monstrous, all-day weekend event that we dread. Organized people have cracked the code on this by eliminating the “cleaning day” altogether. Instead, they distribute small, manageable tasks throughout the week, turning upkeep into a gentle, automatic rhythm.
The goal is to create a schedule where no single day feels burdensome.
So, how to be more organized? Sit down and create your personalized weekly rhythm. It could look something like this: Monday for laundry, Tuesday for bathrooms, Wednesday for vacuuming and dusting, and Thursday for tackling a specific clutter zone (like your desk or the entryway). Some weeks you might skip a task, and that’s okay. The system is there to serve you, not to rule you. By spreading the work out, you maintain a baseline of cleanliness and order every single day, and you get your precious weekends back.
19) Be your own best friend
Here is the final, and perhaps most important, piece of the puzzle: please, be kind to yourself. Organization is not a trait you’re born with; it’s a skill you learn, and like any skill, it requires practice, patience, and plenty of mistakes along the way.
You will have days where you fall back into old habits. This is not failure. This is part of the process.
When you have an off day, don’t waste energy on self-criticism. Just gently recommit. Every small, positive choice is a vote for the person you are becoming. Celebrate your progress, no matter how small. Remember, you are not trying to win a trophy for the world’s most organized person; you are building a life that feels calmer, more manageable, and more joyful for you.
Wrap up
And there you have it! How to be more organized is a gentle, ongoing journey of adopting small, manageable habits that collectively build a life of less stress and more calm.
Remember, every expert was once a beginner. The goal isn’t to implement all 19 of these strategies at once. That would be overwhelming! True, lasting change comes from starting small.
Be patient and incredibly kind to yourself on this path. Some days will be more organized than others, and that’s perfectly okay. What matters is that you’re making a conscious effort to build a life that feels more in your control and less chaotic.
