Getting Organized for the Free Spirit

Meditation

Jun 8

I know that I’m not always the most productive person around. I have lots of things I want to accomplish like completing a painting or achieving a fitness goal, and I sometimes fall short of the consistency and organization it takes to complete these goals. If you are a free spirit, like myself, who moves to the beat of his/her own drum, then this is the article for you. This blog post includes helpful tips for someone who may have difficulty sticking with the process that leads to achieving goals.

Identify What’s Holding You Back
Making it Fun
Accountability with Friends
Creating Rewards and Consequences
Dedicate a Space for You

Identify What’s Holding You Back

If you are someone who feels your way through life and lives on a creative scale then getting organized can sometimes feel like a big catch. It can be hard to tap into another part of yourself that needs the structure of your art. Often times when we feel stuck or have issues organizing, there may be something we are avoiding. I can use myself as an example. When I want to write a new article and create posts for Orange Trails, sometimes I feel great laziness come over me. I was sitting in a café with my laptop and as I began working, I noticed that I was feeling kind of groggy and off. It wasn’t because I was working for a long period of time, but because my body was wanting to stop working altogether. I asked myself What is the root of this feeling? Why don’t I want to work on my blog? After taking a pause and addressing this feeling, I realized that there is a lot of work that comes with running a blog that part of me feels like I am not capable of. Instead of organizing myself and doing the work, I was sabotaging myself by avoiding it.

This may not be the case in all procrastination and non-organization issues, but the process of discovering the misalignment is similar. Think about your organizational habits. If you have a big task to do or have a goal you want to complete, how do you go about completing it? Do you wait until the deadline? If there is no established deadline, do you continue to put it off as a way of telling yourself you’ve got something you’re working towards, yet you’re not actually working? If you’ve examined organization habits and realized that there is a pattern that you have that interferes with this system, then the next step would be to find the reason why. Why you do seem to reach for your phone during that time you’ve set in place to meditate? Why paint for two hours one day, then not at all for the next few weeks? What is that core issue that is holding you back?

Asking yourself the root questions as to why, then addressing that issue directly, helps you face the most important thing, which is the task/goal at hand. Sometimes things aren’t as big and scary as they are presented to be. If we acknowledge our shortcomings and dissect our issues little by little, then we can approach becoming organized with confidence, making our goals that much easier to accomplish.

Making it FUN

There are plenty of ways to make being organized fun and creative. For me, it is hard to stick to something if I don’t find any joy in it and these ways of keeping organization enjoyable have helped in many ways.

Keeping a cute planner with fun stickers- I am a firm believer in stickers. Planners are so helpful in reminding you of important dates and keeping track of your progress. I knew that if I didn’t have the stickers to accompany my planner, I wouldn’t be as inclined to use it. It’s a great method of getting used to organizing time and events.

Getting dressed up to do a task- The phrase “When you look good, you feel good” heavily applies to this statement and is very true. If you spend the extra time putting together a cute outfit or maybe a nice makeup look specifically for completing a task you’ve been dreading, it helps change your attitude towards the task. How can you be so upset when you look so good?

Document your Progress- When we’re working on something, it sometimes seems like we’ll never see the end result. Documenting your progress is a great way to show yourself how productive you’re being and can also be encouraging to keep going. Have you ever seen those videos of people who are rich and famous and they have a video of them going to auditions or writing stories before they made it? Looking back on those videos once you’ve accomplished your goal can be refreshing and you can see how far you’ve come.

Accountability with Friends

I know if I tell myself I’m going to do something, I can give myself a lot of slack. Taking my own excuses and being very lenient with myself. Let’s face it, no one likes to be scolded or told things that they know they should have done. There was this amazing example I ran into not too long ago regarding TikTok marketing. The person was saying he wanted to gain followers on TikTok and knew that in order to do that, he would have to post at least two times a day. He challenged his friend to do the same and they bet $100 that they would keep it up for two weeks. Their competition helped him to be consistent and he was able to accomplish his goal as well as keep his $100. Even if you may not have a friend that would do the challenge with you, if they are able to hold you accountable for doing your own task, it’s just as helpful to have that extra push.

Creating Rewards and Consequences

In school, the grading system serves as both a reward and consequence system. It can be a bit difficult to give yourself a grade that feels like a reward when you accomplish a goal, however, awarding you give yourself can be just as effective. You can use something you like to do as a reward for your persistence. Before going out to a party or having your favorite snack, challenge yourself to finish a portion of a project or clear your space. The reward of your favorite activity feels more deserving once you’ve accomplished something that you need to do. This also can be applied to consequences as well. Sometimes we can set a deadline that we feel can be moved and the consequence of missing it doesn’t feel like a consequence at all. For me, I know that deadlines can be very important to me and they make me work harder to meet them. I usually try to attach something with that deadline so that it feels like something I have to accomplish.

Dedicate a Space for YOU

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase ‘cleanliness is close to godliness. It’s a lot easier for you to think when the space around you is clear, but not only that when it’s personal to you. Here are some ways to dedicate a workspace for you to be more productive and organized:

Decorate your tools- You can use special pens for writing or maybe put a personalized cover on your computer and keyboard to make it more comfortable to use. Personalized items can encourage you to use them more, also encouraging more productivity.
Use Fragrance for activity- Having calming candles during your productivity can soothe the mind. This can lift your mood and improve your energy for major focus. Relaxing the mind and body to a point where you can clear your mind and focus is really what creation is all about.
Using Color Therapy- Red is the color for productivity. Having bright colors around keeps you more alert and aware. Blue can encourage creative thinking and subconsciously help unlock new ideas. You may not take notice of these changes, but the subconscious is definitely aware of the assistance and you’ll be seeing changes soon enough.

Take Away Trail

As a creative, I understand how difficult it can be to get organized and be productive. These tips have helped me in my journey and I hope that it helps you with yours. Please know, that it’s important to keep your goal in mind and know that you can achieve anything you set your mind to. Sometimes progress can seem so eternal, but if you put in the work, you can accomplish what you want and these tips are here to assist you in being the best you possible.

Join the Trail

Everything starts with YOU. Begin the journey to creating your trail.

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Anaiis Simon