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Keeping Any Resolution Begins with Organizing

image By Professional Organizer Lea Schneider

Keeping any resolution begin with organizing.

Seriously. If you made a resolution, I bet you that organization is involved. Here are some popular New Year's resolutions. Look at how organizing is involved in all of them.

Spend time with family and friends: Clearly you've got to be more organized and prioritize better. No more rushing from A to B to C. In the end, you've no energy or time left for the ones you love. Begin today with using your calendar to block out time for friends and family. If it is written down, you'll most likely do it. It doesn't need to involve money. Take a walk, a bike ride, build a fire and curl up together or just cook a meal.

Get fit: Getting in shape doesn't happen when you get around-to-it. You have to plan and organize time for it. Work out first and then jump into the rest of your day. If organizing time for it is hard, sign up for a class or get a workout buddy so there is a routine to follow for staying on task.

Lose weight: Clean and organize your pantry, freezer and fridge. sit down and plan a week's worth of healthy menus. Shop for a whole week at a time so you have meals on hand and aren't tempted by drive-thru meals or ordering pizza.

Enjoy life: What do you love? Choose one or two things that you love and go ahead and make a plan to do them, Involve someone else and you'll be less likely to get too busy.

Learn new things: Get organized about what you want to learn. Look up online classes. Check with your local college. Hire a music tutor. Order some books. Find a friend to take a class with you. You can't get started if you don't get organized enough to get the info.

Break a bad habit: Each bad habit has to be replaced with a new, better one. Make an organized plan. What will you do instead of your bad habit?

Get organized: The grand-daddy of all organizing resolutions is this all-purpose promise. Just saying you want to be more organized is not enough. Break it down. Make a list of what you want to organize. Bill paying? Finances? Getting out the door on time? Your clothes closet? The garage? Your desk at work? You can't do them all at once. Pick one thing for this month from your list. Your goal is to improve that area this month. Then pick another project next month.

No matter what you resolved, begin to keep the resolution by organizing your time, making a plan and then following that plan. Get organized about it!