Keeping your life orderly requires the freeing up of all the cluttering that takes place not only in your physical environment, but in your everyday thoughts and actions. Being orderly requires you to prioritize your time, and making sure each element of your life is fulfilled (whether this be spiritual, emotional, or simply just business).
Organization: In terms of organization, my life is already well-structured. I work part-time at the Anaheim YMCA (2-6pm) everyday and am concurrently enrolled at Cal State Fullerton. To organize the events and details of my life I not only keep a physical memory within my head, but also try to write down everything on a calendar to ensure I don’t unnecessarily “double-book”. Here’s an example of what happened this week in my life!
I try to keep my work environment and my computer as organized as possible. In contrast to many desktops, mine has only one thing: the recycle bin. My work files, pictures, video files, and school work are all separated into rather organized compartments on my computer. My physical files remain lodged within several drawers within my house, for easy access whenever I need to access them.
At the same time I also keep a running log (since 2010) of all the activities I have done every day for the past three years [as seen in my calendar updates]. Though some of these records might be public, it’s nice to have them to refer back to at the end of the day.
Prioritization: To keep my life orderly I at least prioritized one action each day to ensure I am well equipped for my future. Here’s my weekly progress report, with ONLY the events I deemed the most important of each day.
To make an orderly life, I needed an orderly space. And though my room is in the living room, I cleaned it on Monday. I also prepared for the future by having two job interviews that day. Tuesday I helped pick up my friend from the airport, running a rather essential “errand”. On Wednesday I cleaned up my Itunes library removing approximately 8 Gigs of music, freeing up the “disorderly” music that keeps me distracted from happiness (and importing the Imagine Dragons CD Amy lent me). An orderly music library = orderly songs to keep me going both on and off the road = an orderly life.
I also went to a YMCA Idea Fair that day to prepare myself for future activities to do with my high school students (but I also did get paid for doing so). I prioritized my need to get more involved in Campus Life researching CSUF’s entire club database on Thursday, finding approximately seven clubs I wish to join or stay involved in. I realized after last week reading was essential to my mental health, and enjoyable at the same time, so I attempted to go to Book-Off to find said books to read. I failed, but went to Westminster Library to check out approximately five books which I hope to eventually get through (they being all classics). Saturday entailed me ditching UCLA’s pillow fight to prioritize CPR and First Aid Training, even though it ended up getting cancelled anyway[though I did get paid]. I also had some motivational training at a presentation my friend dragged me to that day, where I got some slightly useful advice in goal-setting. Finally, on Sunday I researched all the books I need to rent at CSUF next week, as well as bought my $220 parking permit. I also re-activated my Twitter (removing all dead links), and deleted my Formspring account permanently.
The End Result: Though these activities were all important in the week, and allowed me to maintain a sense of order in my life in prioritizing these important elements over other activities, I still felt I could have done more. I give myself ultimately a B+. My life is already well structured, but at the same time it wouldn’t have hurt to think more outside of the box this week in terms of things I could have done.
Next Week: Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
