While most of us - 81 percent, according to a survey of 600 adults commissioned by the Franklin Covey Co. - consider ourselves organized, 83 percent also said that getting more organized was one of their goals.

It appears that in the midst of managing our chaotic daily lives - work, school, swim practice, dance recitals, dinner, volunteering, cleaning - the majority of us are craving some structure…a bit of refinement to keep things in order.

What are YOU dreaming of getting organized? Your bedroom closet? Your stacks of mail? Your desk at work? Your schedule?

"If only I could get this organized," you think, "I could finally breathe a sigh of relief."

Yet, for some reason, you are resisting getting your closet, your desk or your schedule organized, not because you don't know how to, but because deep-down you really don't want to.

"The most common causes of keeping our lives in disarray are resistance and wanting to be out of control," says Hale Dwoskin, CEO and director of Sedona Training Associates. "When you feel like you have to get organized, just like with any feeling of 'have to,' you feel like you do not want to, which is a form of resistance."

Indeed, at the heart of most people's messiness is not a lack of knowledge of how to be organized, but an emotional resistance to it.

"After all, when your life is in disarray you do not need to take responsibility for what is happening, or not happening, to you because you have this built-in excuse," Dwoskin says.

"Fortunately, resistance is just another feeling that can be easily released with The Sedona Method," he says.

What is The Sedona Method? It's an incredibly simple, yet extremely powerful, tool that will show you how to throw your resistance to the wind, as easily as you can throw a ball. When you do this, you'll find that keeping things how you want them, which in this case is organized, will be a snap.

"Also, if you notice that you are simply having the feeling of wanting to be out of control or wanting to not have to deal with life and you let it go, these feelings, too, can turn around with ease," Dwoskin says.

Now that you've learned how to address your emotional blocks to finally getting yourself organized, here are some other practical steps that you can follow:

1. Turn off the TV (or watch less of it). You'll be amazed at how much time it clears up for you to take care of other things.
2. Go through your mail as soon as you bring it in. Throw away junk mail and file bills and other important papers.
3. Do your grocery shopping once a week, rather than scooting to the store every other day.
4. Get rid of clutter in your home, purse and briefcase (and stop buying more of it). If you don't use it or absolutely love it, give it away!
5. If you have more than one of the same item, give the extras away (be honest, how many kitchen spatulas do you really need?).
6. Keep track of what you need to do using a To-do list, and update it every evening to include tomorrow's essential tasks.
7. Delete e-mails that you don't need, file those that you do (and keep your Inbox clear).
8. Break big projects into manageable pieces.
9. List your home improvement projects in order of importance, then tackle them one at a time (instead of starting all of them, which is sure to have you living in chaos for some time).
10. Keep a family calendar where you can keep track of all of your family's appointments. You can also use this for your business appointments (just write the business appointments in a different color from the personal ones).

Source

USA Weekend Magazine