How Being Organized Can Positively Affect Your Health

Hi, Beth here. Now that we got some of those technical difficulties out of the way, I wanted to talk to you today about how being organized can actually have a positive effect on your health. And there's ways that HomeZada can help with that too. Pardon my hands, I'm a talker like this. But when you are organized, there's a lot of different benefits that happen. To you physically and mentally. And one of those things that happens is when you are organized, you have less stress. And that stress can manifest into a lot of different things. When you have a lot of pressure and stress, you do one of— you do several things. The first thing you do is you place a lot of pressure on yourself. And you feel like you're constantly trying to keep up and you can never catch up. And that is just a very frustrating place to be. And because of that, you actually add more pressure to yourself. And so your self-stress and your self-pressure is really, really high. So first thing is, when you're organized, you can reduce your own personal pressure. The second thing that happens is you also reduce stress And your impact of stress on the others around you, whether it's your family, your friends, your children, your spouse, whatever the case may be, you actually reduce a lot of pressure on them as well. So, um, when you're stressed, there's a lot of anxiety and it manifests and it could cause more fights, it could cause more arguments. You can actually have a more positive relationship with the people around you. If you are better organized, so that takes care of some of the stress. The other thing that happens is when you are more organized, you are not looking for everything that you need in your house. Oftentimes, people lose their keys or they just can't find them right away, or they have have some sort of information that they need and they want that information, but they need it now or they needed it yesterday. And the place where they thought it was, it isn't there. So when you are organized and you have a systematic approach to where you leave things, meaning if you put your keys in the same spot, in the same counter, the same place in the kitchen every day— same thing with cell phones, people forget about cell phones— and then you do the same thing with certain paperwork or any other type of documents that you have. If you have them in a central location or in the same location that you can find them at all times Then you are no longer stressing out and searching for those items all throughout your house. And one of the things that happens when you misplace items is you're trying to find those items, and inevitably you're late to something else that you need to be to. And it's just one, um, snowball effect— no pun intended for the Northeasterners— but a snowball effect that happens When you are disorganized and when you're misplacing something, you're stressed out because you're gonna be late. And then all— everything starts, um, changing in your body. Your cortisol starts going haywire. You may grab the first crazy thing that you want to eat, and that's a piece of chocolate, because of course, who doesn't like chocolate? Unless you're allergic to it, and I'm so sorry. But you grab that first big piece of chocolate and you're just like, yes! This is making me feel better, but then the few pounds that I'm being— I'm adding are making me feel worse. So as you can see, the snowball effect happens when you are disorganized. Look at my little notes here. The next thing that also happens too is when you're disorganized, sometimes you find yourself paying bills late. You missed your mortgage. You just can't figure out where a document was that you needed to pay. Just, you were completely in a financial crunch and you're trying to figure out where you need to actually, um, deliver certain payments. What payments do you need to take care of? But all of these different stressors happen and they affect your finances oftentimes if you are practicing the same disorganization somewhere else. So we want to help you get organized. So getting organized can also reduce stress created through financial stress. The next thing you want to take a look at is— oh yes, I just love this part. When you have a disorganized environment, Let's say your home or an office. You know, this happens a lot if you're in a cube or in some sort of office. You have a lot of different items in those areas— houses, cars, offices, etc.— and all of those areas collect dust. And the more disorganized and the more clutter you have in these areas, the more likely you're going to get a massive accumulation of dust. So You have to either stay on top of dusting those areas regularly— regularly, I can't say that enough— or you risk getting ill. Dust accumulates, it brings a lot of germs with it. It also, um, can create breathing issues. So the more things that you have in certain locations, the more dusting you have to do. So another good idea of being organized through decluttering is helpful if you need to manage your time a little bit more effectively, because dusting can actually take a long time. Even if you are hiring out with cleaners, you still need to do touch-up on a regular basis. So removing some of the clutter from your house is another way to get organized Which also helps with your excuse me, your health, which is amazing, and also helps with your time because you're dusting and maneuvering things less. You also know exactly what you have in your house, exactly what you need, and nothing more. You can remove those items that you don't need. One of the things that happens, as we just discussed. for instance, like cleaning your house, is when you have more organization, you have more time for yourself, more time for your family, more time to get other things done that you feel are a priority. And I know a lot of people feel like some things are all a priority. That isn't the case. Um, it does require prioritization. It does. Your life does. Your life also requires If I can get organized and invest some time in the beginning of whatever project I need to do. I need to get my kids' schedule organized for the entire semester. I need to take my home inventory. I need to understand what it is I have to get done for the quarter. You know, both with kids, with home maintenance, with paying bills, with hosting birthdays. I've got birthday parties coming up, or I've got this, or I need to go for spring break. But getting all of that organized ahead of time and prior to it actually happening will also help free up time for other things. And it's an investment in time, but it frees up time for other things like maybe getting your workout in. And for me, that is absolutely critical. I work out every morning and without fail, and that's where I take as a priority. So I look at those types of things and I have less pressure trying to get that workout done later in the day because I've put it as a priority at the top of the day. I'm looking at my notes here because I wanted to make sure that I covered so many different things. Oh, I love this part. These 2 last 2 things that I wanted to share with you of being organized and how it affects your health. If you are organized, you actually become more productive. Let me say that again. If you are organized, you actually become more productive. And that means you can get more done in your day. That means if you are organized and you're working at your job all day, you actually have a highly productive day versus something that is, where is this? Where is that? I don't know where it is. And then you're literally going like this, going, oh my gosh, I'm gonna pull my hair out. Yes, I did that. And, um, you're looking at that and you're stressed out and you're not enjoying what you do. And I'm just a firm believer, if you can get yourself organized, why shouldn't you enjoy what you do? That's just my own thought. I love what I do and I wouldn't have it any other way, but I also want to be productive. In what I do. So I prepare my schedule the week before. Actually, I prepare it sometimes on Sundays so that I can get everything organized for the week, and it takes me maybe an hour. So I take away 1 hour of my Sunday to get organized on my schedule and all the work I have to get done, along with some of the personal aspects I have to get done, and it's a win-win for everybody. So I love that part. By all means, if anyone else has any tips or suggestions on getting organized and how it helps your health, please comment and we'll also share those as well. And then the next thing, and finally the last thing, is if you are better organized and you have a more productive day and you have less stress, you have amazing sleep. Yep, I said it. Amazing sleep. Sleep is so critical to your health, and some people need a little bit of sleep. Some people need a lot of sleep. I am one of these people. Six hours is a perfect amount of sleep for me, and I can function at the highest level. However, some people need a full eight to nine hours, which is totally normal and is recommended by a lot of. um, specialist. But the reality is, to get that quantity of sleep, the rest of your day really needs to be organized very, very precisely and very well. And if you want that sleep and you want it solid and not restless, you definitely need to be better organized. So some of the suggestions are Get organized by reducing the clutter around your house. Get organized by preparing for your week ahead of time. Get organized by getting the family on the same page. Even getting a calendar, whether it's an electronic calendar that you share with everybody or you have a big wall calendar. Maybe you've got a chalkboard wall and you've got this giant calendar that you switch out every month, but on that calendar you've got listed who is going where And that way the whole family can see what it is. Same thing goes for, uh, like a chore calendar, um, or a chore board. Some people, family members together, share in the chore responsibility or the household activity responsibilities. If you can set it aside for the month, then everyone knows where they need to be or what needs to get done. Same thing with schedules. Same thing with, um, unexpected events, you know. Mm-hmm. Make sure there's some free time for unexpected events because they do come up. And then create locations in your house that are central for specific items. Some of those items might be keys and cell phones. You know, I like having a centralized workstation where there's all the cords that you can plug in for all your electronic devices. You know, in today's day and age, what do we have? A bazillion iPads and tablets, and then we have laptops and Kindles and phones, and the list is long. And I have 2 distinct areas, one for my husband and one for me. I don't have children, but I would designate one for children if I had children because there's just a lot of electronics. The other thing that I would consider is If you can store some things electronically in a central location where you and your spouse can access that information— if you are married, if you and your spouse can access that information should anyone need it in a crunch— I highly recommend that. Whatever tools you use, whether it's, um, cloud-based OneNote, whether it's Dropbox, whatever, make sure you use those systems so that You can get access to it as well as your other family members if you give access to other people, and they can actually access those documents in case there's an emergency or a need. Firm believer in that. And, um, I'm trying to think what else. I think I've looked at it. So, um, knowing that you can be organized actually has a positive impact on your health. Have at it. Invest your time. Get organized. You have all year to do it. So exciting. And take little projects at a time. That's the one thing I will leave this conversation with. Take little projects at a time. The more pressure you put on yourself, the more you stress out and you end up doing nothing versus setting realistic expectations and goals. And if you do have a delay, and I have that this year happening for me, there's a particular I'm organizing my photos online and I couldn't get to it in the month that I wanted to get to it, which is March, because I have another project that kind of crept over from February. And I'm okay with that because I'm gonna have it in April, which is good. I'm just gonna get all my photos organized in April. So I don't beat myself up over it. I don't stress out over it. I just set a new deliverable date of when that project is going to be finished. And I established a new deadline. So take baby steps, enjoy, get organized, and stay healthy. Have a great day. Bye.