It’s July, and we’re halfway through 2024.
This month, Her magazine features young women entrepreneurs.
Ironically, July happens to be my three-year anniversary (36 articles) of writing specifically for Her in roughly 25,000 words. This blows my mind.
I suppose, as a self-proclaimed entrepreneur, we do what it takes to relay our message and share our passion. I love sharing hands-on experiences and knowledge gained since the launch of Organizer Jessi in 2021.
As long as I can remember, I’ve always embraced order as part of my lifestyle — certainly not a fad or quick fix in a pinch.
Organization
• Encourages my overall confidence.
• Confirms my possessions and documents are current and manageable.
• Greatly decreases stress in every way imaginable.
• Provides clarity when creating a schedule.
• Allows my people access to what I’m up to.
• Enhances my gratitude towards others when they spend time with me.
• Simplifies my future forecast and direction I achieve to take.
• Provides clarity for myself and caretakers down the road.
We are conditioned at a very early age what “normal” is. Habits, routines, communication and follow-through are life-long organizational skills.
Growing up, did I always understand the reason behind taking our shoes off, picking up after ourselves and cleaning every weekend? Of course not. Did I always enjoy this routine? Did I understand the mold I was filling? Of course not.
Looking back, I’m thankful and today that my day-to-day reflects this.
Organization has shaped and enhanced all 43 years of my life. I can look back and appreciate that I rarely was late, unprepared or overextended in my social and work commitments. That proves organization is a positive contributing life factor.
For example, when I relocated for college, a huge milestone, organization simplified the process.
Its easy to say that having an organized checklist of tasks to complete during the process was the secret.
• Register for college — yes. Pick a school.
• Apply for all available grants/loans.
• Find a place to live
• Establish a new bank account.
• Establish a file system.
• Set up utilities.
• Find care providers.
• Meet the neighbors.
• Get a job.
• Create a daily schedule/routine to maintain school/work/social/family and travel.
Organization is about clearly identifying our tasks/goals and creating our agenda.
Life easily can turn into a scene from “Groundhog Day,” so we might as well enjoy what we are doing. Clear priorities ultimately can help us factor in and out what we like and dislike in our daily schedule.
Start by establishing a timeline to complete task(s).
What are you doing and how long do you think it will take to achieve. Remember, some tasks are ongoing, so to say “complete” is misleading.
Acknowledge success along the way, and make sure to recognizing our achievements once completed.
My checklist of relocating appears simple, but as anyone who has moved knows, the list is not something that can be achieved in one day. This was a process, and I focused on the order of steps needed taken to complete the process.
Throughout the years, organization always had my back. This has to be the hardest concept to explain, so I let my lifestyle, examples and completed projects do most of the talking.
If you ask any entrepreneur how they keep trucking, I’m optimistic some form of organization is high on the priority list.
Jessi Bushman is a professional organizer, member of the Iowa Professional Organizers Association and owner of Organizer Jessi in Dubuque. Visit her at organizerjessi.com.
