It takes discipline to carry out a set of actions or a schedule such as staying organized, but the core of discipline is motivation.
But instead of beating yourself up for being UNdisciplined, or “lazy”… think of it in a different way.
What’s your motivation to stay disciplined?
Let’s say you want to cut down on the frenzy that is your life.
You have so much going on, you are starting to forget and lose track of appointments.
Buying a date book at this point to organize your days, will do nothing for you.
What you need to do, is get motivated.
Ask yourself what it is that you really wanted to achieve out of getting that datebook.
Perhaps it could be one, some or all of the following:
- more time for yourself
- more time for your family
- being able to get personal errands done (like a dentist appointment?)
- feeling less stressed
- not being late
After you have the motivation and the goal(s) set in place, discipline follows naturally.
You have set the priority for having more free, unscheduled time.
If you don’t cut back, you can’t organize it.
Even the most organized person in the world has a limited number of hours in a day, but they stay organized, by editing, editing, editing.
So start by:
- saying no to invitations
- prioritizing the events that are important (another guilt-induced Tupperware party? not so much.)
- cutting back on the frenzy of your life
..and then pick up that datebook.
ReticentPurple
on Feb 4th, 2010
@ 2:44 am:
I really want to say thank you for this post! I've been stressing out a lot lately about being busy, and not following through with commitments, feeling lazy, and all that. So this post really hit home with me, and it's a wonderful piece of advice. I guess I just need to work on remembering that one setback does not equal failure. You're right, it's about staying motivated and continuing to work on things even after a setback. And thank you for that!
Non consumer Girl
on Feb 7th, 2010
@ 8:02 am:
Sometimes it is hard for me to say no to commitments, even though I know that I should because they are taking up time I would rather be somewhere else.
For example, I run into an acquantaince in the street, and they say, hey lets catch up over coffee, and I say sure, ring me,. This is even though, I really would rather spend time with one of my closer friends who I haven't had much time to see lately and whose friendship i really value.