“Getting Organized is a sign of self-respect”

Gabrielle Bernstein

It is well documented online that getting or being organised is good for your mental health – it’s linked with improved sleep and relationships, reduced stress anxiety and depression, increased focus energy and spare time among many other things.

I follow the mantra that it takes time to make time so when things get a bit crazy, I pop on the kettle and grab the tea pot. I’m a huge fan of Ringtons Loose Leaf Northumbrian Blend Tea for many reasons – firstly it tastes phenomenal and there is really no tea bag that can compare. But the real reason I use loose leaf tea when I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, is because I use it as a form of meditation.

Tea Meditation is something I try to do once a week – I get up early on a Saturday and I have 15-20 minutes peace with my own thoughts. I follow a ritual documented by Graeme Armstrong of Mindless Counselling and I find that by taking this time to myself, I have a much clearer focus.

Now, I appreciate not everyone wants to get up early to drink tea – so when you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed give yourself 5 uninterupted minutes… Watch the kettle boil, think about the movement of the bubbles floating around and irrupting on the surface. See the grains of sugar fall into the cup like sand flowing in the desert. Pour the water, listen to the sound of it falling into your mug like a miniature waterfull. Stir it around, watch the bag swirling in a vortex. If you use the loose leaf, watch as the grains of tea flow and infusing leaving trails in the water. As you pour in the milk, focus on the transformation of the colour. Feel calmer yet? Thought so!

Take your mug and find a quiet spot – if you can go outside, close your eyes and smell the tea, listen to the birds, the wind, the traffic and count to 10 slowly. If you can’t go outside, try sitting down and doing the same… listen breathe and count. Now you’re ready to begin to organise your life.

Grab a pen (I love my Breast Cancer Awareness Pentel Energel (affiliate link) because it’s an amazing writer… it will change your life!) and paper – plain paper is best at this point and write everything thats on your mind. Get everything down and onto the page – the dog, the shopping, the kids, the housework, work, your Husband / Wife… anything and everything that has had you feeling wound up.

Theres a few ways you can categorise your thoughts from here to make an actionable to do list later:

• By due date – this works well if you have lots of things with a deadline, such as buying a gift for a birthday
• By location or room – such as if several things require you to go shopping or visiting friends and family
• You could choose a combination of both

Next, take a highlighter or a coloured pen (I love the PaperMate Flair collection (affiliate link) because they’re so smooth) and colour code things based on your chosen grouping.

When you’ve finished colour coding your brain dump, rewrite it in the new groups. Leaving some space to one side. Then you can take each group and prioritise it, give it a logical order such as a cleaning list… e.g. you wouldn’t mop before you hoover, or give things a deadline – this will help you to work efficiently through your list when you come to work on it.

Top tips;

1. If you find you have lots of things due at the same time, consider how you can delegate
2. If you have any quick wins you might want to regroup them together and dedicate a block of time to work on them
3. Do you have any regular commitments that you can double up together? For example, my vets and doctors are a 2 min walk from each other, so if I need medication for Ted I will often check if I also need a repeat prescription and collect them both together. My hairdressers is around the corner so if I have an appointment I will check leave earlier and collect the medication before my appointment.
4. If you have a diary, start plotting when you can realistically work on each mini to do list you’ve created.