Episode #151 - Mastering Sustainable Habits with Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Checklists

Hey there, welcome to organizing with ease, the podcast for busy moms, professionals and families who just want life to feel a little more, well, easy. I'm Diana Moll, a professional organizer, and I know firsthand how overwhelming clutter and chaos can be. That's why each week we're breaking it down step by step, little by little, with simple tips, real life stories and expert advice to help you create a home that feels like a sanctuary. Plus,

I'll bring on some amazing guests to share their best organizing, productivity, and lifestyle hacks. So grab your coffee, take a deep breath, and let's get started. Difference between getting organized and staying organized is consistency. Let's talk about making organization part of your everyday life. Welcome back to Organizing with Ease. I'm your host, Diana Moll, and today we're wrapping up our March Madness series by taking all the hacks, strategies, and organizing tricks we've talked about and making sure they stick. If this is your first time tuning in, I'm so glad you're here. And of course, for my long time listeners, welcome back. I always appreciate you showing up each week to take small steps toward a more organized life. So let's just start. If you've been following along, we've covered the following. We covered the top three rule for reducing overwhelm, the Sunday checklist to set up your week for success, the two minute tidy to keep clutter under control, the drop zone method for everyday essentials. But here's the real question. How do we turn these into everyday habits? How many times have you started a new routine? Raise your hand, think about it. Are you saying, huh, only to fall off track within a few weeks, a month, two months, maybe life got too hectic. you lost motivation or things slowly started to pile up again. Trust me when I say you are not alone. It shows about 80 % of the people abandon their organizing systems within six weeks if they don't build sustainable habits from the American Productivity Research Institute. So today we're gonna be talking about the next step, how to turn organizing hacks into habits.

How to stay on track when life gets hectic. Happens to us all. How to adjust and improve without getting discouraged. And of course, I'm gonna be asking you some really important questions along the way because the best organizing system is the one that works for you. So let's dive in. Step one, we want to start small and build up step by step, little by little.

Studies show that starting with small, manageable changes increases the likelihood of sticking with a new habit by 70%. Journal of the Behavioral of Science. One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to stay organized is doing too much too fast. They spend a whole weekend overhauling their space, only to feel burnt out and overwhelmed when life gets busy again. Have you done that?

Have you actually spent a weekend or maybe two to three days during the weekday to overhaul your entire space and then to come to find out it's where you want it to be and then what? Well, how about this? Sometimes we don't get to do the overhaul over the weekend. And if we do, it's not the way that we want it. This is how we're gonna fix that. We're gonna fix one small habit and we're gonna commit to it. We're gonna pick one area, your entryway, your desk, your kitchen counters. your bedroom. Set a tiny goal like resetting that space every evening for five minutes. And in the show notes, I'm going to attach my daily, weekly, and nightly routine checklist, just so that you have that readily available and it's an easy go-to just to look it over so that you understand what I mean by setting a tiny goal. Once that's second nature, you move on to the next habit.

So example, why does this work? Well, if you tried to use and organize your entire home all at once, how did it feel? Did it feel overwhelming? Were you burnt out within a week? Cause it wasn't where you wanted to get it done as far as organizing. Why don't we just start with a nightstand, keeping it clutter free for a month. And then what happens is,

It becomes second nature. It becomes part of your routine. It becomes part of what you do daily, nightly, weekly. And from there, you can move on to the next, possibly your closet, and then onto your home office, one step at a time. So what's one small organizing habit you can commit to daily? That's my question to you. Step two.

Link your organizing habits to something you already do. Like linking a new habit to an existing one, increase long-term success by 90%. So what do I mean by that? Like, how are we gonna fix that? We're gonna fix it by, we're gonna pair your organizing habits with something you already do. Here we go. Thinking, are you thinking about this? So let's go through some motions.

While you're making coffee in the morning, do a two minute tidy of your kitchen counters. If you didn't do it the night before, try it in the morning. What I do while my coffee is brewing, I actually take out my dishes out of the dishwasher since I run the dishwasher the night before. Before heading to bed, spend five minutes resetting your living room. Put those blankets away, fluff up the pillows, put the remote controls back, simple steps.

when brushing your teeth, why don't you try to mentally review your top three priorities for the next day, or just have a moment and just brush your teeth without thinking of anything and making sure that you get your teeth all cleaned and make sure that at the end of the night, you do take care of your self care. Cause I don't know about you, but I actually have a morning night routine. Taking care of myself also involves morning and night for skincare. which if you have not yet started is probably something you might want to invest in. So why does this work? All right, so I'm gonna give a little bit of an example of what and why. So if you are one that struggles by putting away your, let's say your work bag or your kids put away their backpacks every day, instead of leaving it like on the couch, by the door when they walk in or when you walk in, try to find or...

maybe even get a basket for that item. So item could be the backpack for the kids. I have a client that actually has two large baskets and her boys need to put the backpack in the baskets when they come home from school. If you have, again, if you have a work bag or what about taking off your shoes by the front door when you walk into your home? I don't know about you, but there've been times where I've been always... searching for that one pair that seems to have disappeared. Well, guess what? You're not alone. I know I did it. I've done it. I sometimes had that happen as well. But now I have shoe organization, which is crucial. And it actually is one of the most overlooked areas in the home. But it does make sense to have your shoes organized so that you are less stressed and overwhelmed when you need to walk outside the door and you're looking for that perfect shoe. and or sneakers, which has happened before. Again, a basket by the door, shoe racks wherever on the side, maybe in the garage, maybe even in the mudroom, an area for the shoes. It's really crucial to have a well-organized shoe area because it saves time and reduces stress. Hey there, I just wanna take a quick break from today's episode to share something really exciting with you. If you've been feeling overwhelmed by clutter, struggling to keep up organizing your home or just wishing you had a simple systems in place to make life easier? Well, guess what? I've got something special for you. I'm hosting a free live webinar card, Spring Into Order on April the 15th at 12 p.m. Eastern time. And you're invited. We're gonna talk about the real benefits of spring cleaning, practical decluttering tips, easy organizational systems and time saving techniques. So if you've been saying I need to get organized, this is your sign.

register to the link below in the show notes and save your spot before it fills up. All right, now back to today's episode, but seriously, don't wait. Let's spring into order together. Now, here's a question for you. What's one organizing habit you can connect to something you already do? Again, what's one organizing habit you can connect to something you already do? Same what I just gave you. I gave you those examples of the shoes, the backpacks. maybe your office bag, whatever it might be. But just think, within a few weeks, it's gonna become automatic. Step three, set up visual cues and reminders. Some people use visual reminders because the fact that it's easy for them to stick to those organizing habits easier when it's visually there, when their reminders are there. Have you ever walked into a messy room and immediately feel overwhelmed? Like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh moment.

That's because your environment impacts your habits. The more visual clutter you see, the harder it is to stay organized. So if you're asking yourself, how are you going to fix it? You're going to use visual cues to help your habits so that they can stick. You can use a sticky note in the kitchen to remind yourself to clean as you cook. Just saying, you could.

Place a small basket by the door for items that need to be put away. Set up on your phone an alert to do a five minute tidy up before bed. Just examples. So if you can, try to check your weekly calendar. Start by leaving your planner maybe open on the counter. What if you don't use a planner, like a real planner, and you use digital? Send a reminder. Listen, check your...

Check your planner, look at your dates to follow your calendar. If you can put reminders on your phone to feed the dog, to take your vitamins, you can definitely do the same to check your weekly calendar. So if you do that, that is one small change that can get you more organized without that extra effort. So here is another question for you. What's one simple visual cue that will help you stay organized. Again, what's one simple visual cue that could help you stay organized? Step four, expect setbacks and adjust as needed. You heard me right. People who plan for setbacks are 60 % more likely to stay consistent with their organizing habits from the University of California study. The reality is you will miss a day because why?

Oh yeah, that's right, life happens. What matters is how you adjust and get back on track. Again, you get off a day, but you need to come back again. So the fix for this is instead of giving up, make sure you have your plan. You've got your list, you've got your checklist, you got that reset plan. If you miss a day, great, don't feel guilty about it. Just pick up where you left off. If the system isn't working, tweak it, organizing. is about what works for you and your family and your partner. And if it's you and you're single, what makes it for you? If your space gets messy, remind yourself that progress is the goal, not the perfection. I had a client of mine, tried to, we actually did try to set up a Sunday checklist, but it was a struggle to do everything at once. So instead of quitting, what she did was she broke the checklist into two smaller checklists. So she took one for Saturday and then one for Sunday. And that small tweak made it a lot more doable for her. And now it's part of her weekly routine. So again, you take a Sunday checklist, you have something in the plan, but if it doesn't work, see how you could make it work. And so she did again by splitting it up. Of course you can split it up. as long as you can get those things done and those tasks and it's doable, manageable for you. My question now for this one is, what's one organizing habit you've struggled with and how could you adjust to make it easier? Something to think about. This fresh start method is making it stick. That's something you're like, what are you talking about? Well, sure, we want to identify habits that need improvements. habits that we've created, there needs to be some type of a tweaking. We definitely don't want to drop what isn't working. We want to keep what it is, what is, what is working. We want to keep that going. We want to set up easy to follow routines, small daily steps, keep things organized long-term. So here is my challenge for the week. Choose one organizing habit from today's episode and commit to it for the next seven. days. Remember, small start, make it easy and see how it changes your space. April is coming about and what are we going to have? We of course are going to have our April Spring Series, Spring into Simplicity. Now that we've built our habits, let's take it to the next level. Let's do it. Spring cleaning, home refresh, simplifying every area of your home. And that's what we're going to be covering in April.

So get ready for an exciting new month of transformation. Until next time, step by step, little by little, let's keep making progress. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe to Organizing With Ease podcast on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review. Your feedback helps us grow and reach more listeners like you who are passionate about living their best lives. And remember, a new episode comes out every Thursday at 8 a.m.

So mark your calendar and join us. Until next week, take care and keep shining.