Some people are really great at simply staying organized. Wait, did I say simply? There is nothing simple about organization. It’s a personality trait you have or you don’t. You might be able to learn it. I know I struggle with it.

One thing I learned from taking a personality test (Big Five, not Myers Briggs), was that conscientiousness was the trait that had to do with being organized. Somehow that finally made things click in my head that when some of us look at a pile of stuff and label it junk and others will look at the same pile as treasured belongings – we see the same pile, but we treat our stuff differently. Does it mean the cluttered people respect it less? I guess the personality test might think so.

But there are other kinds of organization that fit right in, and maybe that will strike a chord, too. What about how we organize our time? Just as there’s a spectrum from the organized binder with color-coded tabs for each category to the lost stack of papers in the bottom of the locker, there are people that manage their time to get enough things done that make others look like they simply played video games all day.

Wait, some of them were just playing video games all day! Was that you?

I’m the type who sometimes looks at the piles and feels compelled to clear it out, pick it up, organize it to inches. When I say it’s done, a room is beautiful. [I swear it’s happened once or twice.] I am the one to put books on the shelves alphabetically by author then title with different sections for genre, but I have trouble keeping it that way. In six months there will be books piled sideways on top where I ran out of shelf space and ran into another magazine that looked so interesting I had to read it.

My days go similarly, but with a better track record of efficiency. Well, I think it’s better. My blog record isn’t the best indicator of this in the past six months. However, my two year old gets most of my time and attention since we stay home together all day. Example: we’re currently working on colors. Red = red. Orange = Apple. Yellow = Lellow, rarely yellow. Green doesn’t exist in her vocabulary, but she doesn’t mind drawing with it. Blue = Boo. Purple = Pohple. Brown = Bown. Black = B[w]ack. Gray is confusing. Pink = Pink! White = WHITE!

I’m focusing during her naps to get my writing projects going in a forwardly progressive direction. Somehow when she’s down for the night it’s more difficult for me to manage the energy required to delve deeply into the rewriting and editing needed for the book I’m working on. Not impossible – and I’m starting to get a plan to get what I need and still socialize with my husband in the evening when I’m done working.

Planning is one thing – implementation is another. So many things look good on paper, but fail in the workings. The only thing for certain is that I will continue working toward my goals, even though they keep changing. Changing goals are not an issue. Never working to meet those goals, never having goals to work toward, that would make it difficult to get anything accomplished.

So this coming week, I’ll have my plan written out and be working on the implementation. I’m not sure you should wish me luck – but definitely wish me determination!