These Simple Organization Tools Made Me the Most Successful Person In The Room
Everything you need to do to offload the mental load and live your best life yet
You may not think cleaning out your junk drawer is going to change your life. At one point in my life I actually felt this way too. I have always enjoyed organization projects, but it had never been about functionality early on, it was always about looking pretty. These projects always fell apart with time, becoming unorganized once again as the spaces were used over and over.
It probably wasn’t until I was in medical school that I realized the true need for efficiency. Don’t get me wrong, I was busy before medical school. I worked three jobs to pay my way through my undergraduate degree. I picked a major that didn’t come close to covering the honors courses and pre-medical courses required to graduate and get into medical school. This required me to take 20-hour course loads most semesters. I slept around 4-5 hours most nights. I was busy, but I was not yet efficient. I was in the ‘pour myself a bowl of Wheaties on my way out the door in the morning and call it good’ phase of life. My health was suffering, my mental health was declining, and I was on the fast track to an early grave. I didn’t even realize at this time how much opportunity I was missing out on to be present in my life and focus on what was meaningful. It was in full on survival mode every day.
In medical school I learned the value of being efficient. Being successful in medical school where everything is cut-throat really came down to efficiency. I couldn’t have made it through functioning the way I had in college. I learned that if I could hit three different errands on my route home from my classes I wouldn’t lose time on multiple commutes and could get all the necessary tasks done for the week in one go. It was about how can you make the absolute most of your time, the same time everyone else has, so that you could have an edge. This wasn’t me trying to be the top of my class, quite literally I was just trying to get through it. Medical school was hard and you needed all the time you could get.
Heard the phrase ‘time is money?’ This became my new survival. Efficiency became a super power that allowed me a couple more hours of sleep, time to actually cook a meal, or sometimes just more time to study. When you are efficient you allow yourself more time for things that matter more. At that point in my life, studying and sleep. But now, efficiency means I get more time for doing what I love with the people I love. I’m not spending week day nights making grocery store runs or returning packages. I’m not digging around for my keys while I run out the door. Instead I’m sitting down to meals with my significant other and working on my latte art.
This was the time in my life when the value of organization became about function not aesthetic. When weekly planning became about consolidating tasks into one route that I could get done in an hour or two rather than randomly spaced out throughout the week. Yes, it requires some leg work upfront. But I promise you, even if you consider yourself the most unorganized person in the world, creating functionality in your home and life is not only doable but will quite literally change your life.
Imagine feeling less stressed, having clearer thoughts, and gaining a sense of control even when everything around you feels uncertain. By prioritizing what truly matters—like spending time with loved ones, nurturing our hobbies, or simply finding moments to relax—we can transform our daily experiences. This article gives you relatable strategies for getting organized and simple changes that create a more peaceful and fulfilling life.
These were hard earned life skills that have made me the most successful person in any room (and dare I say most fulfilled, too).