In a professional sense, being organized is an extremely valuable trait to have. Most jobs and employers look for organization when recruiting for their organization, while those who are organized are often thought of more highly when considered to be a romantic prospect. But, being organized can actually help you have a clearer mind, too. The expression ‘tidy house, tidy mind’ is more than just a platitude and as we have seen through cleaning sensations such as Mrs. Hinch and Marie Kondo, being organized can actually benefit your mental wellbeing. Here’s how organization can help you lead a healthier life.
What Does the Science Say?
A study actually identified that those who lived in a cluttered house full of unfinished projects had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol than those who lived in restful or restorative surroundings. The messiness is often correlated in your brain with having more work to do, and unfinished projects also subconsciously tack themselves onto the to-do list. To have a clearer house helps you feel as though you have fewer outstanding tasks.
Another study identified that those who worked at messier desks were more likely to choose unhealthy snacks. The study found that those who had more stressful working surroundings would more likely opt for a coping mechanism in the form of a sugar rush. While similarly, those who have trained themselves to be more organized are better able to stick to exercise regimes and plans to keep themselves physically healthy. Understanding that organization is better for our health and actually knowing how to implement this to lead a healthier life are two different things.
What Can We Do About It?
Being more organized is a state of mind, which through repetition can become second nature and help inform our actions. This could be as simple as ensuring our homes are always tidy or that we always clean up after ourselves in a timely manner. Alternatively, this could involve more abstract aspects of life that are actually preying on our minds inadvertently. For instance, those who run their own businesses might be worried about organization aspects of the business and should stay on top of the business aspect of life admin. As the small business insurance quotes show, there are simple ways that ensure businesses are fully covered from general liability to professional errors and omissions which can help protect the business and make it feel better organized.
Others may be worried about their friendships and feel they themselves are disorganized. You could do something as simple as ensuring they plan in advance to socialize with friends, so you’re not left feeling disorganized at the last minute. Even your worrying can be made more organized. Choose a specific time of day to ruminate over problems, write them down, and then go and focus on other things.
Organization is easy once you begin to train your brain to do it properly. The science suggests that being messy and disorganized is bad for us and can affect our mental wellbeing. There could be a number of reasons why our specific lives feel disorganized, so the first step is to decide which aspect is secretly causing us so much stress. Once we teach ourselves to be more organized, we’ll see how much more ordered life can be.
