Learn How to Bee More Organized

I am a huge fan of TED Talks, which are amazing speeches by some of the brightest and best minds in the world on widely varying topics. I listen to them as a podcast when exercising or working around the house–incredibly enriching! I just listened to Deborah Gordon talking about ants and how they know what tasks to perform in the colony, and it reminded me of one of my earliest inspirations about organization– another social insect, honeybees.

When I was growing up we actually raised bees for a little while. I think we had two hives when I was about ten or eleven years old. I read the giant ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture book cover-to-cover, and I would get in there all geared up and use the cedar smoker to calm them down before we opened up the hives. I have never been stung by a bee in my life and am not afraid of them. I find these creatures industrious, inspiring, and simply lovely.

Here are some organizing lessons from the bees (just a few of many):

1. They have a place for everything and everything in its place, with excellent, efficient storage. The honeycomb they intuitively build is a marvel of engineering and stores honey and pollen and incubates eggs.
2. Bees have systems and routines! And they work together to keep those systems going every day. They do not wait around and procrastinate their work.
3. Bees bring home only as much as they can carry. They have pollen baskets on their legs that help collect pollen and bring it back to the hive. They do not have Hummers that they can load up at the "Costco of flowers" and bring home excessive amounts of stuff they don't need. They also know exactly what they are shopping for and don't deviate from their lists.  🙂
4. Bees think ahead. They put away extra honey for when they need it, and they anticipate the seasons and do what is necessary to prepare for each time of the year.

Bees and other social insects are truly the epitome of an organized society. They all have very clear jobs to do and they simply do them. Imagine what we can all do if we put our minds to it and focused the way the bees do.

Do you love bees too? Are you inspired by other animal behavior in your life and work? Share your thoughts in the comments!  (Photo here from Flickr by Peter Shanks)

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