As a Professional Organizer, I talk with people a lot about overcoming procrastination when they are trying to get organized. Sometimes that is one of the biggest reasons our clients hire organizers– because they can’t seem to make themselves set aside the time to do it! But the overwhelming majority of the time, once people get started, they have no trouble continuing. The problem is The Getting Started.
You may remember from science class about Newton’s 1st Law of Motion, which states:
An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an external and unbalanced force. An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external and unbalanced force.
In other words, a couch potato will likely remain a couch potato unless an external and unbalanced force, say, the desire for a cheeseburger, causes him to get up and put forth energy. And a busy person who is in the middle of a project is likely to continue working until a different kind of force is asserted, such as a need for additional supplies or something. You have probably experienced being in "flow state" or "getting on a roll" and accomplishing a lot.
What is going to be the "force" that breaks you through inertia to just GET STARTED? Only you know for sure, but for a lot of people are motivated by guests coming over… whatever it is, engineer that motivation for yourself and know that once you get going, it will take another kind of force to slow you down! Working on organizing projects creates results, which help keep you going and motivated to do the next project.
This person’s blog post is a great description of overcoming inertia to organize a closet! Way to go!
That’s totally me, especially with dishes. They will pile up and I’ll stare at them dreading starting, but the moment I start, I whip through them and really enjoy the process. I even dry them and put them away immediately.
And yet, every day I fight starting.