I have a weird obsession with organising and planning: I love to read about both or watch videos, but I’m generally rather sceptical about applying all that advice. I often feel that people spend so much energy on finding the perfect system for organising their life that there will be very little energy left for actually living the life. Mostly, I’m completely fine with an old-fashioned list or three. That said, I fully acknowledge that people are different and some need more structure than others. And I admit that even I have found a few elements of the Planning-Organisational Complex useful.

1. Setting aside a specific time for life admin. This one is partly stolen from MuchelleB, an Australian lifestyle Youtuber. I don’t do it exactly the way she does and it’s obviously very dependent on how much logistic and practical stuff you are dealing with in your life. However, I think the general principle can be useful for many people, you just need to decide how often you do it. My preferred time is Sunday afternoon, ideally every week (I don’t have that much to take care of, but it can get time sensitive if I leave it for two weeks). During the week, I write down all the practical stuff that is not burning: the bills I need to pay, the e-mails I need to write, the things I need to locate, the drawers I need to declutter. Then I forget about all of them until the designated time and try to get everything on the list done in a space of an hour or so. This means I’m not fretting about these things 24/7, I have given myself permission to deal with them later. As I say, this of course does not work with issues that need to be handled immediately, but most things are not that urgent.

2. Calendar blocking. Now, I’m not a calendar-blocker, but I’m aware it exists. I think the first tutorial I saw on this was by Amy Landino – go check it out if you are not familiar with the concept. In a very small nutshell, it means blocking time in your calendar for everything you do: work, family time, exercise, hobbies, sleeping, eating, etc. As I said, I cannot live like that and my work is way too unpredictable anyway to make this practice useful. However, I think everyone can benefit from doing it once in a while, just to see where our time actually goes and how much of it we actually have. I am constantly overestimating the number of hours in a day (hence no sleep). Calendar blocking is a great reality check; that hour or two spent on social media in the evening suddenly seems a much worse idea when you realise it’s a quarter of the time you have available post-work on any given day.

3. Outfit planning. I have talked about this before and if you are a spontaneous dresser who abhors planning, believe me, I feel you. HOWEVER. If I, a notoriously fickle dresser, can benefit from thinking through some outfits, I believe most people can (and you are always free to change your mind in the morning). In my case, it’s not that I cannot come up with any outfits, I can. My challenge is to have all relevant elements clean and ready in my wardrobe, including all the necessary enabling pieces (tights, suitable underwear, bags, shoes, etc). I try not to keep anything in my ‘immediate’ cupboard that isn’t ready to go. Combining things into outfits and thinking them through helps to make sure that I actually have the right footwear or belt for everything. It saves me a lot of stress in the morning without pre-determining my choice. But I’ll have options.

4. Combining things. This one can be tricky, as sometimes you end up distracting yourself from the original task at hand instead – you cannot focus on two things at the same time. If you are clever, though, it’s a good way to get the most out of your time. My main things are listening to podcasts (and also music, in a more focused way) when I walk, cook or clean; combining my evening skincare routine with Youtube videos (lifestyle stuff for the blog, US evening shows for politics) and reading when commuting. However, I would also recommend leaving yourself time when you can just think and ponder and puzzle things out: do not take out your phone every single time you have a free minute! I don’t have dozens of bullet journals, but that’s partly because I do a lot of my planning in my head, on the go. I’m constantly scheduling blog posts, creating menus, putting together outfits. And once I have it figured out in our head, it’s almost done.

Are you a planner? A Marie Kondo devotee? Does your life run like clock-work? Share your tips and struggles!

PS The picture shows the real situation on my office desk. I did not move a single thing (although I made squiggles on my badge for security reasons). There are actually areas that are worse.