How to Get Your Life Together: 27 Ways that Make a Big Impact
Feeling like you’re all over the place and need some guidance on how to get your life together? Same. Sometimes, I’ve got deadlines out to wazoo, a disaster of an apartment, and a toddler who (while just the best) seems to grow more demanding with each passing day.
So today I am sharing with you 27 ways to get your life together and, in the process, set yourself up for success. These are the same tips I use and they’re total life-changers.
I love being organized but I wouldn’t say I’m an organized person by nature. It just doesn’t come to me the way it does for others. Can you relate?
Thankfully, many of the below strategies are super easy to implement and yet still can have a major impact on your life.
Sure you want to be able to go with the flow, but a little bit of structure is a beautiful thing. It can help you go from frazzled and overwhelmed by all of the things you have to do, to calm and clear-headed. The things that compete for our time and energy sometimes feel relentless, and their pressures really add up, so let’s break things down, simplify them, and get a handle on our lives.
And with that, here are 27 ways to get your life together, stat.
How to Get Your Life Together in 27 Ways
1. Keep a planner
You can use a physical planner or an online tool like Google Calendar. Using a planner will not only keep you on top of your appointments, goals, and workload, but it also minimizes stress (no missed engagements or deadlines here!) and helps you manage your time better.
I used to be partial to physical planners, but I’ve opted for Google Calendar in recent months because it’s easier for me to not only access but also edit. And I’m forever editing and changing things around.
You can also quickly toggle between different views: day, week, month, year, etc. And because you can add Google Calendar to your phone, it’s always with you in a way that a physical planner can’t be.
2. Create a daily to-do list
You can make your to-do list in your physical planner, a separate notebook, or a digital tool like Google Tasks, which is what I use. Google Tasks is especially great if you use Google Calendar, since the two seamlessly integrate.
You can also check out Evernote, which is free with the basic plan, and Asana, which is a paid tool.
If you go the route of physically writing your to-do list down, I strongly suggest not using post-its or bits of scrap paper. You’re bound to misplace them. And if you don’t finish or get to an item on your list one day, you might forget to add it to the next day’s list. If you use your planner or a dedicated notebook, however, you can flip back to previous days. It’s all there!
For me, a daily to-do list is the holy grail of figuring out how to get my life together and organized.
3. Block your time
Blocking your time will both help you stay organized AND boost your productivity. Work on tasks only during their designated times.
Make sure your blocks aren’t too long though — you don’t want to overwhelm yourself. And be sure to give yourself little breaks (see tip # ) so that you can stay focused and minimize distractions during the times when you are working.
4. Create a budget & track your finances
Money keeping you up at night? Me too. Keeping tabs on your income, spending, and bills will save you (see what I did there?) from a lot of heartache and wakeful nights.
The internet is raving mad about You Need a Budget. What I love about YNAB is that you get to build your own budget based on your own income and priorities. Other apps will give you traditional, preset “buckets” that you need to account for, even if they aren’t relevant to your life. It’s also super flexible. Life changes, so should your budget.
Wally is another popular budgeting app. Its basic version is free, which is huge if you’re tight on money. Word to the wise: although Wally generally gets great reviews, some users report that it can be a little difficult to navigate. This, I suppose, is the tradeoff for the zero-dollar price tag. With a little digging, however, you can master it.
You can also use a budget spreadsheet. The Balance has pulled a great list of downloadable spreadsheets. Alternatively, you can hop over to Etsy and browse budgeting and finance printables to find one that suits you.
Financial solvency is such a critical part of getting your life together. Make sure you prioritize this step!
5. Do brain dumps
A brain dump is just like it sounds: You basically spill out onto a piece of paper or Word document all of the thoughts, ideas, goals, and commitments that you’ve been mentally carrying around. Once you get it all out, you can start to work through and organize this intel, integrating it into your planner and to-do lists.
What’s beautiful about the brain dump is that it captures things that you might not have otherwise thought to include in your calendar or organizational system. For me, brain dumps helped me realize that I needed to be checking in with clients BEFORE a project started. As a busy freelancer, my schedule is at the mercy of my clients meeting their own deadlines, so a quick check-in a week or two before can help keep everyone on track.
Brain dumps can also help you get your creative juices flowing. Barnet Bain, author of The Book of Doing and Being: Rediscovering Creativity in Life, Love, and Work, taps into how brain-dump exercises free you from holding back: “You need to be willing to let your inner censor take a break, just as you would suspend criticism of a child who is sharing an idea with you or showing you an art project.” Think brainstorming completely unfiltered by your inner critic.
It funny how dumping everything out can help you piece it all back together in a more organized way.
6. Have a cleaning schedule
Get your life together with a cleaning schedule. I have a friend who loves cleaning. Like, loves it. She’s more than pumped to spend a Saturday morning cleaning her apartment. It’s her happy place.
I wish it were mine. That would kill two birds with one stone: I could clean out all my stress and have a clean apartment at the same time.
A cleaning schedule has been huge for keeping me on track while also making the task feel less overwhelming. Also, by spacing cleaning out across multiple days, my apartment feels cleaner than if I were to do a once-a-week sweep.
On Thursday or Friday I usually do a quick dusting before vacuuming, on Saturdays I clean the bathroom, on Sundays I do laundry (I do another load mid-week if necessary), and every day after dinner I wipe down the kitchen.
Because I have a torando I mean toddler, I usually straighten up the living room every night after he goes to bed (5 minutes) and run the handheld vacuum around the nooks and crannies where there are crumbs, dirt, and other unidentifiable tidbits (another 5 minutes, tops).
Each cleaning session is limited to 30 minutes. That’s my max. That’s what I can handle. If you can handle more, great. If not, that’s fine too. Something is better than nothing.
And remember this: music, the radio, or a podcast will make the time infinitely more enjoyable.
7. Create cleaning zones or cleaning tasks
Another way to lighten the cleaning load is to tackle different zones and tasks, much like how I explain I do in the above tip.
Some days I focus on a zone like the kitchen, the bathroom, or living areas and entryways (OK, we have only one of those). Other days my focus is a task: dusting and swiffering, vacuuming, folding laundry, rearranging shelves and boxs, etc.
8. Clean as you go
I clean up as I cook, rinsing knives, wiping down surfaces, and popping things in the dishwasher. That way, when I’m done cooking, I have little-to-no clean up left.
I also clean up in the wake of my toddler: cut bits of paper, toys, spilled paint, etc. I also get HIM on the fun. Have you ever heard of the “tidy-up” game? Well, my son cannot get enough of it.
9. Touch it once
I’m obsessed with this one. The idea is that as soon as you touch something — a sweater thrown onto the back of a couch, a piece of mail — you immediately throw it away, put it away, or otherwise act on it.
No more piles. No more “I’ll do this later.” Nope, you do it now.
10. Let things go
Whether or not you’ve read Marie Kondo’s bestselling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, you probably know the message: get rid of things that don’t spark joy.
While it may feel awkward at first, it’s a useful concept that will soon become second-nature after enough practice. If something is no longer useful to you, if it doesn't make you happy, then toss it. To avoid hitting roadblocks, focus on what you want to KEEP rather than what you want to throw out. Things will then start to sort themselves.
Kondo recommends addressing your home by category (clothes, books, papers, miscellaneous, sentimental things) rather than by room, creating big piles that you work through.
You can also start with low-hanging fruit: broken toys, appliances or house-hold accessories with missing pieces, big-ticket items that are just taking up space (a ratty ancient puffy that you haven’t worn in two years, that decorative crate that you keep stubbing your toes on).
11. Set up reminders on your phone
If you’re using Google Calendar or some other digital app, you can set it up so that you receive pop-up notifications for upcoming appointments or tasks.
For things that are super critical, I will even set a freaking alarm.
On Sunday, I tend to go through and set alarms for any action items that are high-stakes or my require some prep on my part, like leaving 30 minutes early to make an important doctor’s appointment, getting my act together before an interview, or even paying my credit card.
12. Save files to the cloud
I promise this isn’t an ad for Google, but Google Drive has been seminal in keeping my digital files organized and in one place. This is extra useful if you, like me, have a habit of spilling water or tea on your devices (RIP two MacBook Airs).
I also pay for 200 extra MB of Google Cloud storage, which is $2.99 per month and so worth it. I have thousands of photos, some nearly identical to each other, and there’s no way I’m deleting them, especially if they’re of my son.
13. Declutter your computer files
This one can be time-consuming, depending on the state of your computer. But believe me, it’ll feel so good and leave you feeling clear-minded when you’re done.
I’d suggest that you start clicking around to see what the general “categories” of files you have on your computer. From there, you can create different folders and subfolders on your Desktop.
My top-level folders include projects, client billing, to-do lists, health insurance, taxes, child care, important miscellaneous documents. I also have an “archive” folder for files that I’m on the fence about deleting or not. It’s the digital equivalent of a junk drawer. Once files have been in there for a while and I realize I have no intention of ever accessing them again, I trash them.
Remember, the more files you have on your Desktop that aren’t organized into folders, the more RAM your computer is using. This could slow down your machine — always a point of frustration!
You can also sync your Desktop to your Google Drive (and usually to other services).
14. Declutter your phone
Go through your phone and delete any apps that you’re not actively using. Consider putting apps in folders (e.g., photo editing, shopping, health tracking, etc.), especially if you have a lot that you actively use and so can’t consider deleting.
In an effort to delete old or massive files that are just taking up space and slowing things down, I also like to go into Settings>General>iPhone Storage on my iPhone and “Review Large Attachments.” There’s no need for me to save that 41.8 MB video Aunt Beth sent me of her dog 8 months ago. Sorry, Aunt Beth.
Here, you can also clear out old podcasts or documents that you’ve downloaded, your web browser history, and anything else taking up room.
15. Clean out your inbox
I once reached 7,091 emails in my inbox. Now I try to keep it to less than 20. Thank God for Google’s auto-sorting “social” and “promotions” tabs. You can usually delete those emails without a second thought.
Then you can create your own inbox folders and labels so that your email provider (for me, Google, surprise surprise) starts to sort your mail automatically. This helps keep your inbox tidy and makes responding to and searching through your email easier. Your folders can focus on things like work, finances, friends and family, health and medical, non-work related appointments, and so on.
Consider deleting subscriptions that you rarely (and certainly those you never) read. Do you still need that “How to Crack Etsy” email course you signed up for 2 years ago? What about all of those emails from Bloomingdales you never open? Sayonara.
When I sit down to purge my email, I find that the best place to start is to sort my inbox by sender. That way you can begin to quickly delete emails in large batches.
Looking for productivity hacks? Check out my article on the very best ways to boost your productivity.
16. Manage your passwords
I keep a list of passwords in the “notes” app on my iPhone and commit to updating it every time I change a password.
If you’re worried about safety, you could set up a password-protected file (oh the irony) or keep a running list in your physical planner.
The key is to update this list religiously.
17. Keep surfaces clear
Need a quick win in your quest to figure out how to get your life together? Get rid of all that sh*t on your counter.
I don’t know about you, but my home looks a thousand times cleaner when I keep the kitchen island, coffee table, and the top of my son’s play area (basically a small console) clear.
This trick takes mere minutes (sometimes seconds if you're hustlin') to complete and makes a huge impact on how a room (and you!!) feels. Clear surfaces, clear mind. Ahhh.
18. Buy furniture with storage
There are drawers built into the base of our bed, our ottoman opens up, the bench in the entryway has storage, even our dining room table has drawers on one side.
These spaces aren’t an excuse to have more stuff. Instead, they’re smart ways to store essentials that won’t fit in closets (which we sorely lack): towels, bedding, blankets, pillows, toddler art supplies, winter (or summer) clothes, shoes, hats and mittens, and random items like Christmas ornaments and baby gear that I’m not ready to part with (those first shoes!).
19. Organize your closet
Get your life together by organizing your closets, which tend to be landmines of disorganization. These are the tactics that I’ve found the most useful:
- Use coordinating hangers for items that are delicate (like dresses and blouses) or sturdy (like coats and dress trousers). Make sure to get the kind that prevents your clothes from falling off. I like these.
- Stack thick items like sweaters and jeans.
- Roll short- and long-sleeved T-Shirts, workout clothing, pajamas, and other “thin” items and place either into a separate set of draws or in storage boxes at the base of your closet (ideally so that you can see into them). These bad boys are very useful.
20. Use storage bins
I use storage bins everywhere: under the bench in my son’s room (for toys, diapers, wipes), in the living room (more toys), in the pantry for food items, and beyond.
Bin-like organizers are also useful for your kitchen and bathroom drawers!
21. Create a drop zone
This is another favorite trick of mine, maybe because I love the visual of a “drop zone.” It sounds like something out of an international thriller used by agents to drop off briefcases full of secret documents.
OK, Carmen Sandiego dreams aside, a drop zone is a designated place where you drop off your keys, phone, wallet, purse, other bags, jacket, scarf, and anything else you carry around with you. This area will usually be by your front door, but it could also be a nook in your living room, laundry room, kitchen, bedroom — anywhere, really!
Not only does this reduce clutter around the house, it helps you keep track of important items. No more cursing the heavens as you upend your living room in search of your keys.
22. Declutter your medicine cabinet
The medicine cabinet is a such a hot zone! Take a look. Do you have Advil in there that expired in 2019? Maybe a bottle of body lotion that’s solidified because you never you that one? Toss ‘em.
23. Make your bed when you wake up
My mom makes her bed every morning. We’re talking hospital-corner-style dedication. While I’m not committed to mastering that, I am committed to pulling up and tucking in the sheet and smoothing out the comforter. It takes all of two minutes and makes your bedroom look instantly polished.
Then you have the extra bonus of getting into a nicely made bed at the end of a long day. It’s the little things.
24. Prep meals
One of the beautiful things about meal prep is that it’s scalable.
You could make one dish ahead of time or you could make five. You could also just cut up and store the veggies (arguably one of the more time-intensive parts of cooking).
Whatever your style, prepping in advance will keep the dinner rush smooth and organized.
25. Make a weekly menu
If you don’t do meal prep, I’d suggest at least choosing your recipes in advance and getting together as many groceries as you can ahead of time. This well help you feel significantly less overwhelmed when it comes to sorting out dinner when you’re feeling pressed for time.
This is doubly so if you have work and/or parenting pressures that take up a lot of your time.
26. Clean out your purse
I secretly love cleaning out my purse. It helps to (literally) lighten the load and save my back. I also always find things like a favorite long-lost Chapstick.
Dump it out on the table and get going.
27. Clean out your wallet
Do you need 30 pennies in your wallet? Probably not. You probably also don’t need receipts from three months ago, the rewards card you never use, or your expired insurance card.
Bonus: How to Get Your Life Together and Make It All Stick
Try to integrate organization into your life so it becomes a habit — something that you do automatically, without thinking.
So if organizing doesn't come naturally to you, how do you make it stick?
- Organize something every day so that it becomes part of your day to day life
- Associate organizing with things you enjoy, like listening to podcasts or music
- Be aware of your own excuses
- Remember how good it feels to stay organized: less stress, more control, more freedom (in terms of time, mental space) to do the things you love or that drive you.
