Every time I think I have almost managed to re-establish my morning routine, I lose sleep for multiple nights and am so exhausted I can’t get up on time.  Soooo…I think we’re there (again), but we’ll see. 😉  It seems that every year my goal list includes “re-establish morning routine.”  That may partly be testament to my lack of necessary diligence.  But part of it is simply the way things are.  See, there’s something important we all have to recognize about organization, or we very easily grow discouraged: organization is not an event, it’s a process.

Too often, we think of “getting organized” as something that we should do once, which can then be crossed off the to-do list.  So if we have “tried and tried to get organized” and still feel that we’re missing the mark, we feel like failures.  But that’s not how organization works!  As our lives change, our needs change.

Big life changes — like new babies, moving, or getting married — can result in very big changes in organizational needs.  But even the regular flow of life causes changes in our needs.  Children get older.  We lose or gain weight.  Activities are added or subtracted from our schedules.  All of these things can cause changes to our schedules and/or changes in the amount of storage space we require for certain items, the tools we keep on hand, etc.

Thus, organization is an ongoing process.  As the need changes, something that was previously organized will typically become disorganized.  This isn’t a reflection on the organizer; it’s a reflection of the change!  Periodically, our needs have to be reassessed so we can make the necessary adjustments.  Someone who had most areas of her life organized already, and who reassesses to find a small change, may be able to quickly and easily make the adjustments.  But if the changes in your life are great over a short period of time, you may find that your needs have changed so drastically so quickly that the changes will take a while.  If this is the case, give yourself some grace. 🙂

The reality is that most of us have some areas of our lives well-organized and other areas not-so-organized at any given moment.  Find the things that are working well, so you can be encouraged — and then tackle the things that aren’t in baby steps.  My baby steps right now are (time-wise) getting my morning routine back in gear, and (space-wise) plugging away at the office/craft space.