justdoit

Declutter Your Mind by Decluttering Your Space

Posted on by chatswithcrys

By Crystal Lambert

If you’re anything like me, you might have some organizational issues. It’s like you know you should stay super organized but then—life happens. Okay, I know thats not an excuse but bare with me. Being a night owl automatically makes you disorganized. That may or may not be true. I don’t know. I suppose it runs in my family though. I have a bad habit of staying up until 2 or 3 AM even if I know I have to get up early the next morning. Then I finally wake up— after snoozing for an hour, go to school, come back, hit the gym, eat, then relax and do homework. In between all of this is me throwing stuff everywhere and somehow my space suddenly becomes cluttered. Ugh. 

It’s really not that hard to stay organized. I just make it out to be. When I think of keeping everything organized, I think of my mother yelling at me, “HOW CAN YOU THINK AND STUDY WITH A ROOM LOOKING LIKE THIS??” Simple, I sit down and do what I have to do. Easy Peasy! Now don’t get me wrong, my room was not a complete tornado— simply because my parents weren’t having that. But somehow after high school, I started realizing, I really couldn’t think when my room was a mess. I’m not sure if that’s because I became older or if it’s because my mom had been right this entire time.

Little by little I started becoming more and more organized. I still struggle with organization but not nearly as bad as before. Within this past year, I moved from a big space to a small space. That meant getting rid of A LOT of things that I really didn’t want to get rid of. There were so many clothes and things that I thought I might need. So many memories were attached to those random “things.” What about those dusty books I haven’t read for years? I think I’d like to keep them just incase I do want to read them again. This thought processes went on for months as I looked at all of the extra junk in my room and in my basement.

Eventually, I got rid of most of the junk. Once I did, there was a great sense of relief. I don’t regret or miss any of it. The challenge now becomes keeping the things I do have in order. Before I sit down to study or browse the net, I make sure my desk is completely clear and organized. Doing so allows me to really focus. If I’ve learned anything about organization I know It’s best to just go with the, “if you pick it up, put it back” rule. If you take it off the hanger, hang it back up. If you unfold some clothes, fold them back up. The minute this becomes a habit, everything stays organized and clean. I literally have to tell myself, Stop being lazy, stop saying I’ll do it later— do it now! When I manage to do this, the outcome is great. I don’t feel irritated, I can easily find what I’m looking for, and my mornings run smoothly.

I am not perfect at this but I am improving, and it’s working well for me. If you struggle with organization as well, try to make an honest effort to keep everything in place. You will notice how peaceful your ambiance is. Suddenly your thoughts will become clear and you will be able to find what you need with ease.

Good Ol’ Comfort Zones

Posted on by chatswithcrys

By Crystal Lambert

Unless you have an outgoing, extroverted type personality, who the hell really feels like stepping out of their comfort zone? I’d rather just sip my coffee, and keep imagining all the things I wish I were cool enough to do, then proceed to tell myself that I’ll do it one of these days—just not today. 

Does that sound like any of you? If not, I envy you. See, I believe that I am half introvert half extrovert. I’m pretty sure I was born a complete introvert, but thanks to my dad, he pushed me out of that— for the most part. I remember being around 4 years old, and my parents would take me to the mall playground to interact with other kids. I loved that little playground, I just didn’t like making new friends. I was way too shy. So there I am left in the middle of this exhilarating, yet terrifying plastic jungle. Back then it was like the Yucatan to me, full of logs, mushrooms, and other forestry things, all I wanted to do was walk, and perhaps sit down and swing my tiny legs on the frogs tongue— and for all of the other kids to leave me the hell alone. When I was done I would walk happily back to my parents. Then came the much dreaded, yet anticipated question from my father, “Did you have fun? How many friends did you make?.” Crap. “Yes, and umm… like… well… none.” Sure enough he’d send me right back to the playground to go introduce myself to someone and ask if they’d like to play.

As much as I hated introducing myself to make friends, I’m glad I was forced to do it. Throughout the years, I slowly but surely broke out of my shyness. With that said, you’d think I’d be able to go out and do anything I wanted to do with no problem.

It took me 3 years to start blogging. I knew I always enjoyed writing, I would write short stories at home and worked super hard on my essays for English. Then one day I decided to create a blog. This is going to be great! I wrote a few entries but told no one about them. I had way to many insecurities. What if my writing isn’t good enough? I can’t spell that well, and I think I have grammar issues. What if people think what I write about is stupid? Forget this, I’m done. After much consideration and compliments from a few professors, I decided to try again.

So hello everyone, here I am, stepping out of my comfort zone, putting my thoughts out there for whoever cares to read. Did I get rid of those insecurities? No, not really, but at the end of the day this is what makes me happy. This is how I am able to relieve stress. This is what I have been doing for years, just privately. Why not share it with the world? Yes, there will be people who dislike my posts, but there will also be people who find what I have to say uplifting. If I can make just one person’s day better by sharing my thoughts, then I have done what I intended to do.

Moral of the story— step out of that comfort zone and go for it! You’ll never know what you’re capable of doing until you try.