I Love to Be Busy?

  When I was younger, I loved being busy. In high school, I filled the lion's share of my free time with music and theatre, not just because those activities gave me the opportunity to perform, but also because that's where my people were -- friends who shared my interests. 

In college, I stayed busy, too. At first, it was to win a bet. A high school friend bet me that I'd come home frequently; I countered by saying I'd stay at school (four hours away from home) until Thanksgiving.

I won the bet. This time, it was mostly music that kept me occupied and helped me adjust to being far from home in a brand-new place. 

As a single young adult, I continued to look for ways to fill my time. Although I loved living alone and having both a space and a schedule I could call my own, it could get lonely at times. When I discovered a little theatre an hour from my apartment, busyness became a way of life once more.

A few years later, marriage, and then parenthood, kept me busy in new ways. By the time COVID brought up-close-and-personal activities like theatre to a screeching halt, my work responsibilities also shifted, moving out of the classroom and onto the computer, creating a whole new kind of busyness.

You’re probably thinking that I love to be busy is my primary personal style but, actually, it isn’t. It is, in fact, my least dominant of the three personal styles, partly because the others just describe me better and partly because I no longer love to be busy. These days, my idea of a perfect weekend is no appointments and no commitments – a far cry from what I wanted back when I was a single twenty-something. 

When I talk about personal and organizational styles, I’m often asked if someone can embody more than one of them -– or even all of them. My answer has always been that while it’s possible to have traits of different styles, one style tends to stand out and lead the way. And, from a “getting organized” perspective, it’s worthwhile to identify that dominant style so we can use it to identify workable strategies and press them into service.

Now, after examining and writing about personal and organizational styles for more than fifteen years, I’d add another layer to that response. While I stand by my original answer, I’d add that different styles can become dominant in different seasons of our lives. Though my current predominant personal style is I need to see it, I think I might have had a different answer back when I was in my twenties, seeking busyness and considering it a worthwhile challenge to shoehorn as much as possible into an already full schedule. Interestingly, my organizational style (drop and run) has, for better or for worse, changed very little in that same time period.

The collision of styles (whichever ones they are) with one another and with life in general has an impact. Even though I no longer identify with an I love to be busy style, some of those traits linger and, when busyness takes over, the resulting lack of time sends my drop and run organizational style into overdrive. The combination – or collision – of these circumstances with my I need to see it style, along with the exhaustion that comes with excessive busyness, can drown my organizational systems at a time when I need them the most. 

 

The good news is that having identified the strategies that work for my primary styles has enabled me to put strategies into place that help me recover. When the flood of (now undesirable) busyness passes, I can easily find my footing. Once I’m relieved of the time shortage that triggered the downfall of tidiness, I can take small steps to restore order, putting wayward stuff away in its previously assigned locations, restoring both order and sanity in the process. It might not all happen all at once, but thanks to the fact that I have style-based systems in place, it will happen.

Eventually.

If you feel as though you’re on the cusp of a style change, ask yourself if it’s connected to a reason (a temporary circumstance) or a season (a shift in lifestyle). Then, consider taking the opportunity to consider the organizational implications of a different style. Investigating different styles and their related strategies can give us fresh ideas that breathe new life into our organizational systems, which can spark new ideas that help us individualize our organizational processes. 

Organization is a life skill, so it only makes sense that the way we approach it is likely to change over time. Staying true to what works for you, regardless of the label you put on it, and staying open to new ideas can provide the keys that unlock organizational successes that help us to navigate life’s twists, turns, and seasons.

Organizing to Go

 Organization can often be a frustrating game of trial and error. We all have those spaces in our house that refuse to cooperate, no matter which tools we try. But, every once in a while, we happen upon a tool that’s just right.

At our house we still use the old envelope system for budgeting — setting aside predetermined amounts of cash for groceries, books, clothing, etc. We adopted this method years ago to get our credit cards under control, and it stuck.

In this system, I’m the keeper of the cash. And, if we go somewhere where we need cash from multiple envelopes/categories, it can be a challenge to keep all the envelopes straight in an efficient manner. Sure, I can tuck a stack of envelopes into my bag – that part is easy – but by the end of a day of multiple transactions, what started out as an organized system has often become a crumpled pile of envelopes. 

 

Enter Poshmark and my Kate Spade card holders. 

 

The first one I found was the black and white polka dotted print – the one that matches both my planner and the bag I use for school – so it quickly became a “must have.” Then, I discovered that this cute little tool came in two other patterns – one floral, and one striped – both brightly colored. 

 

Eventually, I ended up with all three of them. 

 

At first, I didn’t really know what I was going to use them for (I just thought they were cute). But now that I’ve been using them for a while, I’ve assigned each little cardholder its own category so I can tell at a glance which “purse” I need. Since they’re all small enough to tuck away as well as being brightly colored enough that I can find them easily in a purse or tote bag, they work well under almost any circumstances.

 

While these cute and useful card holders don’t solve an organizational problem in my home, they’re great examples of the qualities of a good organizational tool: well-suited to their purpose, fun to use, attractive, and true to the style of the user (in my case, it’s my I need to see it personal style). All these attributes are key to finding solutions for any organizational challenge. And, while “cute” isn’t essential, it can be motivating; we’re often more likely to use a tool that’s attractive.

But do you want to know the best part? They truly put the fun in functional, and I smile every time I use them, which tells me they’re just right for me.

If you know, you know. 

Geralt via Pixabay

 For more than a decade, I've had the privilege of writing a column for CatholicMom.com called "STYLE Savvy." Many of the posts that appear here appear there as well and Barb, my fearless (and incredibly patient) editor did such a lovely job bringing this one to life that I'm sending you directly to it instead of reprinting it here. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing (and researching) it.