Tips for organised living that I don't follow (but should).

By LUCY ORMONDE

So, I’m going to be honest with you.

Newsagents and stationery stores are my crack. Pens, paper, folders, notepads, pencil cases, A4 ruled notepads…  GIMME.

In an ideal world, I’d have a spacious home office, lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, one of those towering Apple Mac desktop computers, a wireless mouse and keyboard, deep drawers within easy reach of my swivel chair (and filled with everything a person who doesn’t work from home could ask for).

Just as an FYI, you should know that this post is sponsored by Post-it notes. But all opinions expressed by the author are 100% authentic and written in their own words.

In an ideal world, my space would look a little something like this:

Nice, huh? (I’m particularly fond of image #8 with the big central desk.)

But unfortunately (for me), my reality is very different.

My reality is a cramped share house with not enough space for a proper dining table, let alone my own home office with shelves and space for a filing cabinet.

In an ideal world, I’d follow these tips for organised living:

1. Get a desk.

Reality: When I’m at home, my desk is either the couch or my bed. On a good day, my desk is the dining room table (which also doubles as the kitchen bench).

I’m a very serious journalist.

2. Clear your desk of all clutter.

Reality: See aforementioned reality. .

3. Write down your most important tasks and tick them off one by one.

Reality: This one I do, every single day. I’m old school in that I use a new page every day and if I’m feeling extra sparkly I’ll even draw some little boxes to tick as the day goes on. My only issue is that as the day goes on, the list gets longer and longer and what started as a well set out, neat document ends up looking like a piece of artwork made by a four-year-old at kindy.

Plus I’m easily distracted by Twitter/Facebook/anything shiny.

4. Make it a workable list.

Reality: Ha!

5. Get a filing cabinet and have a place for everything.

Reality: You know those people who have desk drawers that look like they were set up by a stylist for a magazine shoot? They’re the same people who keep their sunglasses in a case. I’m not one of those people. In fact, my desk drawers at work look more like this:

6. Label things. File receipts and warranties in clear plastic folders that clearly mark what they are and when you bought them. That way, when it comes to tax time, or you need to return something, you know exactly where to find it.

Reality: How do you label things when you can’t rarely find a texta with a lid?

7. Do one thing at a time.

Reality: Did someone say Facebook?

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What are your tips for organised living?