How to Stop Researching About Getting Organized and Start Taking Action

If you want to get organized and get things done, the first thing you’re going to do is start researching how to get organized. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s all too easy to get stuck in the research and never really do anything.

You don’t want that to happen.

Too much research will actually become confusing, because you’ll start to get conflicting information that you’re not sure what to do with. Then you’ll look for more information so you can be sure about what you’re reading, and that will lead to distraction.

Instead of dealing with all of that, here’s how to get organized and take action.

1. Set a Timeline When Research Stops and Work Begins

It’s good to be thorough, but at some point the research has to stop. You probably won’t learn anything new, or anything that really, completely contradicts what you’ve already discovered. If you’ve looked at the pros and cons of different options already, that’s all you need to do.

Now it’s time to get things done. Setting a timeline can help. You might decide that you’ll do two hours of thorough research, or that you’ll look at new articles for a week. There’s no right or wrong answer. The important thing is to set a firm deadline that’s realistic, and stick with it.

2. Strategize Based on What Works for Your Needs

Organizing isn’t just about having things look nice and neat. It’s also about making sure you can find everything you need when you need it. Take a careful look at what you’re organizing. Get rid of anything you don’t actually want or need to keep. Then consider how — and how often — you use the things you’re keeping and planning to organize.

If you aren’t sure what you really need based on all the research you’ve done, let how you use things and the frequency of needing access to those things be your guide. You can’t really go wrong when you’re doing what works for your needs and goals.

3. Stay Away from New Ideas While You’re Organizing

Even if you have new thoughts or questions, stay away from stopping your organizational efforts to look up new ideas. If you’ve done thorough research, you really don’t need to find anything else. You already know what you’re doing, and you need to trust yourself and the process of organization you’ve undertaken.

Don’t let indecision or concern over whether you’re doing things the right way cloud your judgment. Too many ideas only adds to confusion, and one of the reasons you’re organizing everything is to reduce confusion, chaos, and clutter. You don’t want to add to it with more ideas.

4. Gather Some Main Tips, and Start Using Them

When you look through all the blogs and other good sources of information, and you’re ready to start organizing, take the main tips you’ve found through all your research. There are some basics that are common among most people when they write about organization ideas. Those tips are the ones you want to look for, because they’re the basis of everything you’ll be doing as you get started.

You don’t have to take every tip you read about to heart, though. That’s especially true if a particular tip just doesn’t work for you, or if it contradicts something that really does work well for your style of organizing and your plans.

5. Be Open to Adjusting (Without Research)

Sometimes you get involved with organization, and you find that not everything is working the way it should or the way you expect it to. You should always be open to making adjustments if you need to. Just make sure you aren’t stopping to do a bunch more research to find out what to do next. With the research you’ve already done, you should know what to do if something you try doesn’t work well. There are plenty of other options, and a lot of ways you can adjust what you’re doing so it’s better suited for your needs.

The most important thing to remember is that too much analysis causes paralysis. If you spend all your time researching how to get organized, you’ll never stop to actually organize the spaces in your house that need it. By setting a timeline and moving forward after that point, you’ll be much more likely to get things done and be happy with the organization you have. There might be other tips or ideas, but you won’t need them to be satisfied.