#1 Top Tip to Start Putting Your Head in Order

I am going to make one physical space in my life beautiful, neat and ordered…

It is against my nature, but I am going to do it. I look around my office space and it’s not too bad — a few loose piles of paper and some books that aren’t mine, tangled cables behind my computer, and a nail hole in the wall where a picture once hung. It’s a bit dusty too. I will do it all in a couple of hours.

These small gains are important in a time of chaos, uncertain times, and grief which might all play heavily on our day-to-day functioning and the chaos outside our rooms (and inside our heads sometimes). Chaos needs some counterbalance.

I can’t control COVID, the weather, accidents, or closed borders, so maybe I can control a couple of easier things in my life: like make one room an oasis of calm (I’ll forget the rest of the house for now), tidy those cables and papers, hang a new picture on the wall, dust and mop, and make it all good.

Just one room — that’s all I’m doing right now. Then I’ll shut the door and enjoy it when I go in there to work. This may work well with your bedroom, your study area, or even just by making your bed (see Admiral McRaven's famous speech). But whatever you decide to, in some way, straighten, fix, or tidy — don’t underestimate the effects of creating order when elsewhere your life is in chaos.

We benefit from creating order. Even if you live in a dingy hole of a place, you can create some order and even beauty. Looking into another’s messy room might lead us to ask: Is this just their room, or does it reflect the inside of their head? The answer is probably both.

References:

• Admiral William H. McRaven’s: Make Your Bed Speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmbQfFVyxhU

• Jordan Petersen: why tidying your room is the same as tidying your mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp9599kwnhM