It seems like the whole world knows about the advantages to being an organized, updated person. Those who have their whole itenerary on Google Calendar, or have all of their files sorted into corresponding folders. These people are more successful than us, they are happier than us, and they lead better lives.

It seems like an amazing, yet incredibly hard, goal. Even I just spent over five hours this week clearing out my inbox, archiving and deleting over three years of junk mail (my inbox is pristine).

Just as I wrote about in my previous blog post, all good things have their dark sides.

 

From my experience, having ultra color-coordinated google calendars with overlapping events and back-to-back items isn’t all it’s cut out to be. Life is about spontaniety, and in the start-time and end-time of organization you lose some of the ability to have fun. Not all, but definitely some.

Here comes my favorite part: the anti-movement.

Every strong movement also has a counterpart which opposes it. In this situation appears the time-management philosophy of the “80/20”. Not focusing on losing all structure, scrapping our planners, and running free in the wild, the 80/20 philosophy creates a ratio of structured time versus unstructured time that is neccessary in order to maintain calm amongst the chaos but also retain the spontaniety that keeps us happy and unique.

The 80/20 philosophy invites people to structure 80% of their active time and leave 20% of their availability during the day/evening to spontaneously create plans without the anxiety of running over schedule or meeting deadlines. Especially as students, we have too many deadlines. Until a certain point organization is necessary for success, but after that point we simply add more stress to our days.

This philosophy with time organization and scheduling derives from the Parapeto principle of management and business philosophy, where 20% of any individual’s efforts produce 80% of results. If we view ‘happiness’ or even ‘productivity’ as a result of our efforts in organization, we can see how it matches up. Leaving 20% of our time to unstructured work allows us to maintain mental stability, prevent burnout, and can in turn generally increase both productivity and our happiness in the other 80% of the day.

Let me know your thoughts on this approach to organization or how under or over-organization has affected any of you in the past or in the present. Stay tuned for more of my very strong opinions on organization lifestyles and study habits. See you next week!

 

References:

Styles, Camille. “My Best Tips for Staying Organized at Life.” Camille Styles, 24 Jan. 2019, https://camillestyles.com/wellness/how-to-stay-organized-at-life/.