A Guide to Organisation for Unorganised People

I'll start by saying that organisation doesn't come naturally to me, in fact as I'm sitting at my desk right now I am surrounded by a whirlwind of papers, highlighters, inspirational quotes and literal chaos. But its organised chaos and I love it. The mess of it makes me feel productive and that's such a great feeling! However I'm constantly surrounded by people who are VERY organised and there is absolutely no room for leeway and the mess isn't always reliable so I have other systems in place that really help me to at least pretend that I know what the hell I'm doing. I have three main aspects that I will split into paragraphs so that maybe I can help any like minded people. You can find examples below the text to fully understand. Also I know my desk isn't tumblr city but its functional okay?

Firstly lets establish that simplicity is most definitely the key, I love to organise stuff and make it look pretty and beautiful but it never works out in the long run and it doesn't help to actually organise my life. I love everything about organisation (the word alone sends tiny shivers of joy down my spine) and I aspire to be that amazing person who colour codes everything with pastel coloured highlighters but my personality does not allow me to be that person. I'm impatient, unproductive and generally not very artistic.  Therefore my planning is very minimalistic and suited to me and that is my very first tip; you can't just follow someone elses system, instead you have to trial and error and choose different aspects to create your own system. I can't tell you how satisfying it was, after 14 years of trying, to create a system that just works. 

The most necessary part of my planning is my school agenda, I hate that thing and I can't wait until I'm able to not have to get it bloody signed once per week, but I have to use it and it does the job even if it is ugly. My school planner is split into weeks and each week has five sections for the working days, in here I scribble down what my homework is in the day that it is set. Next, say that it is due in the following Tuesday, I would flip to the next week and write 'History time line due in'. That way, when I pack my bag the night before said Tuesday, I would flip to the next day and I can immediately see what I should have done , and if I haven't done it I have one night to complete it. It is suggested that I write the due date next to the homework task but I always forget to check the previous week so that definitely didn't work for me. Homework is all I use my planner for (and also to write in assessments or exams), the rest of my life planning is down to my bullet journal. 

So my bullet journal, a new addition to my endless attempts at being in control of my tasks but one that I have adored. My journal is simple and filled to the brim with weekly layouts, tasks, trackers, collections and pure joy. Perhaps I'll write a post with pictures giving you a tour of the book of joy. My most used part of my bullet journal is the weekly layout where I colour code events, tasks, exercise etc and write them under the day that I plan to get it done. I spend a few minutes every couple of days writing in everything that I want/need to achieve and bam organisation. My school planner is just for homework and my bullet journal helps me plan each day so that I can be as productive as I could possibly be. I'm going to put pictures and examples at the bottom so that you can see what I'm talking about. Also my bullet journal helps me track my habits which in my mind is an attempt of bettering myself as a person and it also ensures that I always have project and hobbies on the go which makes Polly a much nicer person. I love it.

Finally we have my cork board and whiteboard this idea came from my mother after I forgot her boyfriends birthday oops! This is where I jot things down that I have to get done for other people or upcoming birthdays but its also another to-do list, occasionally things might get repeated in both my whiteboard and my bullet journal which might seem pointless but it ensures that I actually get stuff done. And also I tend to keep my whiteboard for important things or things that involve other people, so in my bullet journal I might write 'fake tan for school pictures' but my whiteboard involves things more like 'discuss going to step mums birthday thing and sort out Tuesday plans'. Does that make sense?

So that's it. I used to just stay on top of the things that were absolute nescesities and everything else was chaos,  but now not only am I in control of my school life but I keep track of other peoples needs, my wants and I can finally rely on myself to remember events instead of being told that we are going in five when I only have lip balm on. Just spend a few weeks getting on top of everything and find ways to sustain it. Also  a bullet journal, highly recommend.