How to Get Your Sh*t Together in a Single Day

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It’s not a secret that life is a complete sh*t show. It’s also not a secret that getting your sh*t together is no easy feat.

In this blog post, I discuss what qualifies as getting your sh*t together, what your expectations should be, and the steps you can take RIGHT NOW to get yourself together.

Some of the steps provided do span out a few days because you want to make getting your crap together a habit. Yes, a habit.

I also provide a free printable 📑 that goes along with this blog post. You can grab it either here or at the bottom of the post.

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✨ Buckle up buttercup, cause we’re making our way down to productivity town. ✨

oh, and grab your tea cause this is about to be a long one…

What Qualifies as Getting Your Sh*t Together

A lot of people assume that getting your sh*t together is a one-time thing. They assume that if they follow their routine day after day until it’s a habit – that they will always have their life together. Almost as if you’re flipping a switch.

Sadly, no one is perfect, and reaching perfect productivity is a continuous journey.

Before you stalk away and cry in a corner, there is some good news. It’s a fun journey.

I know the thought of violently scrubbing your bathtub sends shivers down your spine, but afterwards, you feel great. 😃

While this is a pretty complete list, I still want you to expand your knowledge about productivity and self-growth after you’ve completed it.

A great way to do that is to subscribe ☞ to my blog and Pinterest!

Your Expectations vs. Reality

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As I stated above – quite harshly – you need to get your expectations in check with reality. While some of the expectations are doable, for the majority of the population – the expectations aren’t realistic.

❌ Expectation: I’m going to be rich one day.

✔️ Reality: If I work smart – I can have an income that suits my needs.

❌ Expectation: I’ll never procrastinate.

✔️ Reality: When I realize I’m procrastinating, (without shaming myself) I’ll start working towards being more productive.

❌ Expectation: I’ll work every day for the rest of my life so I can be the best.

✔️ Reality: I’ll work hard while still giving myself breaks so I can be and feel my best 100%.

❌ Expectation: One day I won’t need to look up how to get my life together.

✔️ Reality: I should probably subscribe to this blog so I can always be updated on the best ways to keep my sh*t together. 😉

❌ Expectation: Getting your sh*t together is just following a comprehensive to-do list.

✔️ Reality: Getting your sh*t together is following a custom to-do list, building routines, building healthy habits, building self-confidence, independence, and finally, is a journey – not a light switch.

Now that we’ve discussed what your expectations should actually be, let’s get into the actual steps we can take right now.

Do you have any questions or need advice? Feel free to contact me or follow my Quora. 😊

Download my free template! 📑

The first thing you need to do is download the free printable 📑 and checklist that comes with this guide. Grab it here.

Create a System 📅 & be CONSISTENT

Have you ever tried to keep up with a habit but it seemed that you either forgot, or you were too busy? Me too.

Creating a system means that you need to find a way to schedule or note down your responsibilities to make them habits. 📝

Do you ever just assume that you’ll just remember something? I do this all the time. And I forget it – almost all the time.

By using a task management system 📇, you can make sure to keep your life together daily. The great thing about creating a system is that you’re able to make it your own and the way that you like it.

I personally use 3 tools to keep all of my life together.

The 3 tools I currently use are Notion, Google Calendar, and a personal bullet journal.

If you’re new to making routines and keeping up with your responsibilities, I suggest downloading an app to your phone 📱 that you’re able to access on your laptop 💻 as well.

Here’s a great article from nTask that goes in-depth about 51 different apps for personal task management.

After you’re finished downloading the apps, make sure to set a daily timer ⏰ that goes off when you need to plan out your day.

Creating a system is an important part of getting your sh*t together because it ensures that you keep it together.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you choose to keep a sticky note 🗒 to manage your tasks – it just matters that you consistently use it.

Consistency is key! 🗝

I go more in-depth in the printable 📑 about how you can set up a system that works for you.

Create a list of everything you need to do this week.

After you’ve decided what task management system you’re going to use, spend some time thinking about what exactly it is that you want to be accomplishing.

At this stage, it doesn’t matter how many lists or to-dos that you decide to make, the most important thing is that you actually do them.

If you’re someone who struggles to get done what they need to be doing, choose 3 tasks to do every day for an entire week. This will flex 💪 your dedication muscle and will get you started on taking action.

During this stage, it’s important to remember that action takes place BEFORE motivation. Not the other way around.

If you’re feeling unmotivated to do anything – just do something to get started.

Instead of thinking about how much you don’t want to sweep the floor 🧹 – just do it.

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Get to Spring Cleaning!

Before you decide to throw in the towel at this step – stop for one moment.

You don’t have to clean right now.

While it’s awesome of you if you decide to start cleaning right away, the most important thing for you to do at this moment is to create a cleaning schedule. 🧽

A cleaning schedule will ensure that you’re keeping your house 🏡 or apartment in tip-top shape.

Not only should you create a cleaning schedule, but you should also create a decluttering schedule.

A decluttering schedule will be everything from going through your email 📧 to your style choices 👚.

Although if you’re looking to get your life back together today, then you should definitely spend some time cleaning and decluttering.

How I personally know if I’ve been cleaning enough, I ask myself – “Would my mother approve?”.

Most of the time after I’ve cleaned – it’s still a no. 🤣 But at least it gives me some perspective on how clean my apartment is.

In the printable, I offer a free cleaning 🧽 & decluttering 👚 template! Enjoy!

Be Messy

You may be thinking – girl! 🤦 this is contradicting what you just told me before! – and yes it is.

You need to know when a little clutter is okay. You don’t have to have everything ✨sparkling✨ all the time.

My friends and I tend to have that creeping feeling that it’s just not clean enough. The house🏡, our cars🚗, our offices💻, our rooms🛏️.

This is why the schedule comes in handy. Maybe you want to pick up daily for 15 minutes twice.

When you’re not doing your schedule, you shouldn’t be worrying about keeping the house clean.

Of course, doing something as simple as leaving dishes in the dishwasher for later is helpful, but you shouldn’t feel expected or pressured to do this.

Find a system that works for you, but don’t be constantly worrying about whether or not the house is clean. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It can be messy.

If you’re someone who always feels pressured to clean, I suggest setting some basic rules:

✔️ Jackets hung up

✔️ No wearing shoes in the house

✔️ Dishes in the Dishwasher after eating

✔️ and etc.

Besides these lists of things – avoid cleaning unless, of course, you really want to.

Quit Living Someone Else’s Dream

We’ve all seen that movie personnel that has the perfect body and hair, she’s ranking top in her classes, she’s kind to everyone, and her parents just conveniently tend to be rich. 🤸‍♀️

I so badly wanted to be this person.

You expect that once you have all of the nice cars, the nice things, maybe even a pretty house with a picket fence🏡, that you’ll be living and loving your life the way you should.

✨You think that if you follow the way life is supposed to be – then once you get all the stuff and play the role correctly – you’ll be fulfilled. ✨

What you’re actually doing is putting yourself in a box with no air.

In my life, this was caused by fear.

Fear that I wasn’t good enough. Fear that I wasn’t valuable. Fear of failing – I just wanted to be the best the first time.

The way to escape others’ dreams for you, is to embrace the fear.

When you embrace the fear, you no longer have that lingering feeling that you’re not where you’re supposed to be.

You need to decide for yourself – who are you and what to do want in this life?

What goals are you working towards and how many of those goals are for others and not yourself?

When you start making your own goals, accepting fear, and going your own path, you’ll feel fulfilled and purposeful in your own way. 🎌

Following what others expect of you will just leave you feeling empty and used. It does the opposite of making you feel valued or good enough as you are.

Follow your own path.

Be Prepared

If you’re really wanting to get your life together – this is a very important step you should take TODAY.

While you can’t always be living your life as if a large disaster will be occurring at any given moment, there are steps👣 you can take today.

Being prepared does not mean you should be missing out or never taking the time to appreciate the good things in life.

🥇 The first thing you should do is to let go of any uncertainty that you may have.

You can’t predict what life will be like in 50, 20, 10, or even 1 year.

So why waste your time being on high alert🚨 for something that may not even happen?

It’s okay to accept the unpredictable nature of life as a natural part of it. Something that you can’t change even if you’re wanting to.

By letting go of any uncertainty that you have, you’re better able to navigate tricky situations. You find peace in knowing that they’re unavoidable and you’ve prepared all you can for them.

2️⃣ The second thing you should do is to have general plans in mind in case something does go wrong.

While you shouldn’t live your life on high alert, you also shouldn’t live your life being ill-prepared.

There are basic steps that you can take today to start being better prepared for your future.

Here are a few examples:

✔️ Are you currently paying off your debts if you have any?

✔️ Are you saving money for retirement?

✔️ Are you investing money?

✔️ Do you know how to get out of difficult situations? Like needing to change a tire without wifi?

✔️ Do you know what to do during an emergency?

✔️ Do you know CPR or how to bandage a wound?

While you don’t have to do all of these things right now, you should have some sort of a plan moving forward.

Stop Trying to Change YOU

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Above, we just talked about how you shouldn’t be changing yourself to fit someone else’s mold.

I do feel it’s important to touch on what you should be doing instead.

A lot of people feel overwhelmed and as if they’re under constant pressure. Pressure to perform well at their job🖨️, pressure to be a better student📝, and pressure to be a better daughter, brother, mom, dad, grandparent. 🧎

A lot of this pressure comes from the feeling that what you are is not good enough or lacking.

While not all expectations are bad for us, we tend to be the ones putting them on ourselves.

When in fact, our boss is only looking out for himself & the profit of the company💸, a hiring company doesn’t care about perfect marks❌, and your siblings may be thinking we’re already doing a good job. 👍

The point is, stop trying so hard to shape and mold yourself into a perfect person because you’re unique as you are.

A big part of loving yourself is to also love yourself enough to change.

It may seem contradictory at first but it makes perfect sense.

You should love yourself as you are, today. You should love who you have become and who you will be.

You should also work towards changing your habits – not for your friends, family, or anyone else.

You should work towards being a better human for the future you.

If I were speaking to my younger self, I would tell myself that it’s okay to try and to fail, it’s okay to cry and be emotional, it’s okay to spend time on my weird hobbies, and it’s okay to speak up for myself.

If you are struggling with self-love, the more you take care of yourself and strive towards being the person YOU want to be, the more confident you’ll become. 😎

Check out a post I wrote about 10 Ways to Build your Confidence.

One Change a Day

While I know we’re trying to get ourselves together in only one day, it’s important that we stay having our sh*t together.

A great way to do this is by knowing our limitations and creating daily long-lasting habits. 🧘🏻‍♀️

To create a habit, you should perform the same action at the same time ⏰ every day.

After around 21-30 days, it should become a habit.

If you’re someone who is looking to wake up earlier in the morning🌄 and work out🏋️, I encourage you to start by making only one change a day.

Think about all of the steps that go into waking up and going to workout:

wake up → change clothes → brush teeth → drink pre-workout → pack bag → find keys → defrost car → drive to gym → workout for an hour → shower → go home → change again → wash face → get ready for day

A lot of these things may seem like small actions when looking at them, but it’s actually a lot of commitments for wanting to create a new routine.

Instead, you should break up ✂️ your goal habits into smaller ones.

Maybe instead of waking up earlier and going to the gym, start with just picking out your clothes the night before and waking up earlier.

pick out clothes → sleep → wake up → brush teeth & wash face → read

As a treat to waking up earlier – spend the time however you like. 💅

After a week of this, start doing 20-30 minute workouts at home.

pick out clothes → sleep → wake up → change → brush teeth → workout → wash face → read

And keep building your habit until you’re where you want to be.

By breaking up your habits into small actionable chunks ✂️, you are avoiding decision fatigue🥱 and allowing yourself time⏰ to adjust to your new schedule📅 better.

If you’re thinking this feels like a waste of time – think about all of the times where you couldn’t stick with a new schedule you placed on yourself.

It’s better to do something rather than nothing. 🤷

Take Care of your Health for F*cks Sake

❗Now, before you write off my entire post and assume I’m pressuring societal beauty standards on you – I’m not.❗

A big part of getting your sh*t together is to also feel like you’ve got it together.

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When I was a teenager, health was seen as the least of my concerns.

I smoked🚬, never worked out🛋️, drank often🍹, never took care of myself🛀, and I felt terrible ☹️ all the time.

(Although I feel better mentally – I actually feel worse physically. But that’s just probably because of aging reasons instead of health ones lol!)

The majority of the reason I had struggled with feeling so worthless was because I was treating myself like I was.

When we don’t take care of our health and what we’re putting in and out of our bodies, we are treating ourselves like we’re not worth the time and effort to be better.

I also feel it’s important to mention that working out 🏋️ can increase your life span and eating healthily 🥗 can help with depression.

Invest in yourself and decide how you want to include eating healthier🥗 and working out 🏋️ in your schedule.

Here’s a pretty cool diet and exercise planner I found on Amazon!

Automate it 🔄

I honestly hope you’re not still paying your bills by checks.

There’s nothing wrong with it if you really like to do it – but I just feel we’ve come farther than that, ya know?😄

✔️ Have your bills paid automatically through your bank account.

✔️ Have a certain percentage of your paycheck taken to your savings every few weeks.

✔️ Create systems to reuse to make your life easier.

By automating these things, it allows you to spend your time on things that are more important to you.

For example, my blog is still really young.

In fact, I think this is the 3rd or 4th post I’ve written so far.

I realized that I’ve been wasting a lot of time by planning out the exact steps I need to take for each blog post.

At this moment I’m currently creating a basic to-do that each of my blog posts will go through before being published.

This will save me a lot of time because I won’t have to brainstorm each of the steps I’ll be taking and when.

So if you can, automate it! 🔄

Download a Money Management App

Tbh, I almost didn’t include this in my list because I feel like everyone mentions this.

Nonetheless, it made the list because I do feel it is very important to get your sh*t together.

All you have to do is find a money management app of your choice, connect it to your account, and BAM you’re done. 📱

The reason I suggest downloading a money management app instead of creating your own excel sheet is that it’s a lot easier to keep track of and you’re more likely to stick with it. 🏆

Intuit Mint is a very popular choice at the moment. In fact, my boyfriend swears by it.

Also, if you’re someone who’s just starting out with tracking your expenses and investing and the like, it’s very easy to get overwhelmed.

That’s why I suggest just starting with a free easy app and working your way towards investing more in your money.

Honey, Keep up with the News 📰

I know the thought of reading the news – especially at a time like this – may cause you to cringe internally, externally, & all the ternallys.

But it serves, in my opinion, a divine purpose we all have.

I feel that reading the news 📰 is so important because it allows us to learn about different cultures🐉 and perspectives🔮 aside from our own.

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Not only that, but it also educates you on social issues, climate issues, other cultures, and what’s happening around the world. 🗺️

Keeping up with the news is also important when it comes to avoiding possible policy mistakes.

I personally read my news in a different language to use as a study tool⚙️.

If you prefer, you can listen to your news through podcasts📻, subscribe to 2-3 different online news sources, or just read📚 about the social issues that interest you.

I feel very strongly that my generation should be and do better for people and the environment. I hope you feel the same – no matter your political affiliation. 🗳️

Don’t let Social Rot Your Brain

I know that you’ve heard it a million times.

I know that we can all acknowledge that some parts of social media can just be… extremely toxic☠️.

I also know that not all social media is bad.

Can we all just agree to not generalize social media?🤷

I firsthand have dealt with the negative consequences of overusing social media and using it as a time-waster rather than a tool⚙️.

Social media is a great thing when you’re using it for the purpose of learning📕, relaxing🕯️, or even working👩‍💻. It becomes a problem when you’re spending hours scrolling through your feed.

The reason why social media is so addictive is because it literally is. When someone likes your post or links to you, you get a free hit💨 of dopamine.

When treating a social media issue, the most important thing is to acknowledge that you have one.

I mean – you might as well acknowledge it since you’re here. 😄

There are multiple tools you can use to block social media sites. For me personally, I found that just completely going cold turkey 🦃 from social media works best 👍 for me.

I suggest watching 👀 and reading up 📕 on “dopamine fasting”, which is essentially what I do every time I get addicted to YouTube again.

Another thing that helps me is to find activities to do instead. Check out my blog post title 30 Things to Do Instead of Netflix for some ideas. 🥳

Where is your life headed?

I’m sure you’re assuming I’m asking if you know what you want to do with your life.

No, instead I want you to predict what you’ll be doing in the future if you continue using the same habits you have been.

For me, this question was the start of my productivity journey and this blog. 😊

A few years ago I knew my life was looking towards juvy, jail, suicide, drugs, or something else just as bad. This really haunted me and kept me up at night. 👻🌃

Decide to make a change today for the future you.

I decided to change for me and I can honestly say it has been such a great and fun journey. I want everyone to feel the way that I feel right now. 😃

The most important tips from this section would be to get to know, love, and respect yourself, and to take responsibility for who you will become.

The sooner you do that, the sooner you can start working on building a better future for yourself.

Note:

I feel like it’s important to mention that if you’re starting your productivity journey – you should just start.

When I first decided I wanted to change myself, I was unsure of what the steps I was supposed to take were.

You should know that there are no wrong steps 🙅‍♀️ and that there is no ‘list’ of things you can do to be where you’re supposed to be.

A great place to start your productivity journey would be to subscribe and join the community.

Writing 📝 Your Future To-Do

The last step to take at this moment is to write ✍️ a custom to-do list of what main goals you want to accomplish in the future.

When writing your list, keep in mind what the future you will look like if you’re consistent with these habits.

This process will help you decide whether or not you actually want to accomplish those things.

It also helps to guide your perspective by showing you that other things – such as making your bed 🛏️ – make no difference in the direction of your future.

This is a great time to decide whether or not you want to be spending your time on these things. If they make no difference and you dislike doing them, why do them? 🤷

Because I can’t personally hold your hand and walk you through life, the most important step you can take right now is to take action.

Own your life and your future.

Conclusion

Congratulations on taking the steps to better yourself! Even if you’ve only read the post, you’ve taken the time and the first step towards getting your sh*t together for the long term.

The most important step is to take action and to remember that consistency is key! 🗝