To the Hot Mess With Good Intentions,
It doesn't matter how many organizational books you read. It doesn't matter how many of your clean and organized friends try to help you. It doesn't matter how many times you try and tell yourself that you will keep you room clean this week. Time to face the harsh reality: you didn't choose the chaotic hot mess life, it chose you.
If you are anything like me, organized messiness makes sense to you because of the pace of your lifestyle; through multiple jobs, school work, my collegiate athletics, and somehow finding time to sleep my mind is constantly on the go. There is a special breed of people out there who somehow know where everything is even through the piles of stuff on the floor, desk, bed or wherever their heart desires to create one. This person is known as the hot mess.
For those of you who fall into this disorderly lifestyle, fear not! I have four tips for you that have helped me as a member of the hot mess community.
1. Keep a notebook and pen next to your bed.
For those of us who are hot messes, our mind runs the most at night when we are thinking about what we have to do the next day. I am constantly reminded of little tasks that I didn't get accomplished, or new ones that my mind just creates while I am laying in the darkness. Keep a notebook and pen next to your bed and write yourself a little to-do list. This will help your mind rest a little knowing that you won't forget in the morning!
2. Have an actual date for laundry, and stick to it!
You know how it goes as a fellow pile collector; as the days go by, the tower just gets bigger! Finding time to do laundry as a hot mess, is like trying to find lettuce in a butcher shop—It's just really hard. However, if you set a day of the week as "laundry day" it will make the commitment seem less draining. For me, this is every Monday, because I know I will actually have time for it. You will also start to notice that this prevents piles from accumulating all over the place.
3. Use a planner.
This little booklet has saved my life on many different occasions. It helps me too look forward to the weeks ahead, if have an assignment due, or somewhere that I need to be. I would also recommend using the notes you take beside your bed at night and sticking them by the day you want to accomplish them!
4. Don't be upset with yourself when things get real crazy.
Now listen, hot mess, don't have a melt down when you feel like you are up to your ears drowning in your stressful to-do lists. When you feel as though there is no way in the world you will accomplish everything you have to do, just remember, you are a professional at being a hot mess—you were born for this! So just take a deep breath, and know that everything will work itself out!
So now that you have some helpful tips, just remember, you will always be a member of this dysfunctional community. We might not get things done in the most orderly or organized fashioned, but that is quite alright. Things always get done in our own hot mess-of-a-way!
