My Secret to Organisation
How to externalise everything.
Have you ever entered a room to get something, but as soon as you enter, you completely forget why you went there in the first place?
Why does this happen?
Perhaps you're asking your brain to juggle more than it can handle at once, or maybe you're unaware of how much is really on your mind. Either way, externalising will help you keep a clear mind and stay organised.
This is a concept that I first read about in Daniel Levitin's book, The Organised Mind, back in 2018. Since then I have tried to implement externalising into my life in different ways and I can confidently say, it's an absolute must.
Seriously, everyone should be doing this.
What is Externalising?
Externalising is freeing up the thinking space in your brain by unloading things you need to remember to your surrounding physical or digital environment. Let me give you a few examples.
It's going to rain later, I need to remember my umbrella - leave your umbrella by the door.
I have a doctor's appointment next week - Set a reminder on your calendar 1 hour before.
I need to remember to bring carrots from my grocery shop - Write a shopping list.
In each scenario, we go from relying on short term memory to freeing up the mind and externalising.
The human brain can only consciously keep track of 3-5 things at once before we begin to forget.
You would be surprised by how much of an impact externalising can have on your mental state. When you unload everything you need to remember onto paper, to-do lists, calendars and your external environment, you free up your mind to relax and enjoy living your life.
By setting reminders and externalising everything important in your life, you will start to feel much more organised. When you have a calendar with reminders, locations and timings of all your appointments, you will never miss another.
It's a very simple, but powerful act.
A place for everything and everything in its place.
This is the golden rule for externalising. It does not work if you don't put things back where they go. The objects shown below are good for externalising but also make nice decor, so it's a win-win.
Physical - Keys
Photo by Scott Webb
Have you ever misplaced your keys? Most houses have a hook for the keys, the hook is an example of externalising. With a designated hook for the keys, you never have to remember where you put them.
The only thing you need to remember is to hang the keys up there in the first place, which you can achieve by placing the hook in your line of sight as you enter the house. Alternatively, you can use a tray on a table by the door.
Since COVID-19 started I found that I kept forgetting to take my mask out with me. Now I keep a mask in every jacket and I have a note by the door which says 'Got your mask?'
It's amazing how effective this is.
Physical - Phone
Have you ever misplaced your phone? That wouldn't happen if you had a designated, externalised place for it, like the phone stand shown above. It stops you from misplacing it AND it looks quite nice. You can buy a similar one here.
Physical - Glasses
Do you wear glasses? Have you ever misplaced them and thought you lost your glasses? That wouldn't happen if you had a designated, externalised place for them, like in the picture above. You can find glasses stands here.
Digital - Calendar & Appointments
This is a new entry in Google Calendar. If you have an appointment you can set the location, time and date as well as an unlimited amount of reminders (my default is set to 1 day before and 10 minutes before). You probably never go anywhere without your phone, so you will never miss an appointment if you use this system.
Once something is in the calendar, you can completely let the thought leave your mind because google will simply remind you a day before.
How I externalise
This blog is built on externalising. On my phone, I have a section on notes for blog post ideas. If an idea pops into my head, it immediately gets written down so I don't have to worry about remembering it. At the time of writing, I have 48 unpublished ideas written down that I have collected over the last 9 months.
Shopping lists. I never go shopping without typing out what I need on my phone. There's nothing worse than coming back from a supermarket and realising you forgot to get bread.
University. I have a calendar set up with all of my lectures along with reminders so I never have to worry about missing class (You can do this with outlook calendar in most universities).
Football training. I have reminders set 2 hours before so I'm never scrambling for my boots last minute.
My phone. I have a phone stand and coasters on every flat surface in my room, so when I put my phone down, it either goes on a coaster or my phone stand. I literally never misplace my phone because of this. If I do, I just look at each coaster and it'll be on one of them, simple.
The word externalise is literally a part of my vocabulary now. Whenever I'm with a friend who says they need to remember something, I tell them to externalise and write it down or set a reminder. Then I spend 10 minutes explaining why they need to externalise 😆.
Why externalise?
In short, it makes life easier.
We are in the age of information overload, studies show that the average person is exposed to 5,000 adverts each day! That's a lot of information to process.
Now imagine you're leaving the house for work, but you have an upcoming doctor's appointment, you need to remember to take your umbrella, you need to take the bins out before you leave and you need to pack your lunch into your work bag.
If you leave these tasks purely down to memory, you can easily forget a thing or two. Especially when you have emails, text messages, social media, your outfit and overall appearance to add to the mix.
With externalising, you can stop relying on your unreliable short term memory and worry less about remembering a dozen things at once.
Here's how you could externalise those things:
Doctor's appointment - use a calendar app on your phone, set 2 reminders, one an hour before the appointment and one a day before just to remind you to free up that time.
Umbrella - Leave this leaning against the door - do this as soon as you find out it's raining.
Bins - Set a recurring reminder with your bins schedule. I can't tell you how many times my family has forgotten to take the bins out.
Next time you need to remember something, try externalising.
PS. You can reply directly to this email if you want to leave a message 😇