If you’re trying to get organized, it can feel overwhelming and it’s hard to know where to start. My recommendation is before you jump in, do an energy audit. If your energy is low your focus will be weak, and taking on organization may be too much to ask of yourself! So what’s draining your energy?

Energy Audit Exercise
1. Sit somewhere you are comfortable and have room to write. If you are at your desk and it’s messy, move everything except paper and pen to the floor. You don’t have to clean the desk, and please don’t clean the room! Just move your stuff off the desk for now so you aren’t distracted.

2. Take a deep breath and sent an intent: “I need to know what’s draining my energy”

3. Spend time visualizing each item on this list and decide: Does this part of my life raise my energy? Feel neutral? Or lower my energy? Next to each point, put a +, 0, or – sign.

• Picture walking through each of these rooms in your house or apartment
  • Your bedroom
  • Your bathroom
  • Your living room
  • Is there one thing in any of these rooms that pops out as being very positive or very negative? Drawers? Carpeting? Lighting? Furniture? Art? Live or dead plants?
  • Are there certain colors or windows or light in your house that make you feel more positive or more negative?
  • Do you feel more or less energy when there is a lot in room? Or a little?
  • Do you have furniture, linens, or art in your house that raises your energy? Or ones that bug you?
  • Picture your bookshelves. Do the books lift you? Or bring you down?
  • Peek into the closets if you dare – positive or negative?
• Spend some mental time in your kitchen. Open drawers, cabinets, and the refrigerator in your mind. Positive or negative?
• Picture your job – walking in in the morning, lunch, walking out in the evening.
• Think about a few friends, a significant other, children, parents.
• Walk or drive in your mind to familiar places you go.
• Think about the music you listen to.
• Take a mental walk outside your house or apartment. Is it inspiring? Or draining? Look at the color of the place you live. Look at the plants, at the grass, at any trees or flowers.
• Take a mental drive in your car – positive vibes? Or negative?
• Picture taking a break. What do you do with your time? Read? Watch TV? What lifts or drains your energy?

Look at the “+” items. What’s the most relaxing place in your house? What rooms and places in your house bring you joy? What do you see in common on the list? Colors? Plants? Order?

Now circle the “-” items. What’s bringing you down? Think on it! Can you get rid of some of the draining stuff so you have more energy to focus on the work you want to do and that brings you joy? If you have several negative areas to tackle, pick one to concentrate on this week. The goal is to get rid of things that bring you down, that you never liked, and that have passed their expiration point with you.

Being organized takes energy. How are you going to get energy back into your life?