188 | Why You Still Don’t Feel Organized (Even Though You’re Doing All the Right Things)

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You’ve decluttered. You’ve created systems. You actually know how to organize. So why can one pile of papers on the counter make you feel like you’re a complete mess?

There’s a big difference between being disorganized and feeling disorganized. And what’s happening around you doesn’t have to become evidence of who you are.

In this episode, I share a recent coaching example of a client who came to our call feeling like a “hot mess,” even though she’s actually very organized. What she really had were open loops. Once we identified what needed to happen and when she was going to do it, nothing had actually been completed—but she felt completely different.

That’s because feeling organized isn’t about the absence of disorder. It’s about your relationship to the disorder that’s currently there.

We’ll talk about why “I’m a mess” feels so different from “These papers need decisions,” how our old 10-second scripts become well-worn paths in our brains, and why getting rid of more stuff may never make you feel organized if your definition of organized is “nothing left to organize.”

You’ll also hear two simple analogies—being a good cook and rerouting while driving—that will help you rethink what it actually means to be organized.

An organized person is someone who knows how to create order when and where she needs it.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why feeling disorganized is different from being disorganized

How open loops contribute to overwhelm

Why a pile of papers doesn’t determine whether you’re organized