After a two-week slide in which pretty much all cleaning, organizing, or maintenance went downhill, today I got back on the organizational wagon and decided to get busy.
I find that when things are truly out of control, a little structure helps me get back to the straight and narrow. A To Do list usually does the trick. For organization tasks, I either assign a duration (i.e. "work on taxes for one hour") or an end goal ("clean refrigerator") to the item on my To Do list, depending on the complexity of the task on hand. For simple tasks I just jot down the item, but for projects that are more involved, I'd rather commit to a time period, after which I assess my progress and identify the next step.
Because my study is where I paint, write, work out, dress, surf, compose the posts for this blog, watch TV, file, do paperwork, talk on the phone, and generally hang out, not to mention actually work two days a week when I work from home, I decided that it was my "ground zero"--the one place most in need of an organizational intervention. As with other amorphous projects, it really wasn't a matter of doing one thing (i.e. "organize medicine cabinet"), nor was it a fairly routine task I could write out as a goal, like "clean the bathroom." There were clothes to put away, the desk to clear, paperwork to handle, the floor to sweep, and myriad other tasks to accomplish, so I used the time attribution method, and kept it do-able: work on my room for an hour, and go through papers/file for another hour. After a little more than two hours, the floor and desk were clear, the clothes put away, and I'd made a considerable dent in my filing. What helped was to do the general cleaning first, so I had a nice clear desk to use as my paperwork command-center. Afterwards, I let myself get out my paints for the first time in months and spent several hours happily absorbed.