I used to be terrible at drawing. I couldn’t make a stick figure look good. Then I followed the 1% rule.
Slowly but surely I learned how to draw.
Instead of creating a daunting, probably unreasonable task of drawing for 3-4 hours 2 to 3 days a week or even an hour a few days a week, I simply made a commitment to draw for 10 minutes a day.
That’s all it takes, small incremental habits have a profound effect. 10 minutes of drawing every day over the course of the year lead to a drastic change in my drawing skillset. I went from a terrible drawer to an average drawer by making a one percent change over a long period of time. Then, it just compounds as you do it more since you’ve now got a good habit locked in.
I learned this concept from James Clear in his book Atomic Habits. It’s definitely a must-read, but another concept he talks about in the book that goes along with the 1% rule is how to make habits stick.
The key he says is to make them obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying.
Along with that, he talks about identity habits. Instead of viewing it from the perspective of, ‘how do I become an organized person,’ look at it more along the lines of, “what actions do organized people take on a daily basis, and how to create the habits that make me an organized person?’
So you don’t have to do as much thinking, here are some ways you might go about that.
Start out by thinking about what characteristics an organized person has, how they act, and how their mind operates.
For instance, they like things to have and be in place, they appreciate cleanliness and order, and they feel satisfaction when things get put back where they belong.
So what small things can you do to appreciate cleanliness and order? Start small and just try to keep your desk clear and clean every day. By focusing on one area and really paying attention to how the ordered to clean desk makes you feel on a day-to-day basis will help you better assume and identify as an organized person.
An organized person gets tremendous satisfaction out of being able to find things whenever they need them and seeing items neatly placed. So along with functionality, they love the aesthetic. How can you adopt this mindset?
Whenever you see something organized, pay close attention to the look of it, not just oh that looks nice, but really drill into how amazing space and items look when they are not crammed in with 10 other things together. Pay attention to the space between them, how they can breathe and almost move in their stillness. Then, when you do have to use something, notice how easy it is to find and get what you want, there’s not extra time spent searching, and you can relax when you have to put it back because you know where it’s going to go!
If you can start with these small perspective shifts, you’ll be well on your way to becoming an organized person, just because your home is in chaos now, doesn’t mean it has to be like that forever.
All it takes is trying to understand what makes an organized person tick, then making small 1% changes over time that will bleed out into the rest of your life.
We’re always here to help jump-start you into that kind of lifestyle feel free to schedule a call with us today!