Does it ever seem like you can never get on top of things? You are constantly missing play dates and activities, you are never on time to pick up the kids from child care and lets not even start with the state of house.

If you answered ‘no’ to these questions, you’re probably good at being organised. But don’t worry, if you’re one of those who did answer ‘yes’, you’re not alone.

Being a mum is hard and even if you are the most organised of people, we all still have bad days.

Strong organisational skills can help improve productivity, time management and work/life balance, according to professional organiser Amanda Lecaude.

Anyone Can Learn To Be Organised

But if you think these skills are limited to ‘born organisers’, think again. While some people are natural at being organised, others can learn to be organised, says Ms Lecaude, Vice President of the Australasian Association of Professional Organisers and founder of Organising You. “I believe organising skills are learnable and can become habit.”

Being organised is more than keeping a tidy home or getting the kids to school on time. It encompasses mental organisation, such as punctuality and time management, too.

Many only think of clutter as physical and forget that it affects you mentally.

Some people are naturally better at mental organisation, others at physical, “or they can be aware of both in either a good or bad way”.

In fact, some people don’t need an orderly, mess-free home or schedule to be organised,  many creative people can be like this.

“Organising is not about how a space looks … but how it functions.”

So maybe it’s time to get organised?

Here are my top tips to get mums on the road:

Get a nice diary
If you’re a ‘list person’, use lists to keep track of your to-do items. Pick something pretty and inspiring, not only will you write down everything to keep a clear mind, you’ll look forward to checking it regularly.

Don’t leave it until later
The issue is, later will never come, everything has a home so pop it back as often as you can, even when little hands decide to move it again.

Use you time
Use you spare/free time wisely. Try and smash out as many meals in one go, meal prepping is one of the best ways to save time each evening. Invite a friend over for coffee while you meal prep, that kills two birds with one stone right?

Purge and declutter regularly
Especially with a young family, you will find that things accumulate regularly. Set aside 1 hour per week to skim over things that can hit the bins such as toys, old kitchenware and unwanted junk lying around. Or look to donate anything you don’t use.

Set goals
Identify what you want to achieve and establish a plan to get there. Setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based) goals is a great option. Business owners use this to achieve efficiency so us mums should too! We are running a tight ship after all.

Prioritise your goals
Order them in terms of daily, monthly or yearly, for example, and select a number you’d like to achieve in the allotted time frame.

Get the kids involved
Make organisation a family activity! Make it fun by setting to-do lists and giving them gold stars – they will all become addicted.

About Katie Kirsopp
Katie Kirsopp has an extensive business background in retail, event management, customer service, recruitment and business development. She has held customer service positions at both the National Bank of Australia and the Bank of Melbourne. She and her team work with a wide variety of different types of businesses, including photographers, life and career coaches, magazine publishers, marketers, property agents and event management companies.

Find out more at: www.yourparttimepa.com/