Why Does Getting Organized Feel So Overwhelming?

Speaker A00:00:28

Hey, Ralph, my files are a mess. Paper in digital. How do I get organized this season?Listen, if you've got stacks of papers, you got digital folders that make no sense, and every time you need a document, it's missing. I get it, man. Been there, done that. For so many of us, we feel behind, we feel embarrassed, and maybe we actually feel a little ashamed.But friend, I want to tell you something right now. Order isn't perfection. It's peace. That's what we're going to lean in today, Peace. Because that disorder, I've learned this firsthand.It drains energy. And a simple system can give you peace and save you time and save you money. And on the other side of that, God doesn't bless chaos.He builds it through clarity. So let's talk about finding some clarity on today's show. Welcome. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Ralph.This is the Financially Confident Christian. It's a daily show helping you break the cycle of financial shame and do it with confidence.And I've worked with individuals, I work with businesses that help them create systems that actually work. And I've learned that organization isn't busy work. It's biblical stewardship. And when you have things in order, guess what, it pays dividends.It pays dividends in time. It pays dividends in money. And guess what? It pays dividends in peace. I never forget I was working with a couple who was overwhelmed by clutter.I'm talking about mess. When I saw their car, I should have known right away, man, their car was full of mess. They had paper everywhere. They had digital files.I mean, talking about a mess. They came in to get their taxes done. I said, they brought in some of that mess with them. I was like, this is a disaster.And what I did for them, I said, I'm going to teach you the three bin method. I'm going to share with you that today on the show we made three bins. If you feel like, let me give you an example.If you go into your home office or you go into a room and you got this big stack of papers, a lot of people say their kitchen table looks like this. I'm going to encourage you today. Three bins scan, file and shred. And so you could do the same thing digitally or paper wise, they did that.And in one afternoon, it changed their whole year. And see, peace entered the room when order took its place. And think about how emotionally freeing that was. Just three simple bins.Let's get back to today's question. So how do you move From a pile of panic to a place of peace. And how do you keep it that way? Because that's the key to this.How do you keep it that way? Well, I've got some answers for you. Number one, start simple. Like I said, this three bin method is a great way to do it.I've worked with clients time and time again. It's. It works. I did this with my kids when the kids were younger, they had toys everywhere. I said at some point they got too many toys.I said, we got to figure out something here. So we set up three bins. Well, you could do the same thing with your personal finances because sorting creates space to breathe.You don't need perfection, you just need progress. Just three bins. Scan, file and shred. And here's the secret sauce. Handle each piece of paper one time.Because a lot of people say, well, I'm not sure I'm going to. Let me go. This one I'm going to do. I don't know what I'm going to do with this one. Don't just reshuffle them.I've seen people sit at their table and they shovel papers on one side to the other. No, no, no. Three bins. Pick one. Scan, file or shred. Because order begins the moment you decide to stop ignoring that pile.If you keep on ignoring it, it's not going to go away. Second thing, I'm a big fan of digital discipline because what's digital still needs direction. A lot of people say, well, I'm going to scan it in.That's great. Scan one, scan two. That's not going to work. Name your files. Currently, again, we get into some details today.For example, one of the big things I recommend is putting a naming convention. I like this one. Let's say you've got a gas invoice for your bill that you got from the gas company. Here's a simple way to do it.Instead of scan 1, 2, 3, you're not going to know what that is. Put in the date. Put 2025-12. That means it's 2025 December. Gas invoice. Then you can go find it and then create folders that mirror your papers.And a lot of people are saying, ralph, I got these great paper folders, but how do I do that online? How do I do that digitally? Same thing. Maybe you set up a folder called bills. Maybe you set up a folder called taxes or one called important.But here, while you're doing that, a little bit caveat here. Back it up. People say, I got all this stuff on the cloud, Ralph. But what do I do? Back it up.Put an external drive because a backup is love for your future self. But think about a digital plan and then build a central hub because peace lives, where everything has a place.You can use a binder, you can use a shared drive. Just one place everybody knows. Because a lot of times people scatter their systems.I got this system for that and this system for that being in accounting, right? We use a product called Smart Vault. It's like a digital filing cabinet. When a client calls me, I know where to go for that.You can do the same thing with your personal finances. Oh, this is this. Okay, this goes in this folder. It goes in this month, it goes in this year.But do that central hub, because if not, you could have a great digital products. But if you don't have a central hub, you're going to have chaos. But a central hub turns chaos into clarity.And when everything has, my wife is great about this, she goes, Ralph, everything has its place. Well, your digital files, your paper file should see the same way. When everything has a home, your mind rests easier. Another big takeaway.You got to maintain this because it's so easy to make that big. Let's say you do that three bin thing. You go into your kitchen. You got this big old kitchen table.I remember when I first met my in laws, I went over to my wife's house and their kitchen table, like we wanted to sit down and eat. They had to take like 10 minutes to move all the stuff off the table so they could do something. They got all these piles.And I said to our father, I said, hey, I got a great idea for you. How about we go buy some bins? He's like, dude, I haven't looked at this stuff in months. And we did it. We sat down together, I helped him.Well, then six months later, guess what happened? The piles are back. You gotta maintain this habit. Maybe every week you say, I'm gonna do my paper hour.I'm gonna do this small maintenance keeps peace permanent. You wanna keep this permanent because a lot of people say, well, I'm gonna get organized. That's not an event, it's a rhythm.Because clutter grows quietly, so so should your discipline. Let's get right into the Bible today. First Corinthians, chapter 14, verse 33. God is not a God of disorder, but of peace. Now you be Ralph.You dug deep for that one. But it's so true. What is it saying to us? In order comes peace. And if we're in disorder. Guess what? We don't have any peace.And a lot of people say, well, order. You just trying to control everything. No, it's about creating space for peace. You want to live in peace? Get your stuff in order.How about we pray together? Lord, we come to you right now, and we do feel this clutter around us, so we feel like we got no organization.Help us to replace that cutter with calm, Lord. Help us to break that chaos. Give me discipline to maintain what you bless every day.Lord, grant me gratitude for order because we know it reflects your nature. And, Lord, help me to see organization as worship. Yes, it's worship, not just work. Help us to sustain that, Lord. Help us to be mindful of that.Help us to make those micro choices to keep doing that. And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, here's what I want you to do. One action item for today.I want you to take that timer we talked about on yesterday's show, set it for 30 minutes, just on one zone. I don't know what that is for you. Maybe it's your desk pile. I've got this big pile of papers. I gotta get through them. Ralph, 30 minutes.Or maybe that's that downloads folder. You got a great digital storage system, but it's all stuck in your downloads folder. You got to organize that. Or here's another one.A lot of people say I look at people's emails sometimes, and I go, oh, my God, if I had that many emails, I'd freak out. Maybe you need to organize your inbox. But just set a timer for 30 minutes, because 30 minutes of focus can reclaim a whole month of peace.So that's your action item for today. Grab that timer, set it for 30 minutes, and organize something. Here's another thing I want you to do.When you're done doing your organization today, I want you to consider joining our community. We launched this community a couple weeks ago. The best way to get to it is to go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com./join out there.We talk about how to support each other. We talk about accountability. We talk about encouragement. I'm putting prayers out there.And one of the takeaways from today is order grows best in community. Well, this is a community for you to do that. So I'm not looking for your money. If you want to support the show there, you can.But it's absolutely free to join. It's@financiallyconfidentchristian.com./join again. That's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/join. And as I close today, remember this.Systems save sanity. You want to live in sanity? Have some systems. And listen, this is a big takeaway for me. A clear desk equals a clear mind.Whether that's a desk, a kitchen table, whatever that looks like. Because order is worship in motion. So I'm going to encourage you today. Go get organized. Be a financially confident Christian.Stay financially confident. You can do this. You can get through that pile. Use my three bin method. If it works for you, God bless you. And you have a great day today.