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I spent the first 19 years of my life being one of the most unorganised people I knew.

I now teach organisation and productivity to a combined audience of over 30,000 people, and have literally built a business around these concepts.

This didn’t happen by chance.

There are 6 habits I adopted that completed overhauled my mindset and behaviours.

Habits the old disorganised me never would have even considered trying.

By the end of today’s newsletter, you’ll understand exactly how to implement these 6 habits to become the efficient, focused and organised adult you’ve always aspired to be.

The 6 Habits of Highly Organised People

Habit 1: The "One-Touch" Rule

Habit 2: Get out of your head

Habit 3: Become an organised person

Habit 4: Build an operating rhythm

Habit 5: The 2 Minute Rule

Habit 6: Practice self-awareness

Let me take you back to 2020.

If you got a glimpse into my life, here’s what you would’ve seen.

A bedroom with clothes all over the floor and a bedside table drowning in empty cups.

A notoriously bad habit of being late because I either

• Couldn’t find my phone
• Had to turn around halfway due to forgetting something essential
• Or I simply got the time or day completely wrong.

Worst of all - that sinking feeling when I missed (yet another) deadline.

In short, my life in 2020 was a poster child for how not to live - chaotic, frazzled, and constantly rushed.

Barely making it through each day without a new areas of my life falling apart.

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Being disorganised is not fun.

You feel guilty for constantly letting others down.

Your reputation suffers as people begin to see you as the “flaky” friend or unreliable coworker.

You miss out on career opportunities and personal growth because you’re always two steps behind.

And you waste so much time, energy and mental space trying to stay on top of the chaos.

Working inefficiently, and finishing everything at the last minute.

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Here’s the thing.

I am now a highly organised person.

But I am not perfectly organised.

Striving for perfection will only cause more stress and drain your motivation.

You don’t need a spotless home, minimalist aesthetic or complicated organisation system to feel in control of your life.

What you need are realistic habits and flexible systems that actually improve your life, not work against it.

Because at it’s core, being a highly organised person means embodying 3 traits:

1. Focus.

Being able to dedicate your mind fully to the present moment.

Avoiding being pulled off track by last minute tasks or forgotten responsibilities

2. Efficiency.

Not wasting your time or energy on unnecessary tasks or procrastination.

3. Calm.

Maintaining a sense of control over your environment and responsibilities.

Feeling comfortable switching off.

The 6 habits we’re about to go through are the stepping stones to consistently embodying these traits.

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Habit 1: The "One-Touch" Rule

I strongly believe that if we did more activities in our lives the same way we do the washing, we would be 10x more efficient.

When you do the laundry, you don’t put half the washing in the dryer.

Go do another task.

Then come back and put the other half in.

You do it all at once.

When you’ve folded the washing, you don’t take half your pile to your room, and leave the other half sitting there.

You take it all up at once.

This is the whole philosophy behind the “one-touch” rule.

Practice efficiency.

Don’t let small things accumulate into overwhelming clutter.

Let’s take email:

• Open = opening an email
• Close = responding to the email or taking the required action

If you’re cleaning your house:

• Open = picking up a jacket from the floor
• Close = putting the jacket away (not moving it from the floor to the bed where you’ll have to move it again)

If you’re starting a work report or project:

• Open = looking at the project brief
• Close = finishing your plan for how you’ll break down and tackle the project

Here’s where I realised the power of this rule.

I used to check my email every single time I opened my phone.

I’d spend 2 minutes reading an email.

Close it and move onto something else.

Have that email in the back of my mind for the next 3 hours, causing subconscious stress and distraction.

Eventually, spend another 2 minutes re-reading the email.

And finally respond.

The same thing happened with projects.

I opened and read a new brief.

Only to start a completely new task.

Without doing anything with the information I’d just consumed.

I could have taken an extra 10 minutes to lay out a clear plan.

But I didn’t use the “one touch” rule.

I may have thought I had moved on to a new task.

But my mind was still racing through all the open loops I created.

Your time.

Your brain space.

Your focus and mental clarity.

They are all consumed by the hundreds of tasks you have opened but never closed.

The more balls you’re juggling in your life, the more important this habit is.

We think our biggest tasks cause the most stress.

The mental overload and the feeling like there’s always more to do.

But do they really?

If I came and took everything off your plate right now except that one major work project

• Your unanswered emails and texts
• Your meal planning and chores
• Your life admin and errands

All gone.

How free would you feel?

How quiet would your mind become?

Big tasks are rarely the issue.

All the little ones are.

So, if you want to become an organised emailer:

• Allocate 1-3 time periods per day for email
• Avoid checking your inbox until this time
• Read one email, respond, and take it off your plate (and mind) all in one go
• Repeat for all your emails

If you want to become an organised writer:

• Read your project brief
• Break the project down into small, individual steps
• Choose 1-2 steps to complete every time you work on that larger project

The simple “one-touch rule” will go a long way for your mental and physical organisation.

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Habit 2: Get Out Of Your Head

I vividly remember my frustration during tests and exams back in school.

Not because I hated them, or feared failing.

But because I couldn’t understand why I needed to memorise the dates of the industrial revolution, or the exact function of the mitochondria.

When in the real world, I could look it up on the internet in 2 seconds.

All that time.

All that mental space.

Wasted.

This frustration seems to have continued far past school.

Because I still refuse to remember more than I need to.

Highly organised people are focused, because they don’t clutter their minds with unnecessary information.

They are efficient, because they use their mental energy to create results.

Instead of stressing over forgetting something important.

They are calm, because they analyse their tasks in front of their eyes.

Instead of juggling it in their brains.

Highly organised people use a trusted system to offload their mental noise - freeing up their brain for more useful things.

This is genuinely the most important habit I’ve developed these past four years.

What would change in your life if you could:

• Start each day with clarity and motivation?
• Dedicate 100% of your attention to the present moment?
• Switch off work mode with confidence, knowing you have everything in control?

Even plan your day or organise your life with more ease and fun?

This is exactly what a “second brain” and effective life organisation system will do for you.

A trusted, centralised place to capture and organise every thought, task, and piece of information weighing you down.

I’ve handed you my entire step-by-step system for achieving this mental freedom in the Notion Digital Home Base.

This will give you everything you need to organise your life in a simple but effective way.

Without you having to invest the time and energy figuring it all out and developing a setup on your own.

This system will work even better when you develop the next habit.

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Habit 3: Become An Organised Person

You can have the perfect system.

The most comprehensive organisational plan.

But if you don’t actually do the organising, nothing will change.

There are two types of people in this world when it comes to achieving their desires.

Person 1 looks at highly successful people and thinks:

“They’re so lucky they have that motivational drive”.

“I wish I had their network”.

“If I was them, I’d be able to do that too”.

They look at organised people the same way.

“I wish I was an organised person”.

“If only I was more type A, staying organised would be easy”.

Person 1 has already limited their potential by handing over their power to external circumstances and perceived inabilities.

By believing that personality traits, life circumstances, luck — have all the control.

I know, because this was me.

I looked at the people who were always on time.

Who got the opportunities because they deserved them, because they could be relied on.

And I put their organisational skills down to a personality trait.

Why? It meant that I didn’t have to change.

I was just an unorganised person, and that was out of my control.

Person 2, however, looks at successful, or organised individuals and asks:

• What habits, routines, and mindsets allowed them to reach that level of mastery?
• How can I start implementing those same principles into my life today?

Because here’s the truth.

Just like being ‘successful’ isn’t something you are born with.

Being ‘organised’ is not an innate personality trait granted to a select few.

It’s a habit.

A state of being.

An identity you deliberately build up over time through consistent habits and actions.

Every day you follow a morning routine, you strengthen your identity as an organised person.

Every day you timeblock, you provide more evidence of your productive nature.

Yes, organisation comes easier to some people.

But never forget that it is a choice.

I chose to become organised when I created the habit of

• Planning my day
• Cleaning my room every night
• Leaving the house 5 minutes earlier than I needed to

Anybody can choose to do these habits.

Which means anyone, yes, even you, is capable of being an organised person.

You simply have to create these regular organising habits.

Make it a subconscious part of every single day:

• Look at areas where you want to be more organised
• Identify 3 habits that, done consistently, will build evidence that you are an organised person
• Pick a time each day or week to do these habits.

That is all organisation is.

A consistent set of small habits that keep your life focused, efficient and calm.

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Habit 4: Build An Operating Rhythm

There is one thing I’ve heard from almost every single person during their transition from school to university.

Or from university to work.

Those first 3-6 months feel like complete chaos.

When I started uni in 2020 my life felt like an absolute mess.

I went from having a consistent operating rhythm.

A timetable that told me where to be at every second of the day.

Teachers that told me what to do every second of the day.

To a life structured in a completely different way.

No consistent routine for study, work or classes.

No clear instructions for what to do or when to do it.

I was forced to create a new operating rhythm.

A way to manage my time to balance work, study, sport, side hustles, personal pursuits and some kind of social life.

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Then, full time work came along over summer and it changed again.

You’re no longer free at 3pm in the afternoon.

You work from ‘9-5’, but no one tells you how to spend those 8 hours.

You go from juggling uni life, to juggling real life.

To balancing your career aspirations with your health, relationships and happiness.

Not to mention your typical life maintenance.

Every big life change throws us off because it completely disrupts our operating rhythm.

Without an operating rhythm, it’s nearly impossible to feel focused, calm and in control.

We need routine to feel organised.

Structure is essential to live a life of freedom.

You cannot convince me that

• Reacting to the world around you
• Living each day with no plan or routine
• Starting every morning with 1000s of decisions ahead of you

Makes you feel ‘free’.

Freedom comes from

• Having a sense of consistency and rhythm to each day
• Knowing what your priorities are and when they will get done
• Feeling confident saying yes to things and enjoying life without worrying how you’ll find time to get the essentials done

This is what operating rhythms are all about.

There’s two different ways to create your operating rhythm: daily or weekly.

1. Daily

Dedicating similar times each day to particular tasks or themes.

For example, a business owner’s daily operating rhythm may look like:

• Early morning: writing
• Mid-morning: marketing
• Early afternoon: business operations & admin
• Late afternoon: client calls
• And so on

Your personal habits, routines and priorities fit into your daily operating rhythm too.

• Exercising at similar times
• Having consistent morning and evening routines

This works extremely well when you have consistency in your days, like working a 9-5, or being full time in your business.

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2. Weekly

Dedicating one day each week to particular tasks or theme.

For a business owner, this could look like:

• Monday: writing
• Tuesday: marketing
• Wednesday: business operations & admin
• Thursday: client calls
• And so on

Again, your personal priorities come into play, for example:

• Saturdays could be family day
• Sundays could be preparation day

I have a lot of different work-related areas that I juggle.

Uni, work, content creation, business.

So I actually use a mix of these routines.

My daily operating rhythm always starts with my morning routine, followed by work on my business.

It typically ends with exercise, content creation work and my night routine.

The middle depends on the day of the week, guided by my weekly operating rhythm.

The main takeaway, is to streamline the days and/or times that you tackle certain types of tasks.

Over time, this creates such a predictable and consistent routine that you can’t not feel organised.

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Habit 5: The 2 Minute Rule

Another rule.

But I promise they’re good for you.

We’ve all experienced the feeling of that dreaded to-do list.

Silently mocking us as our tasks slowly accumulate into an overwhelming mass.

But, so many of those tasks are quick actions that could be ticked off in a couple of minutes.

Look at your to-do list right now.

You could complete over half those items in under 2 minutes each with a brief burst of focused energy, right?

And many of them are minor things that you’ve simply procrastinated on, aren’t they?

The 2 minute rule eliminates this mental burden and subconscious sense of dread and overwhelm.

It stops procrastination before it’s even started.

Another rule.

But I promise they’re good for you.

We’ve all experienced the feeling of that dreaded to-do list.

Silently mocking us tasks slowly accumulate into an overwhelming mass.

But, so many of those tasks are quick actions that could be ticked off in a couple of minutes.

Look at your to-do list right now.

Over half those items are tasks that could likely be completed in under 2 minutes with a brief burst of focused energy, right?

And many of them are minor things that you’ve simply procrastinated on, aren’t they?

The 2 minute rule eliminates this mental burden and subconscious sense of dread and overwhelm.

It stops procrastination before it’s even started.

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This rule has taken me from putting off appointments for months, to scheduling them on time.

It's taken me from waiting weeks to order new supplements, to doing it before I run out.

It’s significantly shortened my master task list.

And most importantly, it’s taken off the mental load.

Constantly writing down and reviewing tasks doesn’t just waste time.

It creates a subtle undercurrent of anxiety and guilt for not getting them done.

The pressure that builds every time you put another task on your list or calendar.

The weight you feel when you procrastinate on those small tasks you know you’d feel so much better completing.

This is why the 2 minute rule is so effective.

When you implement this habit in your life, you immediately feel more organised.

You generate continuous momentum because you’re always getting small wins.

And you start operating as the focused, efficient person you aspire to be.

What if you genuinely don’t have 2 minutes?

Chunk your tasks together.

Set aside 10 minutes and work through 5 related tasks.

Aim to match similar tasks together, as this reduces task switching during this period.

It’s much easier to manage the big things, when you’ve effectively dealt with the small things.

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Habit 6: Practice Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is a massive topic.

But one small aspect of it has been game-changing in my personal journey to becoming a highly organised person.

Understanding your weaknesses and blind spots.

I know I have a terrible memory.

So I created a Digital Home Base to mitigate it.

I know I forget my belongings.

So I never leave a room without doing a final check.

I know I struggle with making small decisions.

So I make plans in advance in as many areas of my life as possible.

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Right now, you will be incredibly organised in some areas of your life.

And terrible in others.

The key to becoming a highly organised person?

Being hyper-aware of these blind spots.

And developing routines, systems, and preventative measures to compensate for them.

The more self aware you are, the better you’ll be able to see exactly which areas to address.

As a result, the more focused, efficient and calm you will become.

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Action Steps

You now know what it truly means to be a highly organised person.

Someone who embodies the core traits of focus, efficiency, and calm amid the chaos of life.

But of course, understanding these principles is only one part.

Committed daily action is the other.

So let’s get started on rewiring those habits:

1. Follow a new rule

Rules are one of the easiest ways to create change in your life.

Choose either

The One Touch Rule: Once you’ve ‘opened’ a task, completely ‘close’ it before moving onto something else.

or

The 2 minute rule: if you can do an action in less than 2 minutes, do it immediately.

For the next week, focus on actively implementing that rule into your life.

If you feel overwhelmed with the amount of open loops and tasks you’re juggling, I’d suggest the One Touch rule.

If you struggle more with procrastination, try the 2 minute rule.

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2. Create your trusted system

Your mental energy is one of your most valuable resources.

Start to take advantage of it by creating your own trusted system.

If you want the complete step-by-step guide to organise your life, and the system to do it with.

The Notion Digital Home Base will be an incredible resource.

A YouTube video you may find helpful is How One App Changed My Life: The Cure To Mental Overload.​

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3. Audit your operating rhythm

Look at your current operating rhythm and identify any opportunities to streamline your tasks.

Add your essential organising habits into these operating rhythms to make them easier to maintain!

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4. Build your self-awareness

Start paying more attention to yourself.

Particularly around your organisational skills and habits

• What do you do really well?
• What are your weaknesses?
• What strategies could you use to reduce those weaknesses?

Self-awareness is the ultimate skill for self-improvement.

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Imagine one month from now.

How will adopting these habits have positively impacted your career, relationships, and overall quality of life?

What ambitions will you be able to pursue by behind ahead of the life organisation game?

You have the power to turn those ambitions into a reality, one small habit at a time.

You just have to take that first step, and commit to making a change.

And if you want the complete guidebook, don’t forget to check out the Notion Digital Home Base.

See you next week!

Tayla

Looking for more resources?

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This is productivity & performance coaching from someone who has done years of research and experimentation, developing a series of simple, evidence-backed habits, routines and systems that unlock the path to taking back control over your time, energy, focus and mind, and reaching your full potential.

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Tayla Burrell