The Organized Mind

The earliest categories humans invented were based on usefulness to them. Mere conceptual boundaries came later.

Being organized depends on active sorting: triaging things into buckets so you can retrieve them when you need them. It prevents information overload and keeps attention on what matters.

Paying attention and switching focus both have a price. Having a pile of the day’s relevant work ready helps with getting stuff done.

Multitasking rewards you for switching to the new thing immediately, while draining mental capacity and making you work less efficiently.

The best way to organize a home is a place for everything and everything in its place.

• If you need scissors in multiple rooms, buy multiple scissors.
• For things you lose often, add affordances like hooks, holders, and bowls, and force yourself to use them.
• The more often you use something, the more accessible it should be.

The natural way to organize a project is to split it into coherent chunks, then split those further. Stop when a chunk is both manageable and sits on a single attentional plane: planning, executing, or detailed action.