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Feature Article: The Ultimate Technique To Getting Organized And Staying that Way!

by Abu Productive on February 25, 2011

by Abu Productive15 Comments

Posted on Friday, February 25, 2011 in Tips, Work Better

Is disorganization congesting your life? Are you feeling scattered and frustrated? Is your life in disarray? Are you stressed out? Are you buying things you already have? Are you procrastinating and leaving things for the last minute?

De-cluttering and organizing your space helps to eliminate the physical and mental clutter in your life and mind that is robbing you of your of vitality and productivity.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Verily Allah loves Ihsan (proficiency and excellence) in all things.” (Muslim)

Islam encourages us to be neat, to be organized and to strive for excellence in all things. In the seerah of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) we can see that he was organized, efficient and productive. Allah does not like disorganization nor laziness.

Ultimate Steps to Getting Organised and Staying That Way!It’s a myth that some people are born with an organizing gene or are natural organizers and others will never be organized. The honest reality is that organized and productive people have learned skills and made it a habit of being organized!

Now that we all can form the habit of being organized its time to roll up your sleeves and get in there!! If you want to be a successful Productive Muslim you need to be on top of your game!

Let me introduce you to the 5s Method. The most effective, simple and easy to remember technique! The 5S method was originally developed in Japan and can be applied in just about any environment. Giant Companies,have taken this kaizen technique and applied it to their workforce, because its simple,and keeps everything efficient.

Implementing the 5S as a part of our daily life can improve efficiency and productivity tremendously.

1) SORT (Seiri)

Sort through everything. Pick one place in your life that is cluttered and unorganized and spend 10-15 minutes every day de-cluttering and being more organized. Get rid of anything that is broken, is never used, is outdated, or is not needed. Keep only what is needed and sell, donate, recycle or throw out anything that isn’t needed!

 

2) SET IN ORDER (Seiton)

Find a place for everything, including your car keys. Organize and put away everything where it will be most efficient and can easily be found. Store items used for the same task together. In this way, things would never be lost and it will always be easy to get the things you need with as little effort as possible!

3) SHINE (Seiso)

Clean the area and place all the things neatly. Don’t dump. Make it neat and spotless.

4) STANDARDIZE (Seiketsu)

 

This is extremely important. You must have a procedure that will ensure that your environment is kept ordered and neat. Example have a procedure in place that a few minutes daily you will neaten up and put things in their rightful places. Or a procedure that every evening, you will spend 10minutes sorting out your papers or homework. Also have procedures in place, that everything has a place and when an item is used, it should be put back in place immediately. Establish procedures for yourself, for your kids. Having procedures will ensure that you will be able to keep things organized always and will help with the next S.

5) SUSTAIN (Shitsuke)

 

Okay so your environment is neat, uncluttered and organized. Once the first 4 S’s are complete, the most important thing is to keep it that way. Easier said than done, but it is possible and this is what makes you efficient. Monitor it and make organization and efficiency part of your habits and clutter and disorder would never be able to settle again.

Make the 5 S a habit! Remember don’t expect to get organized overnight. Unless you’re really fast at it, or it’s a small area. Don’t have high expectations by getting all organized and few days later you are back to your old mess. Take it slowly and stick with it. Organization is a habit just as being disorganized is a habit.Don’t worry if you’re not “perfectly” organized, as long as your area is in order and neat and reasonably efficient for you.

Start today, start small and start with the most important. Strive to develop the habit of being organized and you will be amazed at how much more productive you will become. Implement the 5S today and everyday.

Remember Allah loves proficiency and excellence in all things! Implement the 5S, it’s guaranteed to make you more proficient and productive!

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  • Adib ibn Abdullah

    JazakAllah khair for this nice article. I just noticed how messy my study table is and I’d better begin cleaning before college begins!

  • Juli

    Jazakum allah khair for this
    I watched Julie Morgenstein’s Organizing DVD once and I think it’d be good to incorporate this into the standard ‘How to be organzed’ article too.
    Organizing Iniside Out is the one I meant.
    Here is her website:
    http://www.juliemorgenstern.com/
    she says that merely organizing stuff as above is not sufficient bec the part 5 is what will collapse and bring it back to square one. She says that behind all that clutter is emotional clutter and that’s what we have to get at. It’s pretty interesting.

  • Syed Faiz

    Jazakallh hu kahir for the article.. This is basically used for quality management.. here i have another tip for everyone.. the article talks about making it a habit of being organised. Research done revealed that it takes 21 days to form a habit. If you guys are consistently trying be organised yourself using "5 S " for the next 21 days, then it becomes a routine task in your life.

    Get it into action rather than just reading the article, the moment you read the article just take a pen and paper and start it." DO NOT PROCRASTINATE". It's a strategy used by Shaitan….

  • http://perfecshunist.livejournal.com Mariam

    great advice!

    "Get rid of anything that is broken, is never used, is outdated, or is not needed. Keep only what is needed and sell, donate, recycle or throw out anything that isn't needed!"

    this is the single best piece of advice in this article. jazak allah khairun!

  • Saleha

    Excellent Article, I have posted this article (with referrence to your website) on my blogger: http://ipcblogger.net/saleha/2011/03/organized-and-staying-that-way/

    Keep up the good work. May Allah bless you and may He grant you Paradise for helping to make the Ummah a productive one. Ameen

  • http://www.muslimmarriage-events.co.uk sonia

    inshallah what a great article it was…. i loved it very much…. very fine tips to follow to come over from stress…. thanks for sharing….

  • Adnan kaysar

    Insallah i will try it, this is very much appreciating lesson.

  • Fouad Rehab

     Not useful at all, you only scratch the serfuce!

    • Royalewithcheese41

      I disagee you have to start somewhere if your’re in a mess,you need to keep it simple. So this does have basis in fact. It may seem obvious to someone who is organised. But take the person who can’t even open his post and leaves it till later, it won’t occur to him he needs to just be neat in his surroundings and soon he’ll feel less cluttered and more inclined to do what he put off.. Of course there’s always more but I wouldn’t dismiss it as not being useful.

  • Salman Rafi

     this is very much appreciating lesson.  loved it very much. thanks for sharing.

  • Orange Patloons

    if we maintain such rules in our life we surely can be could social , home person 
    i love ur all work JAZAKLLAH

  • Orange Patloons

    if we maintain such rules in our life we surely can be could social , home person 
    i love ur all work JAZAKLLAH

  • http://www.themuslimgeeks.com TheMuslimGeeks

    Assalmu Aleikum,

    I personally think the 5th S is the most important but also the most difficult to implement: Consistency! It the hardest part of all as it takes discipline and motivation to relentlessly keep doing the effort. 
    This is why you see people stop exercising or blogging after the first few weeks/months. But we muslims have something special. We pray 5 times a day! No matter what. So my idea is to associate with prayers things we want to achieve. Say, ” I’ll jog after every maghreb salat” or “Read 1 hour about my area (economics, marketing, IT…) after ichaa”…etc…

    Just an idea.
    Wassalam
    TheMuslimgGeeks

  • Mohamedminhaz

    Assalmu Aleikum,

    hi i m fully motivated by ur posts…
    the thing is
    animating a character
    or drawing is 
    HARAM in muslim religion.
    even i m troubled about dis…
    so can u find me an answer plz??

    • Productivemuslim

      Walykum assalam, 
      Please consult a scholar for your query. JazakAllah khair!