The character trait of the month is orderliness.  Orderliness is defined as “arranging myself and my surroundings to achieve greater efficiency”.

Orderliness is a much-needed trait that can be used in all areas of our lives: personal, professional, faith, and so on.

But orderliness is not a natural tendency for us.  Every day, our cars, desk, closets, kitchens, bags, or purses become more disorganized and dirtier without someone making an effort to clean and organize them.

Professionally, orderliness is of the utmost importance for our businesses.  With the fast pace world we live in today, being able to answer emails and text, be in meetings, return phone calls, produce budgets, attend events, and still get our job requirements completed on a daily or weekly timeline takes a lot of orderliness to be efficient.  Being diligent to our schedule and time blocks is the only way to complete so many tasks day after day.

The hardest place to maintain orderliness is probably in our homes.  These days, between so many activities for kids in school and in sports, and both parents working one or multiple jobs, being on the go is the new normal.  The first things to get neglected can be our family time, church time and the chores and duties around the house.

So how do we provide some orderliness? A couple ways:  First is planning; keeping a calendar for each of our activities whether personal, family, faith or work activities so we always know what is going on. Second, is maintaining the space around us.  As the saying goes “A place for everything and everything in its place.”  By having a place for every possession and learning to take the time to put things back after using them, we will stay organized and save time by not having to clean up later.

Orderliness is something that should be used by everybody, everyday. Without it, life can get very chaotic. Cleanliness, cooperation, family, and life are all reasons for keeping things in order. Getting up in the morning, arriving at work on time, keeping the desk at work clean, and keeping the house clean and well maintained are starting points for developing orderliness in one’s life. By implementing these actions in our lives, we not only bring peace to ourselves but become great examples to our kids and the people around us.