August 20, 2019
Organization: A Key to Success
There’s no question that life can get busy! Between balancing school, work, family, and church responsibilities, who has time to think about being organized? Why is being organized so important?
If there was one person who had a lot to juggle in his life, it was the Prophet Joseph Smith. At a time in his life when he was handling the affairs of the whole Church, raising a family, and dealing with insurmountable trials brought on by his persecutors, Joseph received this counsel from the Lord to build a temple:
“Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.”1
The early Saints worked and sacrificed to build the Kirtland temple the way the Lord instructed. We can learn from their example by organizing our homes and lives in a similar way. Even though we aren’t asked to do the same things as Joseph Smith and the Saints, the same principles of organization are still important to the Lord.
Here are three tips to help make your home a house of order:
Organize your goals
Setting goals is vital to our progression and learning! Elder M. Russell Ballard said, “[I]f we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential.”2
Whether you’re setting goals at the beginning of the year, the semester, or at the start of a new day, make a specific plan to accomplish your short-term and long-term goals. After making a plan, keep your goals and plans in a visible place so you can remember them and check your progress often.
Organize your surroundings
Maintain a clean space free from distractions. You might dedicate one room in your home to be your “study room” and keep it clear of clutter. You could also study at a local library or other quiet place to help you focus. Your ability to concentrate and feel the Spirit often increases when your environment is clean and organized. As you keep your surroundings organized, pay attention to how it changes the way you feel and the way you learn!
Organize your schedule
You can effectively manage your time by planning to accomplish specific tasks at specific times throughout the day, week, or semester. The best way to organize your schedule is to prioritize and pace yourself. By prioritizing, you make sure that you’re accomplishing the most important things first. By pacing yourself, you prevent yourself from feeling overwhelmed.
A personal planner on your phone or computer could be a helpful tool to keep track of what you need to do each day. You might mark important dates, such as when your assignments are due (and which ones), academic deadlines, and any other upcoming appointments and events.
By implementing these three small and simple steps, you can set yourself up for success and stay organized for school and in your life!
What do you do to stay organized? Share below!
Comments on "Organization: A Key to Success"
Thank you for sharing these important hints. I believe that the more we become closer to our Heavenly Father the more we become organized. I’m so happy to be a part of this BYU-Pathway as a student. It’s a great blessing! You are the best!!
Thank you for the important message, Sister Rachel. I realized it’s necessary for me to organize my life. I’d like to make a specific plan and make time to organize my daily life. That’s the best way to achieve my goal.
Thank you for sharing. This is amazing and true! Tried and proven:)
Thanks for sharing this! I will learn to organize myself to succeed. The Lord loves those who are organized, and it will prepare me for better future.
I will be 78 in June and I’m still struggling to figure out how to be organized. Sadly, I work better under pressure, as procrastination is one of my biggest faults, and I truly hate to admit that, because it is not who I want to be. Lately, I’ve been putting everything on my Google calendar…and I mean everything….including reminders, and that seems to help some. However, I have a long way to go before I can say that I’m organized. Most people who know me would swear that I am very organized, because I usually complete what is expected to be completed. They have no idea how I struggle with being a procrastinator. I’d love to get rid of that stress in my life and just get organized. I’m working on it!!
I consider myself one of the most unorganized students. Still, I made a huge commitment to achieving my academic goals, so I will work hard every day to apply these three principles and become the most organized student I’ve ever met. Thank you for sharing this.
Thanks so much.
The tips are so inspirational to my comprehension, thank you for sharing. I learn lots of new things, why it is important to be organized.
Praying that Heavenly father helps me organize better so I can be prepared come what may.
You are right dear sister, to plan is divine and I will learn how to plan myself, my life and every other thing. Thank you so much!
To be successful I will to take three in achieving successfully goals, I will learn how to save time for my education. Thanks Sister Rachel Rossette
A person, a family, or a country, if they do not plan and do everything possible to quantify their goals and do the respective follow-up, will hardly be able to advance in life.
Even more so if you do not seek the company of holy spirit.
Thank you….
Plans and goals lead to success. Our Heavenly Father set his goals and plans before he sent us here. I’m really grateful for this advice, and I will improve my plans and goals to complete PathwayConnect. Thank you so much!
Thank you for sharing. Organizing will help us a lot not only in our study or temporal needs but most especially inviting the Holy Ghost to teach us in everything.
You’re awesome sister Rachel.
This is a super plan. That’s good. I will take it as an example.
This reminds me that I need to organize every thing I have, especially time. Thank you, Sister Rachel Rossette, for sharing these ideas of yours.
Thanks for sharing this plan with us. Be blessed!
This plan has been a eye opener and source of inspiration to me. I must commend you for this, Sister Rachel Rossette. By letting me know how to manage my time and establish a house of prayer, fasting, faith, learning, and dedicated to the glory of God, I know this will lead me to huge temporal and eternal success if I apply it in my daily living. Thank you very much, Rachel Rossette.
Thanks for this plan.
I love this plan. Thanks for sharing, dear sister.
This principle really helped me during my service days as a full-time missionary. I will continue to practice it. Thank you for reminding me.
Thank you Sister Rachel Rosette for teaching us how to be organized, it’s something very important for us to know, how to set our time in order to reach our goal and objectives and for that we are going to stay focused on. Once more thank you and stay blessed.
Thanks for the topic of organization. This has really awaken my mind and understanding on how to setup my plans in everything I do.
Thank you very much. I have learnt a lot and I promise to work with it. As people always say proper planning prevents poor performance. I will plan well to achieve.
Ce message tombe pile poil pour moi car j’ai vraiment besoin d’apprendre à m’organiser, faire des priorités dans ma vie, faire un plan pour que je puisse avancer.
For me is very important to say a prayer before starting any task, even to find the best way to organize myself. Then I do a general review to understand well what the study program is like to get an idea of my strengths and weaknesses and the time I will need to do the homework on time.
I write down in my agenda the assignments that I need to do weekly and the time each task will take me. I need to have a big overview of the week and then an overview of each day.
Thanks for every idea to get better
Thank you for the advice I enjoy it and I will follow this tips for better lifestyle
Thanks very much for such advice and encouraging words. I promise to learn all your tips so that I will achieve!
Thank you very much for the teachings on how to organize myself in order to improve. I have started making out time for study from my busy schedules; such as coming back early from my work place and checking my mail often. I have a daily planner to help me plan ahead and remember some fixed activities. Thanks, Walter Wisdom, from Enugu Nigeria.
I need to work harder to improve and set my goals. I’m grateful for this advice.
Thank you very much for the words of encouragement. I need to try harder to set my goals and also to accomplish them.
I think to be clean and organized is very important, so I need to be a clean and organized man.
Inspirational words, very useful. Thanks for that.
I personally have progressed in so many things in life, and it happens when I organize myself, set goals, and follow up with them by writing them down.
Set goals and make plans and follow up with each = success. I got it now.
This is literally one of the best articles I have read so far. Thank you so much. May God bless you greatly.
This is very important, especially for me. I feel encouraged again.
I must admit and repent of this incompetence. I failed to beat the deadline due to a lack of organization. But it is the last week for this misdeed. Starting today, I AM an organized sister and student.
I am grateful for this piece. I know it is going to help me plan and be organized.
I know the road to success is always under construction! Success would be reached/achieved if I followed the same principles of organization as highlighted. I have no doubt.
Thanks for sharing. I will use these tips to organize myself to achieve my goals. Thanks for the continued support you give us as first time students online.
Thanks for taking the time to read and apply these ideas, Precious! Have a wonderful semester!
I am encouraged by all the experiences I have read with being a new student. I will strive hard to set my goal to balance my business, family, and studies. Thanks so much.
Being organized is something that’s challenging for me. I remain organized and don’t know when I disassemble suddenly. It’s a daily practice.
I will definitely follow the instructions in being organized and have my goals determined. It’s really important to have a quiet place for studying. I for sure will find that too. One thing that helps me is to have some motivational quotes around me. That brings me a desire to move forward and always try my best.
Thanks for the great idea, Alan! Motivational quotes can be so powerful.
For me, I must first prioritize according to importance. Once I’ve prioritized what needs to be done, I can set goals and deadlines and pace myself to accomplish the tasks and achieve the ultimate goal. A calendar with important dates and reminders is a necessity, sometimes reminding me a couple days in advance so I can prepare for the task. Knowing ahead of time helps me plan my days. I even set a daily notice to remind me to study in Come, Follow Me.
Cyndi, thank you for sharing! Those are awesome ideas, and you are a great example of effective organization. I love that you also use it as a reminder to study the scriptures. It’s important to stay organized so you can keep life in balance.
I have found that I can feel good about those things I accomplished each day and realize that tomorrow will come. Those things I didn’t accomplish can be done tomorrow if I prioritize things in such a way that the most important things that have to be done today are done first. Reading the scriptures, saying my morning prayers, and asking for the Lord to guide me throughout the day starts the day on a positive setting. I find that I accomplish more by asking the Lord to be my companion each day. What better companion can we ask for?
Hi, I read about how Sister Marion Painter at age 94 in 2014 was taking Pathway and having a ball. Is she still living and did she finish the full program as she hoped to? I love how she wrote a love letter to her computer.
Thanks for the inspiration.
What a very precise and informative blog! Thank you. When we set goals, we should also ALWAYS have a plan B, plan C etc… Based on my experience, you cannot only plan a single specific order of goals because if along the way something unplanned occurred, the rest will be affected and might fall apart. It’s good that we have a specific order of goals we hold onto in life, but we should also prepare in case things go the way we didn’t plan them to. We should always have an alternative road which we can take to get back on track. 🙂
To add on all comments our goals should should be leading us to our heavenly father because he is author every thing including our success every good thing comes from him, its his pleasure to give us good gifts.
Although planning and working the plan towards our goals are important, I think evaluation is just as important. Evaluating how we progress throughout the day is the measurement of our efforts in the work we do; our strengths and weaknesses. If we are successful we give ourselves a pat on the back and if we have failed in some areas we make changes and find ways to improve in those areas. This works for me. I hope it will work for you too.
It is important for us to acknowledge that it is a matter of time setting. In the times of Elijah, Elisha did all his best to learn with diligence and perfection. Yes, we can!
Thank you sister Rachel for this wonderful lesson. I will learn to be organized so that I will succeed.
Thanks for sharing, Nsentip! I know becoming more organized will help you have an even better semester.
I know that for me to be able to successfully accomplish BYU-Pathway I need to organize the three conditions goal, surrounding and schedule. I make sure I improve in them. Thanks Sister Rossetti
Thanks for sharing , I will learn to organize so that I succeed through out the whole semester and in the future
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