2020: The Year I Finally stopped Living in Chaos: How Adding Structure Helped My Mental Health
By: Rachel Hill
Tags: Organization, Anxiety, Mental Health, Stress Management

Yes,

I know how strange it seems for me to be writing about not living in chaos in one of THE MOST chaotic years any of us have ever lived in, and the irony of this is not lost on me. Hear me out, though!

One of the most difficult things

that I’ve been working toward in my mental health journey is adding more structure to my days. Over time, I’ve begun to realize that not having order in my life has been one of the biggest hindrances in the journey to healing my mental health. What I’ve learned over time is that chaos is a trigger for me. If I’m being honest, with as stable of a life as my parents tried to provide for me we still lived in a lot of chaos.

I had a brother who,

through circumstances, some of his own design and some not, had fallen victim to drugs, violence, and the prison system. This lifestyle took place outside of our home but he brought it home to our peaceful way of life. My parents’ and I were like the “Three Musketeers” and my brother blew in like a hurricane every so often, disrupting that peace. I never truly realized how that affected me. I’m not writing this to blame or to accuse my brother of my mental health issues. What I am doing, however, is freeing myself from the burden of my past. I’m acknowledging how that affected me and sharing how I’ve begun to move past that. To stop being a victim of my circumstances. The purpose of this post is to share how creating structure and to stop living in chaos changed my life and allowed me to finally start living for me.

Ultimately, I believe it all starts with small changes:

Make Your Bed

Drink water in the morning

Try to carve out a few minutes of quiet time before your day starts

It’s doing these small things that lead into this lovely snowball effect and creating more great habits. But let’s get really specific here.

I know I’ve touched on this topic before; however, I don’t think I’ve really gotten into specifics. I think one of the things that I tend to gloss over or not really clarify is how specific I am with my time everyday. Each day I journal out what my day is going to like, sometimes even down to what I’m eating that day! And while I currently have some flexibility in my schedule I still do my best to structure my day so that most of it is filled with productive activities (i.e. editing, researching/learning, and cleaning). I also use a great app that I came across in one of Matt D’Avella videos called TeuxDeux which allow me to make a not of everything I need/want to get done for the day as well as noting future goals I like to accomplish.

There are several studies showing the positive impact having a routine can have on your mental health.

So, what does this look like for you?

Maybe it’s just jotting down five things you want to get done that day and marking them off as you complete them. Also, another thing I’ve found helpful is moving task that can be a bit tedious to do, like sending that email you’ve been putting off, wiping down your kitchen counter, or doing laundry: move that to the top of things you need to do that day so that you don’t and put if off, which then leads to either rushing to get it done before the day ends or even worse, not doing it at all. With a New Year just around the corner I hope this idea of adding structure to your life to ease anxiety genuinely helps you move forward in whatever goals you’d like to achieve in the upcoming year. Just remember, like anything else, it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s small changes that lead lead to bigger life transformations. Take it one day at a time.