Each Monday on the Pure Purpose blog, I feature This Week’s 7, a simple list about an everyday topic, giving you ideas and encouragement. This is the time of year when we assess our lives, making goals and resolving to live more healthy and fulfilling lives. We dream up lofty goals and quickly find ourselves in the muck of disappointment and failure. Well, not today! I ‘ve put together seven simple steps you can take to easily meet goals of reorganization and prioritizing. Choose one a day for the next week. They’ll give you double satisfaction as you (1) get some organization done and (2) check simple goals off your list. The “biggies” might still be looming, but your confidence will mound as you complete (and don’t sweat) the smaller stuff.

1. Purge incoming mail. You’ve likely accumulated a variety of mass email lists as you’ve shopped, read, and explored the web throughout the year. Save a few seconds of deleting through the days to come by unsubscribing to all those (1) you don’t read or use regularly or (2) don’t help you grow by challenging and inspiring you. As they chime into your inbox through the day, scroll to the bottom to find the “unsubscribe” button. The process should only take a couple clicks, and you’ll be less likely to focus on superfluous emails.
2. Back up your files. This process will likely take awhile, but you can typically walk away and let it work on its own once you get started. When your computer crashes or has other issues, you’ll be glad you took the time to do so. (I have mine scheduled to back up monthly.) You’ll have less down time (and anxiety) with the security blanket of a backup.
3. Give it away. Most of us are blessed to not even need most of the things we received for Christmas, not to mention many of the items around our houses. Challenge yourself to share the blessings you have. If you’re not using it, someone else will likely feel grateful to use it! Or, even if you’re using it, giving it to someone else who would be thrilled by your generosity is well worth the twinge of sacrifice you might feel. Challenge yourself to give away not just the stuff you’ll never use. Give away some of your best. Personally, I like to do so in secret. It just seems more fun!
4. Prepare for the end of the year. If you have yet to put away your Christmas decorations, sort as you’re doing so. Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to sort through every single ornament, strand of garland and lights, and other supplies as you’re decorating? Perhaps you have some decorations that are sentimental: you want to keep them but you don’t actually use them each year. Place them in a separate box. Label the “must use” boxes, so you can easily access them when you’re ready to decorate later this year.
5. Keep it all filed. Put together a 12-file system. Write one month on each file (can be hanging files or large manila envelopes). Commit to keep those annoying miscellaneous details (you usually wait to organize until the end of the year) in predictable locations through the coming year. Perhaps it will be receipts for taxes, sentimental greeting cards, or bills. Whatever tends to pile up for you can be kept in organized piles throughout the year. Taking a few seconds as you handle each piece of paper saves hours later.
6. Back up Facebook if you’re an active Facebooker. Ever wonder what would happen to all your photos, links and status updates? Sure, we could likely live without everything we have on Facebook, but it’s nice to have a record somewhere. Go to Account Settings, then click Download a Copy of your Facebook Data. You store it where you want!
7. Print those photos. Okay, so this one might take a chunk of time for those who haven’t done it for awhile. Leaving our photos on the computer, whether in files or social networking and photo sharing sites, is tempting for all of us, because it’s the way we deal with photos now. Gone are the days when we only saw the photos after developing the film, but it’s still nice to have some of them printed for home decor, gifts, and just the simple reminiscing moments! My favorite sites for printing are Snapfish and Shutterfly. I upload my photos and then watch for great print deals, so I usually get 1 cent prints.

I’m a bit of an organizational freak, so this is just a small nibble of ideas. Let me know how it goes for you…and share your own, too!