So, if you’ve made notes (if not, read "Journaling to Start” to learn what I mean) and you’re sitting there looking at them wondering, “what now?”

Well, now you use the notes to create a map of your organizing project. Out the gate, read them. And for some that could be enough. The insights gained will show you what to do next. You may be a person who needs to read though them over and over, for inspiration or to use as a guide. For others the information might need a little more sifting and sorting before it becomes useful. And categorizing is the optimal strategy for sorting. 

There are infinite ways to categorize and it’s personal. You may have categories that only makes sense to you. But the most comprehensive way to start would be going from the biggest, most sweeping categories first. Then going into each of those and arranging them into smaller, more refined categories. For example, break down your notes by room.

Put each self-observation into the category of the room where it happens. Or you can take each list item and categorize it by routine, like things that affect me when I’m preparing for work, walking the dog, eating healthy, getting into my passions. If 70% of the things in your notes pertain to the task of getting ready for work, then that's valuable information. 

Once you’ve gone through the first phase of classifying your self observations into bigger categories. You can break each of those down even further into smaller classifications. Perhaps you can consider how each list item makes you feel. Pause for an instant on each self-observation in your notes, and as you do, notice what you feel. Then group it accordingly. Then you can go back into that grouping and note the intensity level of your feelings, 1 - 10 for example. And you can give each list item a number for how intensely you feel about it.

How you categorize things is less important than the act of doing it. Most importantly, as you interact with your self-observations, a map will form. You can go as deep into this as you need until you start to see it.

You can't do this wrong. You're simply observing yourself in relationship to your things to create an awareness of it, which creates a picture. That awareness will come from interacting with the notes. If you don’t have a picture, yet, keep interacting. Don’t sweat the details. There are no rights or wrongs. There’s no specific formula. It will unfold perfectly. The only requirement for this to help it to first take the notes and then read them at least once.

 And you're done when you feel like you're done. No matter how deep you went, you’ll have your thoughts contained on paper to reference as you delve into your organizing projects. And maybe they'll be even be categorized into groups that resonate with you, which will provide you with infinite information about what you want to do and where you might want to start.

 Now stay tuned because in my next post I’ll talk about getting set up to start clearing!