Lane P Jordan - 12 Steps to Becoming a More Organized Woman: Practical Tips for Managing Your Home and Your Family

When my publisher first asked me to revise 12 Steps to Becoming a More Organized Woman, I was so excited! How wonderful to be given the opportunity to share and reach out to women again. But then I panicked. How could I develop new ideas or helpful tips that would be worthy of your time and mine? I didnt want to even think of a revision unless I could really add something of value.

Then I thought of all the changesboth social and technologicalthat have occurred since the book was published more than a decade ago, and my mind starting churning! I couldnt wait to get started and to share with you many of the organizational ideas and changes that have occurred since then.

Since the 1990s when this book was first published, our world and the ways we live, learn, teach, work, and communicate have totally changed. What caused this? First, I believe that our nation has moved away from the faith of our fathers. Second was the development of computers and the commercialization of the Internet in 1995. The Internet has had a drastic impact on culture and commerce, including the rise of near-instant communication by e-mail and instant messaging, along with the World Wide Web, which offers us blogs, tweets, social networks, and online shopping.

It is estimated that in 1993 the Internet carried only 1 percent of the information flowing through two-way telecommunication. By 2000 this figure had grown to 51 percent, and by 2007 more than 97 percent of all telecommunicated information was carried over the Internet. Today, it is almost 100 percent. Why am I sharing all this? Because as the world changes so do our lives. Many of the tips I gave you in the first edition are either outdated or can be updated. As an example, we dont have to send handwritten, stamped invitations anymorewe send e-vites through the Internet! And we dont have to personally make phone calls to our friends; we can just text them. We have GPS systems to help us find where we are going, and we have phones that can also take pictures and send e-mails. Why, our phonesand our iPadsare now computers!

So how does all this help you and me become more organized? By understanding whats good and whats not so good about technology and change. If technology is running our lives, then its not good. But if we can learn to use this new technology to help us plan our days, then it can become a good part of our lives. And thats why being more organized is so important. With more data and more informationoften too muchcoming into our minds and home, we can become so overwhelmed that we end up not being able to do anything well.

I believe in a God who truly cares about every detail in our lives, a God who wants our lives to be rich and full and complete. He cares when a new mother needs sleep because she was up all night with a little one. He cares when a marriage is on the rocks. He cares when we have to juggle our home life with our work. He knows what its like to be hungry and not have the energy to buy or cook food. He cares how we feel and He cares how we live the life He gave us. He wants to give us life abundantly. He says so in John 10:10: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly. By studying His words and His ways, we can pull our lives together so that they will be a blessing to us and to others, and a glory to our Lord. It just takes the right motivation and a gentle push into being more organized.

I believe that each of us has been created by God to be a unique individual. We each have different talents and abilities. Some people are orderly by nature while others are not. For those who arent as organized, some of lifes issues and stresses may be more difficult to deal with.

Many women struggle not only to be more organized but to simply keep up. There are more demands on women today than on my mothers generation. Because many women work part or full time in addition to raising children and trying to keep up a home, cook, and do laundry, they keep asking this one question, How can I possibly do it all? The answer is, No one can. But we can learn how to organize our time and energy. We can learn how to prioritize our schedules and demands so that we can focus on the most important items first. Which brings me to the main point I want to share with you: Why should we emphasize being more organized? Arent we already too busy to work on it? Yes, all of us are busy, and thats the reason I have devoted most of my career to sharing with women how to be more organizedso that you will have more