“Organize your life around your dreams – and watch them come true.” – Anonymous

When I first blogged about a common problem many freelancers suffer from (MJSS), I also told you I’d be sharing various, natural ways to cope with the syndrome.

One of the incredible ways to prevent – or treat – multi-job stress syndrome is to get yourself organized, if you aren’t already. It can make all the difference in the world to wake up each morning knowing that when you make your way to your office or desk in the corner, that your files will be neatly categorized, separated, and within quick reach and that your duties for the day are carefully outlined in a calendar or notebook.

Here’s a few tips to help you get started

1. Designate a room (or even the corner of a room) as your work space. Even if you take your laptop to the coffee shop, park, or out on your deck, you’ll have one main place to keep your files and any other tools you need for your business.
2. Find a filing system that works for you. You can do this by color coding, alphabetizing, or separating your work load via date, company, or category.
3. Use Google calender, Microsoft Office, a notebook, or even a good old desk-size calender to organize your time. If you have a list or calender showing you what you need to do for the day, you’ll have a feeling of stability that can calm your frazzled nerves. But even if you don’t accomplish everything on your list or calender for that day, you’ll at least have a sense of direction.
4. Unsubscribe from any junk mail, newsletters, or other emails you receive. By minimizing the amount of email that you’re not going to read anyway, you’ll feel much less stress about checking and responding to emails.
5. Take advantage of the categories and tags your email account offers. If you work with certain companies, clients, and/or editors, make a category (or file) for each one. And then use tags to make searching for your correspondence with them a snap. Use that same filing system for all of your contacts. Separate them according to family, friends, business, etc. If you read an email and need to keep it for future reference, simply file it accordingly before you move on to something else. This will clean up your inbox and make your life so much easier.

All of these tips can quickly and effectively help reduce your multi-job stress syndrome symptoms.

Did you enjoy this article? Feel free to visit the other articles Michele has written for Writer’s Round-About–or contact her to write for you.

Do you find that organization helps keep your stress to a minimum, or is your office space a disaster area with all your creative endeavors (and invoices!) strewn all about? ‘Fess up!

Photo Credit: lusi

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