One of the biggest challenges to staying organized is our tendency to not finish a job.

You know what I mean. You do the laundry, but you don't fold it, put it away, or iron it. You cook dinner, but you don't clean the kitchen and do the dishes. You do the grocery shopping, but you don't put things away or prep the vegetables. You start cleaning a room, but don't dust or mop or empty the trash. You open the mail but don't recycle the junk, pay the bills, and file the receipts. You mow the lawn but don't edge.

When you only do part of a task, the remaining task starts to create clutter and a backlog. It makes you feel like you work all the time but never get ahead. It takes extra time to do the next task (more than it would have taken to do the first task completely).

So why only do things partway?

• By the time we finish the first part, we're too tired to finish.
• We don't know how to complete a job thoroughly.
• We get distracted by another person or task.
• We run out of time.
• We are bored.

Now, the solution to leaving tasks half-done will depend on the cause. But finding that cause and solution can allow you to be much more effective in only a little bit of extra time.