Hi there!

The first post! I have to be honest, this is not my first blog post ever (big surprise..), but it’s certainly in the first ten! I have not been much of a writer my entire life. I never kept a diary as a kid. As an adult, while I’ve owned a couple of blogs when blog became a thing almost a decade ago (I feel so old writing this..), I’ve never written more than a few posts. So, why start now?

As you can see I call this blog “Dr. Organizing My Life”. Let me clear up two possible misconceptions here. First, I’m not a real doctor. But before you call me a liar, I do have a Ph.D. in one of the life sciences. Second, I’m by no means an expert in organizing. I’m an enthusiast. I have always been interested in organizing and improving efficiency, ever since I read in a textbook about how to organize school books and pencils etc in your backpack when I was 8 years old. To this day I’m still impressed that the textbook writers had the vision to teach young kids organizational skills. With that imprinted in my heart, as I grow up, I always loved products that are compact, multifunctional, or very well organized.

In terms of organizing my own life though, I haven’t been doing so well. I didn’t feel I had much need to organize until I started graduate school. I was supporting myself for the first time with my grad student stipend, and I was living on my own for the first time. I quickly fell into the consumer trap and quickly accumulated a lot of stuff. By the end of my fourth year, I had a whole walk-in closet full of clothes that I could wear a year without doing laundry. That’s when I started thinking about organizing more seriously. I had a better period after I got rid of most of my things while relocating for a job after graduation, but now two years later, I’m slowly decaying back into the dark side.

So long story short, here I am deciding that I need to clean up and organize my life once and for all. Also as I leant over time, the closet and the kitchen pantry are not the only places in my life that need organizing. Digital contents, including pictures and documents need organization too. How I do my laundry and how I cook can also use organization to be more efficient. Every aspect of my life and my work can be organized, to save money, space, time and energy. Wouldn’t it be great to use them on something more fun?

Now back to why starting to write a blog now. I told you I am a scientist (nerd alert!!). Back in my days working in the lab, it was required to keep lab journals. Though not a writer, I was good at keeping my lab notes. I had a section of “protocols”, experimental procedures that I developed, tested and improved. I also logged my daily activities, what experiments I did, what protocols I used, any modifications I made, and the outcome. The other section was “references”, where I kept facts that would come in handy, like formulas and product descriptions. It just hit me recently that why not log my big project of organization like a lab journal? It would be an efficient and organized way of tracking my progress. While I can write on lab books, a blog just sounds so much more fun. Plus I get to share my experience and tips with you guys. It’s not as secretive as the mad science I used to do anyways!