How can one become a more organized person? (“Confessions of a shopaholic”)

 

In point of fact, being organized is not a simple matter, and if you do not have this quality inborn, you’ll have to go out of your way to attain this goal & become better-organized.

This idea is verified by the story of Rebecca Bloomwood, the main character of the novel “Confessions of a shopaholic”. She envisages a grave problem of being organized when preparing for a mini-break in Somerset. The thing is that Becky relishes the process of buying things. She is not in the habit of skimping on clothes & footwear & she is prone to stocking up on them. Whenever Becky sees some crack items on display she feels a twinge of excitement & her heart gives a leap. So she can’t resist the temptation to purchase them. However, trying to find an excuse for her irrepressible passion Becky claims that good luggage can be deemed a proper capital investment. As a result Becky’s room is a terrible muddle & is cluttered with tangled piles of stuff. For this reason the process of packing things puts her in dismay, as she can’t make up her mind & decide which items are indispensable requisites and which of them she can dispense with.

While packing Becky decides to fall back to a simple but rather effective gimmick. She drafts a list of things to take with in order to boil down her clothes to a pared-down capsule wardrobe. By the way, most adeptsacknowledge that writing what-to-do lists is a reasonable & prudent thing to do. Making lists is relaxing. It dictates the shape of the immediate future, helps you recover your composure when you are confronted with a difficult problem & makes you feel elated when you cross something off. However, the list doesn’t help her a lot, actually. She takes 4 pair of jeans instead of 2 and practically all the collection of T-shirts. Her argument is that she can’t augur what T-shirts she will like to wear during her holidays as she always picks up her outfits in the morning following her mood.

Becky also fails to remember one more sage thing. “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today”. His English saying should be a must of every well-organized person. Postponing too much to the next day engenders a constant nervous suspense & reduces the efficiency of work.

Obviously, Becky is not destined to become a more organized person, but, on the other hand, she shouldn’t be denounced or spoofed for this little foible of hers as the matter of being organised turns out to be rather involved in real life. But feeling for Becky we can obviously deduce some key lessons that may be of great use for us in our life.

 

17. Men & women are said to be from different planets («Changing roles of men & women»)

 

Adeptsacknowledge that there exist a huge number tangible differencies between men & women. Applied to women these differencies have for centuries been read to mean inferiority. However, luckily today this ridiculous & virulent tendency is perceived as a sheerfallacy. And it verifies the fact that the roles of men & women have considerably changed. Today men are becoming more effeminate & some of them may spend hours choosing their outfits while women often step up their activities & provide for the family.

The author of the article “Changing roles of men & women” emphasizes several uppermost features the two sexes are distinguished for that predetermine their roles in a modern world.

Firstly, men are prone to be more aggressive than women. It is estimated that it shows up at the age of 2, continues through school days & glares in adulthood. Evidently, this peculiarity is rooted in biology, namely in the male sex hormone testosterone. The counterpart of male aggressiveness is what scientists ludicrously refer to as feminine «nurturance». Feminists claim that this feature is not indigenous but is drummed into women by the society. But the signs that it is at least partly inborn are superabundant. For example, female toddlers learn much faster than males how to pick up non-verbal cues from others & grown women are far more adept than men at interpreting facial expressions.

However, it is interesting to know that the differences between men & many successful women who have reached leadership positions are not so tangible. Probably it can be explained by the fact that some of such women wittingly try to emulate masculine ways. Probably those male qualities helped them hit their stride, & even outperform their male collegues in business matters.

Besides, men are prone to be more autocratic, which means they tend to make decisions on their own. While women are disposed to ask collegues for assistance & consult their inferiors.

To sum everything up it should be said that due to the fact the «gender gap» is really blazing, men & women often misconstrue each other, but they really do their best to hit it off.