What Is a Command Center?
Mayra Kavan,
Living a peaceful, organized life shouldn’t be difficult, but some days it certainly feels that way. Appointments have a way of sneaking up on you, plans somehow manage to intersect with other obligations, chores lurk quietly in the background hoping to be forgotten, and on top of all of this, families expect dinner every night.
And you’re supposed to know not only what dinner is going to be, but also if you have the ingredients to make it happen!
You know what needs to be done to make life happen, just not always when or how to do it. You may have a fancy planner, a short stack of blank notebooks, downloaded a dozen apps to help you organize your life. And, so far, it all just accumulates into more physical and virtual clutter, but one day … one day you are going to be organized.
First of all, take solace in the fact that it’s not you; it’s life. That’s not just some meaningless phrase to win your favor. Life is overwhelmingly busy, and a lot of the technology that we’ve adopted to help streamline our activities has actually managed to make the problem worse. There are so many systems, notifications, responsibilities, to-do lists, and obligations competing for our attention all the time – it’s easy to feel lost in the shuffle.
The good news is that it’s easy to take control of your life and get organized; you just need a command center or 1THRIVE Center as we like to call them.
What is a command center?
A family command center is a one-stop shop, one location one wall, in your home that offers a simple, organized, visual layout of information that helps guide your life. In the past, one person may have been responsible for all the important paperwork, dates, lists, and more, but a command center shifts that responsibility to a collaborative effort, while offering one attractive and easy-to-use solution for answering many of the questions that come with running a household.
The key to remembering and prioritizing events and actions is visibility. Those scribbled notes on the back of receipts in your purse. The half a dozen apps with calendar reminders and disorganized to-do lists. That stack of important papers to review on the counter. Sure, they technically count as an organizational attempt, but it’s not a system that’s likely to work.
Why command centers work
Studies show that you’re more likely to remember information if you’ve written it down. This works in two different ways:
- External storage: This one is pretty obvious. If you write something down and post it somewhere visible, your brain is able to easily access and review it, eventually committing it to long-term memory.
- Encoding: Encoding is slightly more complex. When we perceive information, it gets sent to our brain’s hippocampus for additional analysis. From there, our brain determines if that information is crucial enough to store in long-term memory, and if it’s not, it gets rejected. (This is probably why you can remember your childhood phone number but not your neighbor’s first name.) Putting information into writing sends a hint to your brain that facilitates the encoding process, and makes it much more likely to be remembered.
A command center serves as external storage, writing down your information acts as an encoding clue to your memory, and those blank slates offer an opportunity for endless potential. Fitness goals, meal plans, inspirational quotes, schedule reminders, chores – your command center can be whatever you need it to be.
Organization made simple
Our 1Thrive Centers consist of interchangeable components, including chalkboards, whiteboards, corkboards, hooks, wall pockets, magnets, and more. Our version of the command center is easy to install, has a streamlined footprint to save space, and can be customized to your specific needs.
To begin your organizational journey, you just choose your configuration, find a flat surface, and start writing your life down in plain sight. It’s simple and beautiful; that’s why it works.
We can’t wait to see how you Thrive.
