BF Virtue 3: Order

"Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time."


It’s a common story that we have all heard, or lived. A man wakes up and realizes his life is a complete mess. Not just his mental capacity, but physically, his surroundings are just in shambles. His bed is never made, papers and magazines are stacked all over the place, and dirty clothes lie on the floor. What is he to do? So he decides that he needs to take charge of his life.
Where to start? Order. This is among the personal virtues among the 13.

We never think of this, because to some of us...well order is just a very very tedious task...(ask me in HS, and I would have told you of stories of how I hated to clean my room) Then I moved to college, and well, disorder was my way of rebellion from everything that I was taught as a child. Then I would feel guilt, and I would clean my room, and then after two days, it would be in a tidy mess again. This by the way, still happens today. Except my excuse this time, I am working on clearing my junk and keeping what I need.

Now to the question of the Why?
Why is it so hard to keep order? Hmm...yes, the basic answer to that is Entropy. Every time that man creates order, he goes against this force. You agree with me that it easier to keep a messy room than a tidy room...
Here is a scientific explanation....

The first law of thermodynamics tells us there is a fixed amount of energy in the universe. Energy can be changed from one form to another, but never created or destroyed.

Although energy cannot be destroyed, it is of little use to anyone if it cannot make things happen. Unfortunately, the second law of thermodynamics tells us all energy changes decrease the amount of useful energy in the universe.

Consider a box of small magnets. If the small magnets are lined up in the same direction, as a group they can attract other metal objects. If they are not lined up in the same direction, individual magnets cancel each other’s effect and cannot do useful work. The same is true of energy – it is useful when it is ordered, but when it is disordered, its effects cancel each other out.

Entropy is a measure of the lack of order in the energy.

Now, since I am not a scientist, I am probably not sure how to expound on this, from its basic understanding. Or my basic understanding stated above.
The secret to beating this is well, being efficiently efficient. Easier said than done. But the idea that if you have to make order, you have to act. You have to be able to just stand up, and do it, at that moment, without giving yourself excuses of "later"