Definitions
- “Orderliness refers to a general desire tomaintain structure, cleanliness, and organization.”
What is Orderliness?
- Order: an arrangement of things in relation to one another such that they form a coherent whole. Order also has the connotation of a hierarchy: to put things in order is to prioritize them.
- This prioritization is necessary for virtue.
- Orderliness: The habit of imposing order onto one’s life. It includes time management, neatness, prioritization, structure, and consistency.
- The orderly person will: know goals and priorities; keep a clean house; responsibly handle to-do lists and calendar; keep a routine; refrain from tyrannical obsessive imposition of organization.
Why should we practice the virtue of Orderliness?
- Order rids us of chaos and uncertainty and fills us with peace.
- Gives us control over our life
- Orderliness gives us freedom, and allows us to grow and develop our virtue.
- Multiplies our time, boosts efficiency, and makes our efforts go farther.
- Removes causes of stress.
- Increases self-control and purposeful behavior.
Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean
Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean emphasizes balance as the essence of virtue, symbolized here by a mountain peak with a flag representing the ideal midpoint. Each virtue lies between two opposing vices—deficiency depicted on the left, and excess, on the right slope. For example, courage is the balance between cowardice (deficiency) and recklessness (excess). In a medical context, this principle guides healthcare professionals to strive for the peak of ethical behavior, avoiding the pitfalls of extremes to ensure thoughtful and compassionate care.
Case Studies
“Screen time up 83% over last week.” You wonder, “How did this happen?” Well, it’s off to the clinic where you are a new family practitioner. You’ve enjoyed your practice thus far although the time constraints seem to never let up. You drive into the parking lot to find that you’ve already started the day 10 minutes late again. After making a few rushed apologies to the office staff you notice that your first patient is Mr. C who is a 53-year-old male with diabetes and hypertension who you last saw for lower back pain. You greet him anticipating discussing how his progress has been for his diabetes regarding weight loss and exercise, but he fills you in on his back surgery and how it hasn’t made things better but a little worse. You’re surprised since you got him an MRI quickly and a prompt referral to a neurosurgeon. He says that the pain is keeping him from exercising and now he doesn’t know what to do. You suggest that you can either re-image him or send him back to the neurosurgeon. He seems dejected and states that you can do whatever you think is best. You refer him back to the neurosurgeon with the nagging thought that maybe you imaged him too quickly and didn’t give conservative treatment enough time.
Your clinic day is done, and you arrive at daycare later than you expected to pick up your 2-year-old son. The daycare staff is grim faced and remind you that you need to be on time or else they will have to reconsider your arrangement. Finally arriving home with your son, you’re satisfied with another busy but productive day at the clinic and vow to get to daycare on time. You’re particularly upbeat since your golfing friends texted you during work setting up a round of golf this weekend. Your spouse, who is a busy accountant, greets you and discusses the upcoming birthday party that your son was invited to, and your spouse was hoping that you could bring him there since it’s tax season and work needs to be done this weekend. You explain that it conflicts with your long-awaited golf game. After a brief exchange, you acquiesce to taking your son but you’re very disappointed and frustrated that you’ll miss golfing this weekend. You frequently feel stuck between family, friends, and work.
Discussion Questions
- How is order important to the practice of medicine?
- How was it possibly disordered in this situation?
- What are the consequences of a disorderly life?
- What does a proper ordering of our personal lives look like?
- What can we rightly order our activities?
- How can the institutions we serve impact the ordering of our lives?
- How can technology impact the order in our lives?
How do we foster Orderliness?
- Be proactive: find where there is disorder in your life, and ask how you can impose order.
- Form a clear vision of goals.
- Prioritize goals.
- Make a schedule and stick to it.
- Do not just plan; concretize your schedule: try writing it down.
- Be neat; have a place for everything and rid yourself of unnecessary things.