Organizing

I followed my boss to a co-worker’s cubicle where my boss requested a certain document from the co-worker. The actual surface of the co-workers desk was not visible because it was covered with a cluttered pile of papers, catalogs, booklets, and other paraphernalia. I was prepared to see my co-worker embarass himself by not being able to locate the requested document in that messy pile.

Some people mistakenly think having a cluttered desk will trick their boss into thinking they are keeping busy. Instead, a cluttered desk makes your boss think the following:

• You are disorganized

If you’re like most busy executives, you know that interruptions are a big drain on your productivity. While all interruptions can’t (and shouldn’t) be prevented, here are some ways you can minimize them and gain more control over your time.

* Identify your priorities. If there’s a key project you need to give uninterrupted time to, earmark an hour or two early in the morning to work on it. Do it before you handle client calls, check email, etc. Consciously creating space for your top priorities is an excellent way to manage your time.

I’ll bet you know women who make Shabbos in either of 2 ways. There are the women who have a set schedule and their routine is like clockwork. Sunday is challah and chicken day. Monday is baking day. Tuesday is grocery shopping day and kugel day. Wednesday is gefilte fish, and chicken soup day. Friday is egg salad, tuna salad, and cholent. Or, to make Shabbos in its entirety Thursday night.

The other woman does not really have a schedule. She cooks when she feels inspired, sometimes needing to buy premade foods when the inspiration hasn’t hit. Many times the cooking begins and ends on Friday.

Methods for personal organization seem to be a never ending search for ideas that work. Depending on the individual personality, some things that work well for one person do not work as well for another. To achieve the maximum benefit from a personal organization system, there are a number of things that need to be factored into the solution. If you own a computer, there are software tools that contain everything you need to establish an effective method for organizing information, scheduling your time, and creating a custom plan that is unique to your individual needs. You can use your computer to assist with organizing things that are both on and off the system.

So you set your goals and now you need to implement them. To do this we need to organize a way of cross checking those goals to make sure you are on track.

Firstly have an outline. In other words allow room for maneuver. I like to set goals just as a plane prepares for take off. You know when you are sitting in your seat and you hear the pilot say prepare for take off, then he tells the Air Stewarts to cross check.

Have you ever felt so discouraged, your life so out-of-control, the universe so unresponsive to your needs and desires, that you couldn’t help it: you just had to clean up? By paying attention to these impulses we recognize the deep connection between our personal environment and our innermost selves. It’s as though by shifting the arrangement of our belongings we hope to rearrange the molecules of our emotional lives as well.

Now that you have curtailed new clutter from entering your home as outlined in The Clutter Diet - Step 1, you need to tackle what you already own. To begin, make an assessment of your current situation and then create a Clutter Diet plan using the steps below.

I’ll make the choice clear from the beginning:

Follow the 4 Ds of organization - Do it now - Delegate it - Delay it briefly - Dump it

or you will get to experience the other two Ds of organization - Disorganization and Disaster.

Using the 4 Ds

Do it now

Always the best decision. Do something now and get it done. Don’t give procrastination a chance to gain a foothold.

When you do it now, it does not hang around and nag at your mind like an ugly little gremlin.

Delegate it

Our children are probably the biggest clutter creators we have in our homes — even more so than the dreaded paper flow. It starts out innocently, when we find out we are expecting; then the purchasing frenzy swings into high gear and does not let up until, well, let’s just say many years down the road.

The clutter begins on the highly anticipated homecoming day when our countertops fill quickly with samples and instructions from the hospital. The bottles of formula, diapers, blankets and wipes all begin to take root on the counters and any and all other flat surfaces. You can kiss that nesting mode goodbye and say hello to survival mode!

Often we are in overwhelm because we are holding too many things in our brain. We are trying to make everything a priority and get it done now. When really we can eliminate 60 % of those things get more accomplished and be more successful.

If you answer “yes” to three or more of the questions below it’s a good bet you need to get your life organized and put an end to being stressed out a good deal of the time.

Do you find yourself feeling frustrated that you never have enough time to do the things you really enjoy?