I will never forget the day my grandmother came for a visit. As a typical teenager, my bedroom was in complete disarray. To this very day, I remind her that most everything I needed to know about organization I learned from her. She looked at my room, grabbed a sticky note and wrote, “Don’t Put It Down, Put It Away.” I still have that sticky note.
We all have had those days (well most of us) where we don’t know right from left, up from down or just where to begin to achieve a productive day!
Disorganization has a way of creeping into our inner being to wreak havoc on our lives. At both home and work you need to make time for organization. Living in a messy and disorganized environment radiates stress and drains energy, as well as, causes brain overload and creates conflict. If this is not enough to convince you that you must make time for organization, here are more side effects of disorganization: raised anxiety levels, wasted time, reduced creativity, fosters an undesirable environment, causes worry and increases depression.
Convinced? Let’s put order back in our lives starting today!
Ironstone has 7 helpful ideas for you to implement allowing you to seize control of your new healthy organized lifestyle!
- Designate One Day a Week for Organization: Help your firm become more productive and stress free by allowing time for organization. Looking at a pile of clutter in your office creates stress by overloading your brain and reminding you of deadlines and commitments that are not being met.
- Use a Planner, Calendar and To-Do Lists: Using a calendar and/or a planner is vitally important. Your planner should include a calendar and a to-do list. Update your to-do list as often as needed and review your calendar for projects, activities and meetings on a daily basis. Crossing things off your to-do list is motivating and satisfying.
- Stop Multi-Tasking: We have talked about this over and over again. It is no longer impressive or necessary to be a multi-tasker. Do one thing at a time and do it well!
- Don’t Put It Down, Put It Away: This is probably the simplest thing you can do to stay personally organized. It worked for my grandma and she is over 90 years old.
- Learn The Word No: Get to know you again; become ok with saying NO! Everyone has limits and boundaries. Set yours and try not to deviate from them.
- Take Control of Your Time and Priorities: Design your day and plan time for yourself. Schedule “You Time” in your planner just as you would a project or meeting and don’t feel guilty!
- Delegate: Learn to trust others with crucial tasks in all areas of your life. When you delegate a portion of your “to-do list”, you will realize this makes it easier to keep other areas more organized.
Once you have implemented the above strategies, you will more than likely notice a lifestyle change. Be patient and stay committed. By taking small steps to become more organized, you will have a burst of energy and feel less stressed.
Ironstone can assist you in developing the strategies needed to improve organization at your firm. By doing so, you will find that your team is more productive and workplace culture is improved.
What organizational strategies have you implemented that have made a change in your life?
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