Organized?
I still remember the day when I was in College. My room used to be one garbage hole, not because it was filled with garbage but because even the most useful of things in there looked like garbage. Clothes would be everywhere, books spread around on the floor, waste papers hardly finding the bin and everything even if it was a wrapper, tucked away somewhere as if it was something that is an absolute essential.
Most gentlemen out there will be able to align with me because what I just showed you above was not just, my story. It was pretty much the story of every other boy in the hostel.
While men are said to be the disorganized lot, I am sure a few of our women counterparts might also fall into this category. Though we tend to generalize the men (just because of a few rotten apples like me).. it is actually not true with all men. Of the 5 men that I know in my house except for 2 of us, the rest are the organized kinds who get frustrated because of our being dis-organized.
Staying Organized:
This was a nice little pin I saw sometime back on Pinterest which my wife (who is another example of being organized and who is my inspiration to get organized) repinned.
It sounded pretty simple. And when you start following each of these tips, you will realize that it is actually very simple. In fact, I can now confidently say that staying organized itself is not too complicated. It is just that laziness in you, that prevents you from doing that.
The biggest reason for staying disorganized was that we never evaluated the impact of staying so.
When I started my internet marketing business, thanks to my habit of being disorganized.. I would download or, put things into some folder or, drive in my computer. It would be after a few days when I want to find the file, that I reach the peak of frustration because I wasn’t able to find it. I cannot use the search option because I don’t remember the name of the file.
I would waste hours together, which could otherwise have been productive hours for me, to find the file which in many instances would end up in me abandoning the search.
Also there were other instances where I just downloaded a huge file again just because I did not remember downloading it earlier, thanks to my habit of tucking it away in the depths of my hard drive.
Some other ills included, forgetting to pay my bills and ending up paying a late fee, lack of space (everywhere including my cupboards, desk, drawers) and above all a schedule that was all over the place.
If you are working, then you would know the effects of being disorganized. Let me just put a few of these into perspective.
- Wastage of time in searching for something
- Frustration when you don’t find something
- Unnecessary space occupancy
- Lack of productivity
- Wastage of a host of other resources (bandwidth in my case above)
Why not follow a few simple steps and get organized and save all of these pains.
Steps to Get Organized
A few simple steps can help you get organized. Just put a habit of spending an extra minute in doing it and you will be surprised to see the results.
So here is what I learnt from the Staying Organized Pin that I followed on Pinterest:
- If you Get it Out.. Put it Back
- If you Open it Shut it
- If you try it on.. hang it up
- If you get it dirty.. wash it
- If you don’t use it.. get rid of it
- If it doesn’t fit you.. donate it
- If it’s expired.. dump it
- If it’s junk.. throw it out
- If it’s a bill.. pay it
- If you schedule it… write it down
A very simple list, ain’t it!
Try doing these, at least a few of these and you will find yourselves relieved of a lot of frustration. You will experience a very nice feeling when you start to see things looking at you from the places where they are supposed to be.
Organize Now – The Book
It was a few days back that I got hold of his book at Amazon. It was probably one of those retargeting ads that just popped up on one of the sites I was browsing. It was a nice little book on “Getting Organized” titled Organize Now, by Jennifer Ford Berry.
I would leave the review for another post. But, if you are somebody who likes books and believe in implementing what you learn in there, rather than keeping in organized in a shelf, this book is for you.
It has a nice week-wise steps to get organized. And you will really enjoy doing each one of those as much as you enjoy reading it. Laid out in simple words and neatly organized, the book is one essential read, if you like being organized.
You can check it out at Amazon today!