Organizing: The Oil of the Machine in Life

Organizing: The Oil of the Machine in Life

Being all about efficiency--wouldn't it be nice to know that just ONE resolution can help you achieve all of your goals for the year? Below we'll explore the 6 most common resolutions and the science behind how getting organized can help you improve on each one!

Planning for a Balanced Life in 2017

Planning for a Balanced Life in 2017

My philosophy about time management is that every system must be designed from the inside out—based on the unique way you think, your natural habits and goals.  

The W.A.D.E. Formula for Managing Tasks

The W.A.D.E. Formula for Managing Tasks

When we do studies of how people spend their time, we find, on average… a backlog of 32.4 hours of tasks. That means, on any given day, people feel like they’re drowning in work, like they’re never done, like they can’t ever relax. 

Why Paper Planning Is Making a Comeback

Why Paper Planning Is Making a Comeback

As a productivity professional, clients and audiences often ask if I can recommend a great To-Do app. I’ve looked. I’ve tested. 

5 Secrets of an "Intelligent" To-Do List

5 Secrets of an "Intelligent" To-Do List

It’s essential to choose a to-do list format that works the way your brain works. It needs to allow you to organize your tasks in a way that makes it easier to get things done.  

Streamline your workload with the 4 D’s

Streamline your workload with the 4 D’s

There will always be more work to do than time to do it. The goal is to make sure you are doing the most important tasks, so you can leave every day with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

A Perfect Time to Declutter

You know what’s great about summer?  Time. The days stretch, the kids don’t have homework, and the sun stays out till 9:00pm. We’re more relaxed, have more energy and more time to spare.

This summer think about using the extra time on your hands to finally declutter — to rid yourself of all the stuff weighing you down, getting in your way, and stealing your energy.   Tackle just one category at a time- papers, email, supplies, books and digital files, and don’t feel obliged to do everything.  Decluttering even ONE category of items will pay huge dividends is freed up space, time and energy.

Here are 4 steps to successfully decluttering:

First, define your treasures. Before getting rid of anything, consider your work goals and roles to assess what items will help you and those that won’t.   When facingintimidating piles and drawers., ask yourself—if all this were gone tomorrow, what would I miss?  Write down the list that comes to mind (e.g. original signed contracts, key contact info, handwritten notes) on a big sticky note, and post that on the wall of the area you are about to declutter. This will guide you in separating treasure from trash.

Create a No-Brainer Toss List. Minimize the number of decisions you have to make by creating guidelines for stuff you don’t have to think twice before shedding. Immediately chuck old manuals & reports that have since been updated, documents that someone else has the original of, and you can replace if necessary, printouts from the web, out of date information,  duplicates, etc.

Check retention guidelines. Going through your legal files? Call your lawyer. Old payroll? Ring the accountant. Remember that 80% of what we file we never look at again. So be sure that it’s necessary for you to keep anything and everything that will take up valuable space in your file drawer. Don’t save things you “might” need someday if they are easily replaced.

Aim for a radical release.  Once you’ve separated the treasures from trash…get the trash OUT. If you have objects to donate, arrange delivery to a charity.  If you have large volumes of papers to shred, don’t let them sit around for months cluttering up your space (and messing with your mental clarity).   You should be able to measure the space gained in pounds (removed 100 pounds of excess supplies from the storage closet)—or inches (removed 50 inches of files…).

The ultimate payoff?  Clarity, “lightness of being,” and an energized space that brings out your most authentic, engaged, professional self.

Is Organizing Worth The Time?

Lots of people are familiar with the phrase yo-yo dieting, but probably not with “yo-yo organizing”.  It’s a phrase I coined as a professional organizer, observing the tendency to approach organizing haphazardly.   We procrastinate until we can’t take the mess, and then dive in with a huge burst of determination, only to abandon the project halfway through when we run out of steam.

Sadly, being “partially” organized doesn’t last—the unfinished portions create blind spots in your system and doubt in your mind about what goes where.  Before long you backslide into the same state of chaos you began with, feeling demoralized. Just like yo-yo dieting.

While it’s easy to see the benefits of being organized, it can be hard to justify the time it takes to create a system.  It always takes longer than we think.  We experience decision fatigue.  We feel antsy to get back to life.

Yet, the very PROCESS of organizing —the journey of sifting, sorting, deciding and discovering, is highly beneficial.  Organizing is an act of studying, uncovering and curating knowledge–often reacquainting you with vital information that had receded from your memory.  In one famous study on retention, participants only remembered 54% of what they’d read the day before, and only 21% two weeks later.  Organizing is powerful.

Case Study #1

Patrick is a family lawyer who understands that a large part of his job is what he calls psychological warfare.   He knows that when he spends time upfront preparing his cases well—i.e. taking lots of notes, typing them up, printing them out, categorizing them and filing them in a binder with clearly labelled tabs for each aspect of each case, he’s positioned himself for success.  Walking into a courtroom, organized binder tucked under his arm, he’s aware with great quiet confidence that he’s already swayed the conversation.  Especially when he sees the opposing side pull out a sloppy accordian folder crammed with sticky notes and yellowing legal paper.   It’s not just the artifact itself –his smart binder— that creates the power, but the very actions that went into assembling it. He has all the facts top-of-mind and can recall details much more quickly than his disheveled, disorganized opponent.

Case Study #2

Lonnie was a newly appointed senior executive for a Cosmetics company who inherited a closet full of her predecessors files, with no baton-passing.  The company needed her to hit the ground running, so she couldn’t make the time to sort through all the files that’d been left behind.  She worked in chaos for months, piling her own stuff on the desk and surfaces, worried she was missing some critical piece of knowledge.  Finally, she made the time to clear out her predecessor’s files, sifting through every document to make sense of it all.  She unearthed valuable reports and contact info, eliminated obsolete material, organized the information and gained true insight into how the job was done.  For the first time since starting, Lonnie felt energized, confident and on top of her job. She gained a bolt of clarity on the unique contribution she could make. The process unlocked her creativity, confidence and contribution.

As knowledge workers, we are paid for our ideas, our ability to make good judgements, to be thorough and on top of our game. Ending the yo-yo organizing cycles takes time, yes, but the journey itself will yield huge payoffs, every step of the way.

Maximizing Your Time for Vacation

The weather’s warming up, flip flops are emerging and kids are out of school. For lots of people, that spells vacation season. But not for everyone.  Many of us get so wrapped up in our worklives that we don’t take all the time off we’re entitled to….or need.  In fact, Americans only use about 77 percent of their paid time off, which translates to almost 430 million unused vacation days annually.

Demanding workloads, and the drive to compete lead many to believe sacrificing time off is the key to job survival.  But peak performers know the opposite is true: folks who take most or all of their vacation time perform better, are more productive and more satisfied.

Still, it can be hard to take time off because we’re afraid of falling behind, and paying for it when we get back.   The key is to be organized in order to fully enjoy and maximize the benefits of time off:

  • Think of your vacation as an investment in your performance. When you are recharged and rejuvenated, you have more energy, make fewer mistakes, and come up with more creative solutions to workplace problems. As an added bonus, the deadlines (of a flight or vacation time) force you to focus, eliminate unnecessary distractions, and get more done. Just think how clear your desktop gets right before you leave for vacation!

  • Vacation in short bites. Even two days away can improve your wellbeing, so consider scheduling a series of wonderful long weekends throughout the summer, if you can’t swing a full week or two. These mini-breaks refresh your spirit on a regular basis without sacrificing any work momentum and motivate you to stay focused during the workweek.

  • Prepare the people you work with. Starting one to two weeks before you leave, remind key players you interact with (supervisors, co-workers, key clients) the days you will be out of the office, so that they get deadline driven assignments to you in advance. Meet with any colleagues covering for you to pass along projects, giving them clear decision rights on things they can handle in your absence, and what constitutes an emergency worth contacting you for.

  • Pull the Plug. Ensure you are able to relax and recharge by limiting your contact with the office while on vacation. If you must check-in, give yourself a time limit like every other day or five minutes per. If you have prepped your colleagues and shared your contact information, they should be prepared to handle things while you are out and know how to find you should the need arise.

  • Build in re-entry time. Minimize the wall of stress that can hit on our first day back from vacation by planning. Get home early enough to unpack and get a good night’s sleep. Avoid meetings for the first half day back at the office. You’ll need time to catchup on what happened while you were gone before taking on new projects and assignments.

The good news is, it’s not just our time away that benefits us; we get an emotional reward from anticipating a vacation.  So, get some use out of those flip flops—it’ll help your career, and your sanity.