Being organized can be a struggle for even the most hard working individual. I’d like to hear from you, my readers, to know more about your struggles in staying or getting organized.
Life is busy. I can’t get the filing done because when I take a break from working I have to take the dog out…
Or in the home, the laundry never gets folded, the dishes washed or when clean it takes a day or two to put them away.
You get the picture.
So what do you avoid like the plague? Is it that the sink is filled with dishes that someone else put there? Or you just can’t fit in a time to sweep out the debris from the garage from the last storm?
Today’s blog is on helping yourself to get started being organized. And the first topic is on recognizing there’s a problem.
When you walk by the sink filled with dishes do you tell yourself you’ll clean them up when you get home from work?
Try these:
* When you finish eating breakfast, instead of putting the dishes in the sink for later, rinse and put into the dishwasher. If you don’t have a dishwasher, turn the water on, wash the dish right then. It can dry on its’ own in the drainer.
* You’ve avoided the laundry all week. You have a washer and dryer, but actually making yourself available to fold, hang or iron is almost impossible in your schedule. Think about your family structure. If the kids are too young to help, your husband or wife is non-existent or doesn’t help to do this chore, then consider hiring someone to do just the laundry. But if you can, sit down with the family and have a pow-wow. Delegate the chores. Why is it important to delegate chores to children is another subject. Both my adult sons thanked me for providing them with the knowledge so they could be self-reliant.
* The 4 Hour Work Week is a book that instills in us permission to outsource. At work, if we ever learned them, we have good habits that help us to get our work accomplished. If you have difficulty completing projects on a timely basis, perhaps a hard look at how you work is needed.
You do not have to go to the boss and say, wow, I’m not getting anything done, can you help me establish better work habits. Can you imagine the response. I wouldn’t want to do that. However, the boss may have noticed that you are not performing and make suggestions on their own.
So if on your own and you want to accomplish more do these general steps to get you started.
* Write down what it is you need to accomplish each day
* Write down the steps, if necessary, that will help you to accomplish your goals. Step 1, Step 2, Step 3…
* Each time you have completed a step, mark it off.
Preventing interruptions. Interruptions are the leading cause for you losing your concentration and getting off task. Your co-worker stops by to talk about the movie she saw, or the game he took his kids to. The telephone is ringing off the hook. Your email notification keeps popping up and verbally telling you to check your email. How many things distract you is personal, what you do about them is not.
Do these:
* Hang a sign on your door “Do Not Disturb” “I’m on a deadline.” It actually makes people think when they see this that you are there to work.
* Turn the ringer off on the phone. You can still see the button light up. Nothing is so urgent that you can’t ignore the phone for an hour. If you have Caller ID all the better. You can vet those calls to make sure you don’t miss the important ones.
* If you are like me you receive about a thousand emails a day. Turn the notifications off. Get a spam filter on your email. Send out to all your friends, and colleagues a notice that you will only be checking your email from specified time to specified time each day.
Believe me, people understand. They have work to do too, they just take breaks at different times.
Try a few of these different tips and see how they work for you. If they do or don’t please drop a comment here or email me at denise@progressiveorganizingsolutions.com
I look forward to hearing from you!
Have a great Thursday!
Denise
