Need a little organization?

… want to eliminate some confusion?  … at work, home, school? … maybe achieve more?

Confusion in your life?  Mess on the desk?  Feel overwhelmed? Just  seems like you can’t get anything done?

Take some quiet time; manage your space, do some planning:

If you have an office, close the door, A cube? Find a conference room

If neither? Use a library or coffee shop.

Put your stuff in boxes, mentally or actually draw them, label them. Use a notebook and “Post-its”, or, laptop and e-tools to display, organize, prioritize, and manage your boxes.

Set some priorities, most important box to least important, some boxes may have to be addressed simultaneously, Some tasks on multiple days, so identify task, day(s), time alloted those as well.

Examples: Your “work” box may have 8 or 10 sub-boxes / projects; your home box maybe 5 or more, make a personal time box, maybe a “me box”. However, they are related by time — they share your time, just so many hours in a day/week/month.

There are planning tools out there on the web that can help you manage your stuff. Consider this popular matrix… it comes in many forms and is highly adaptable.

In a previous post,  I noted that organization chart structures are handy organization tools… that tool might be used here and is especially handy for prioritizing things.

https://wordpress.com/post/successnexcess.com/588

One of the greatest culprits of disorganization or inefficiency is a perceived lack of time. Actually, there is always time! In many cases it can be a lack of “time management” skills.  The writer believes you don’t necessarily have to take a course / attend a seminar on the subject, although if it helps its worth the time (no pun intended). This blogger believes all you have to do is organize your stuff and follow Nike’s advice — “Just Do It”.  Commit to the time to make a plan, manage your time, allot time for each box,  and implement your plan, taking related actions to close out the tasks or work.  Lack of or poor implementation has been known as a cause of failed plans.

Above all, one has to commit the time to make the plan!

Do not let anything short of an emergency or critical event get in your way, or disorganize your day and time. Interruptions and priorities can change your day of course, but if it happens too often, life/work/time may be managing you rather than the other way around.

For the record, a messy desk is not necessarily a sign of a disorganized owner; in some cases it might be the sign of a big-time “multi-tasker”, or, a disorganized owner.

***** S&E *****

This was a new job, a promotion for Sam, title: Human Resources (HR) Supervisor, his first management position. The company paid to move his family, a full relocation package. His new work location — a fully integrated manufacturing business that occupied a full city block. The facility was all brick, 60 years old, four stories high, with a courtyard in the center large enough for tractor trailers to enter, unload, and make a full turn to exit. It is a cool business. 900 employees. The business had additional facilities, two plants, offshore, in Puerto Rico.

Sam is on the job 6 days and finds out his boss is leaving for two weeks for a beach vacation with his family.

The second day his boss is gone the Operations Manager (OM) (responsible for manufacturing and warehousing) steps into the doorway of Sam’s office, leans against the door frame, and announces that his warehouse supervisor was arrested the previous evening for soliciting on a downtown street corner, dressed in drag.

There is usually a healthy competition, sometimes stressful, relationship between Operations and HR as the two need to strike an understanding and balance of what operating decisions are good for employees and the business, honoring policy, company values, and the need to run an efficient, productive, profitable, concern.

The OM, still in the door frame, is smiling like a Cheshire Cat, anticipating that the greenhorn HR guy will have no idea what to do with this. And, even better, the HR guy’s boss is gone. After a brief discussion the HR guy comes up with, “furlough him with pay until the authorities make a decision”. If the authorities charge him and he’s found guilty, we release him. Stop back at the end of the week and we’ll look at where we are. Boom! Disappointed that the new guy didn’t bumble the issue, the OM returns to his work.

Epilogue: Ten days later the authorities drop the charges against the Warehouse Supervisor. The the HR guy recommends the OM reinstate the Warehouse Supervisor, he does so. The Warehouse Supervisor was also warned that as a manager he can be the face of the company and he’d be released if further questionable behavior occurs.

There is usually a little time to make a decision.

***** S&E ****