Let’s look at a typical day in the life of Dan, an independent business owner operating a woodcarving business out of his home. Dan has all the ingredients for success at his fingertips: a great client base, low overhead and almost more furniture orders than he can handle. Sounds great, doesn’t it? There’s only one small problem—Dan has become overwhelmed by his own disorganization. Misplacing job orders, failing to respond to requests for more information, and trying to play catch up with all of his daily messages as well as ordering supplies that are on back order (which he would know if he could only find that fax that informed him of this) have brought Dan to the brink of disaster. Without a clearly organized and prioritized plan, Dan is in danger of becoming his own worst enemy and turning his profitable business into a failure.

Organization is not about being neat and tidy and uptight. It is about choosing what is important to you, setting goals and having a vision about how you want to live and work and play. It is also about multi – tasking whenever possible. This doesn’t mean that you have to write down everything that you need to do. It means taking what has to be done, prioritizing it and then doing it.

Okay, so where do you start? First, you commit to the process of getting organized. It takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. You certainly did not get disorganized overnight. Be realistic about what this commitment means. You are committing to time, money and a new way of doing things.

Investigate what being organized means. Utilize friends, professional organizers and books on the subject. There are many reasons for disorganization including medical, physical, and emotional problems, or simply lack of habit. If you suspect any of the first three, you may need to seek professional help. If you suspect it is lack of habit, then the time has come to make a commitment and hold yourself accountable. Just as you would commit to a marriage, a job, or a friend, you must commit to organization in the same way. If you need help, don’t hesitate to enlist it. Just make the commitment and get started.

Second, assess everything that you own, everything you do, everything you have, and everything you say. Take a look at all the things you own and ask, "Does this bring me joy?" "Does it add value to my life?" After catastrophic events, people are often asked what they miss the most and it is usually something personal and monetarily insignificant, such as photos. Simplification is much easier than multiplication and improved quality of life is one of the most noticeable benefits.

Third, create a space, a place and a system for what you own and truly need. It may sound pretty overwhelming but it doesn’t have to be. Creating a space simply means that if you have papers they need space such as a filing cabinet in your office. Creating a place means a drawer in the filing cabinet where you put the papers and a system means a way to get them in the drawer or out of the drawer when needed. For example, mail comes in every day. You open it and either recycle it, file it, set time aside to read it or read it immediately. That is a system.

Fourth, time is valuable and precious. Assess what you are doing with yours. We all have things that we avoid and things we would rather be doing. That is one of the prime reasons for disorganization. Is your time being spent on the things that are most important to you or is your time being spent maintaining "stuff" that is meaningless at the end of the day?

Fifth, use the garbage/recycling can and utilize what you already have before you go get more. I recommend only three things to purchase prior to this process: large black tough garbage bags to bag up donated items, strong banker boxes for storing papers and other valuable items, and hanging folders and file folders. These last two items are for the paper management portion of your process. Once you have created sufficient space, buy a file cabinet. Once you have seen how many photos you have, purchase an album to hold them. You get the idea—one step at a time and you will find you have less clutter and more space and time in your life.

And last but not least, sustain what you have decided to maintain. This is one of the most important parts of the organizational process. Nothing is more frustrating than to spend time, money, and energy getting organized and then allow yourself to slip back into chaos. You must commit your time and energy to staying on track. And remember disorganization can only occur if you let it.

© 2002 PrioritiesFirst 2001
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