ajcjobs > BlogBreak > Archives > 2007 > January > 25 > Entry
Getting Organized: The Annual Battle
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At the beginning of each year, one of the most common resolutions people make is to organize their lives, homes and offices. To me this indicates that there are a multitude of us out there who just don’t keep ourselves as organized as we should.
My downfall is my office and more specifically anything that has to do with paper - file folders, correspondence, project information, bank statements, investment statements and on and on. What ever happened to the paperless society we were promised with the computer age?
Coming into an office that is cluttered and unorganized is not only frustrating and demoralizing, it can become a major source of lost productivity. You just have that defeated feeling before you ever begin.
Office supply stores cash in on the desire to have an organized workspace by offering so many storage solutions that just making a choice is difficult and frustrating as well.
Professional organizers are available to help but not everyone has the time or money to employ another person to organize their life. Self-help sites such as The Time Manager offer solutions to managing your clutter and living a more productive work life. But you know, the desire and the ability to take that first step is often most difficult. Becoming more organized can be as hard as forcing yourself to save for retirement, quitting smoking or adhering to a diet. Will-power, that’s what it takes.
Now, how about you? Are you organized? If so, pleeeease help the rest of us. What works for you? What motivates you and what books, services or websites were most effective? On the other hand, if you are in the midst of the battle to defeat clutter, what motivated you to change and how did you overcome the initial inertia?
Comments
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By Donna Dees
January 26, 2007 10:30 AM | Link to this
David I agree with you about the problem of getting organized. What happens is you usually spend your day organizing (or thinking about organizing), and never get anything done related to your business. As with anything you don’t really want to do, it usually is done the last and only because it’s so bad that you can’t think any more in your space.
People assume that hiring someone to come in and help them organize or even do those other tasks that take up time is expensive and it’s not. I realized about a year ago that what people needed most was time and I had plenty of it! I started a personal and virtual assistant service to help people with personal tasks such as errands and administrative work. with their businesses.. My rates start at $15 per hour and because the administrative work is done from my home office, they don’t have to worry about making sure they’re available for me to work in their office. I have some clients that I’ve never even met! If paying me for a few hours of work each month frees you up to pursue some new clients or do some follow-up work, would you think it would be worth it?
As with anything, find a system that works for you for organizing. You may not be the kind of person that needs all the cool organizing tools that office supply stores have. Maybe for you it’s a couple of files always in the same place, an in and out box a trash can and a shredder and you’re good to go!
Good luck with your organizing and if you need some help or advice, send me an email.
Donna Dees Seed Personal and Virtual Assistant Services 678.982.9805 Expect a miracle every day.