Does Your Office Look Like This?

Usually I’m a pretty organized person. I have files for all my business and personal papers. There’s a place for everything in my office. I use a daytimer for my appointments and deadlines. I like order.

However, over the last few weeks, things have started to get out of hand. Truthfully, my office looks like a paper bomb exploded in it. It’s embarrassing. Even my husband, who can mess up a room faster than you can say ‘disorganized’, has been making snide comments.

In addition to the cost to my productivity and my sanity, I have a deadline. My office is the overflow guest bedroom for when we have a full house, and with Christmas coming, we’ll need every available space.

There are a number of reasons why things have gotten out of hand – being sick for much of the fall, family obligations, extra projects and a heavier workload. However, the main reason is that I don’t have good systems for handling my papers, tasks, appointments and projects. I’ve just been winging it. And with my workload increasing, things have been getting out of hand.

I’ve been searching for a solution. At a networking meeting I got to, I recently asked to host the discussion and I asked for people’s time management solutions. I got some good ideas, but not the solution I was looking for. Then one morning I found an email from Robert Middleton promoting a new teleclass: Get Organized, Get on Track and Get Unstuck, with Elizabeth Hagen. It sounded like the answer to my problem.

I got out my credit card, placed the order then downloaded the two part teleclass. I loaded it onto my MP3 player and started to listen. It was definitely worth the $29. Hagen’s suggestions for managing your paper, your projects and your to do lists are really powerful.

The best tool is the “Command Centre”. It’s a desktop filing system with slots for each day of the month and each month of the year. Whenever you have action items that you’re not going to tackle immediately, you file them in the date you want them done by. Each morning you pull out the file for that day and you have all your action items ready to go. Nothing gets lost, misplaced for forgotten.

A startling fact Hagen mentions is that the average person spends one hour a day looking for things. That’s 250 hours per year: the equivalent of six and a quarter work weeks. Wow, if I could get back those six weeks , I could really accomplish a lot more.

I’m still in the process of attacking the paper explosion, but by following Hagen’s advice and setting up my Command Centre, I’m making progress. It’s relatively painless and I can already feel the stress lifting. I’m actually feeling energized and excited about getting the office organized. I can really see how this will be a powerful tool to help me save those six weeks so I can achieve my goals for 2008.

If you’re also buried under mounds of paper, or even just finding it difficult to keep track of all your projects, click here to order Get Organized, Get on Track and Get Unstuck. It will definitely be worth your while.

Here’s to getting organized.

Andrea J. Stenberg