Secrets to My Organization (3 of 3)

And finally, the last (but not least) 5 of my 15 tips to organization...

Tip#11: Project into the future & plan ahead – Ask yourself where you’ll be this time tomorrow. What can you do NOW to be prepared for THEN? What about a week from now? A month from now? A year? 5 years? What about at retirement? Plan ahead and make preparations for your future and for the future of your family. (This could be a segment focus each weekly family council)

• Create your own family's Virtual Vault (Let me know if you want a copy of mine)
  Work on your food storage with your spouse
• Keep some extra cash on-hand at home
• Start with your distant goals, then break them down into small pieces by working your way back to the present

Tip#12: Define your purpose – Without a distinct purpose for being organized, it is easy to become frustrated by gradual disorder, interruption, or clutter. Give yourself a reason to be organized. It could be to emulate highly successful individuals, to de-stress your life, or just to appearance of being on top of things. The purpose is up to you, but just make sure you HAVE a purpose for being organized.

Tip#13: Don't procrastinate – The more time you have to do something, the more prepared and organized you can be for it. Resolve to do things early.

Tip#14: Learn skills of visual organization – Learn how to visually organize thoughts and ideas (similar to the way this list is outlined) and USE it often. A good example of this type of organization is the folder system that Microsoft Explorer uses. It's simple, easy to manage and to read. Making neat stacks, piles, groups and color coordination are important too. Note taking is simplified and more useful when using a system of organization using bullet points, numbers, capital & lower case letters, roman numerals, symbols, etc…

Tip#15: Make yourself more aware of time – Being organized isn't only about physical place-setting, stacking, and grouping. It also has a lot to do with time management. It's difficult to be organized if you're constantly rushing around or late. Here are some ideas to help you manage time better:

• Give yourself time limits for your own tasks and projects, and then be careful to OBSERVE those limits
• If you tell someone you'll be somewhere at a certain time, do ALL you can to BE there at that time, if not earlier.
• Strive to be EARLY at appointments, meetings, or other arranged functions.
• Set an alarm for yourself (use your cell phone… it's always with you anyway)
• Get up and go to bed at a reasonable hour (it's harder to be organized when you're exhausted)
• Make it a habit to look at a clock at regular intervals (or invest in a watch that beeps on the hour) to help time from getting away from you
• Play music that allows you to think (music helps time to be subconsciously measured)

Secrets to My Organization (2 of 3)

Here are the next 5 tips...

Tip#6: Create an environment of meditation and/or concentration – This might be a place of worship, a jogging route, or your drive to/from work… but you NEED a place to think that is quiet. Wherever and whenever it is, it shouldn't be filled with any music or outside distractions of any kind. Being organized can be greatly facilitated by quiet and uninterrupted thought.

Tip#7: Choose your company deliberately – Not to be confused with surrounding yourself with people like YOU are... instead, try to make friends with the type of people you want to be LIKE. The more you do, the more like them you'll become. If you want to be a punctual person, hang out with people who deem that important. If you want to be more spiritual, hang out with spiritual people. If you want to be more organized, hang out with organized people. You get the idea. The opposite is also true though. If you want to be highly productive, motivated and positive, it won't help you to hang out with people who are lazy or pessimistic. This REALLY works, and it's the reason many people are the way they are... for better or for worse.

Tip#8: Know & embrace your limitations – Try not to bite off more that you can chew. Learn to say NO.

Tip#9: Create & enforce a lunch time "Power-Hour" – Deliberately chose something to work on for ONE hour right in the middle of your workday - during your lunch. Use this hour to research something you would have time for otherwise. Use it to move closer towards a particular project, or subject of study. Just one hour every day for 5 days per week equates to 260 hours of intense and deliberate personal project time!! That's 10.83 days!! Use this time well, and you'll have MORE time at home with the family.

Tip#10: Set challenging but reachable goals –

• Write goals down (if they’re not written, they’re just wishes)
• Break down your goals into bite-size pieces
• Revisit your goals often (weekly is best)
• Revise your goals when necessary

Secrets to My Organization (1 of 3)

I often get complimented on how organized I am (or seem to be). While I'm certainly not as organized as most people think I am, and nowhere nearly as organized as would like to be, I guess when compared to many it's relatively true. I am able to organize fairly well. I like order. I like knowing where and when things are. I like feeling, well... in control of my domain. I guess you could say I'm a bit obsessive-compulsive about some things. Anyway, for those of you who are more random-abstract personality types, this is for you. Over the next couple of days, I'll be posting my 15 "secret tips" to my own organizational success (psshhhh). Today, the first 5;

Tip#1: EVERYTHING can be compartmentalized – For me, this is the most important step to the organization of anything. Make categories & sub-categories. My wife teases me about this one because I’m a bit obsessive about it. Distinctions and differentiations can be made in every area of your life. Here are some basic category examples with some sub-category ideas. The PURPOSES for compartmentalizing can vary from time management, to document management, and from project completion to portion control:

• Spouse (Date night, shared duties, intimacy, communication, individual time, etc…)
• Children (one-on-one time, outdoor play, reading together, listening, eating together, etc...)
• Extended family (Parents, siblings, cousins, etc…)
• Finances (Day-to-day spending, Bills & Debt, Retirement, Emergency plan, etc...)
• Employment (Running log of past employments / Updating your resume, etc...)
• Spirituality (Duties, Meetings & Service, Study & Prayer, etc...)
• Hobbies & Recreation (Friends, outings, schedules, etc...)
• Business (Book keeping, invoiceing, marketing, accounting, calendaring, etc...)
• Home (chores, groceries, repairs, home & yard, etc...)

Tip#2: Make Lists – Without lists, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. I make a new daily list every day, and then get as much done during the day as possible. I usually can't get to everything, so I just roll tasks onto the next day. Lists give me the ability to free up my conscious mind for other important things to remember. Einstein once said that he typically didn't memorize facts that he could easily look up. I like this idea. Writing things down in lists is like having a never-ending supply of virtual RAM on a computer. I can endlessly process more. Lists can be on-growing or finite, and made for ANYTHING:

• Daily “To-Do’s”
• Ideas
• Wants & needs (wish list)
• Movies you want to see (eventually)
• Interesting websites to explore
• Groceries

Tip#3: Prioritize – Once you've got a list made, it is helpful to know in which order things SHOULD be done. There are two strategies to this. One is the Monster strategy which states: "Kill your ugliest monsters FIRST." This gets the tough tasks out of the way first, leaving only simple chores to remain. The second strategy is based on a value system which states: "Decide which of the things on your list are important and which are urgent, and then do the important things FIRST." This method makes sure that you're not just concentrating on putting out fires, but that you are focusing on what really matters. The good news is that YOU are the only one that can correctly prioritize YOUR list. Use the Boulder, then rock, then pebble, then sand, then water method of filling your day with "stuff" to do.

Tip#4: Simplify –

• Stop “re-inventing the wheel” by creating spreadsheets & templates for things you do often (to do lists, EQ agendas, housework, etc…)
• Pre-establish your own protocols for life ("if this happens, I'll react in this way")… in other words decide ONCE.
• If you don't use it regularly, box it up and store it. If you store it for more than a year, consider throwing it a way.
• Learn to appropriately say "NO" to things that just stress you out
• Keep digital copies of things so you don't have papers stacking up on your work surfaces creating a mess.
• Live the "less is more" rule religiously.

Tip#5: Create Routines – It's easier to remember where your keys are when you always put them in the same place. Likewise, it's easier to remember to do anything at the appropriate time if you always to that thing at that same time. Simple habits of consistency can greatly improve your desire and ability to be organized. It also creates a perception of dependability to others.