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“I’m hopelessly disorganized.
I’ve been this way forever; people at work shudder as they
walk past my little desk of horrors. From my parents to my husband,
they all confirm I’m disorganized. I guess this is who I
am.”
You’ve heard these self-limiting remarks made by people
you know, sometimes even from yourself, about yourself! “I’m
always late” or “I procrastinate my life away.”
We talk ourselves down as if we aren’t capable of being
on time or being productive, as if we have a permanent genetic
defect with no cure. We store up images of our “faulty”
behavior over the years, and live out what we’ve chosen
to believe about ourselves, a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The research on left and right brain functions are not new; we
know that each of us is wired a certain way from the factory.
If you use the left hemisphere of your brain predominantly, you
will tend to be organized, among other things. Does this mean
that if you are organized, forget about being creative? Or conversely,
if you tend to utilize the right brain hemisphere, does it mean
you will be artistic, but never organized enough to keep your
art supplies in order?
Perhaps this is on my mind because my daughter recently had an
assignment for her high school psychology class to give her family
a “test” to find out which brain hemisphere we favored.
We answered questions such as “Can you tell how much time
has passed without a watch?” and “Do you like to keep
papers out in piles where you can see them?” To take your
own test, visit www.web-us.com/brain/LRBrain.html.
I believe everyone can get better organized at home and work,
regardless of brain dominant tendencies, or the habit of putting
yourself down. There are no hopeless cases in organizing. Organization
is something that can be learned by doing. Following are time
tips adapted from Organizing for the Creative Person by Lehmkuhl
and Lamping:
Five minutes every hour
Turn a timer on for five minutes and clear one small part of a
desk or other surface that is cluttered. When five minutes is
up, reset the timer for 55 minutes to do your normal work. When
the 55 minute buzzer rings, set it for five minutes again to clear
more clutter. “Oh, how can she think I’ll get anything
done in five minutes?” If you try it for two weeks, I’d
love to hear about your results.
Budget your time
“I could go into the closet to clear it out and not be heard
from for days. Everyone at my house simply loses track of all
time.” If this is you, a good technique is to divide the
work into the time. For example, you have two hours to clean out
your desk with six drawers. You have 120 minutes, so that allows
20 minutes for each drawer. Some drawers will take more time and
others less, but the averages help establish boundaries. Think
of budgeting your time as you might budget money: large spells
of time for dollar-sized projects, and small periods of time for
dime-sized projects.
Do it now
This is a common practice of most organized people, but it needs
to be applied sparingly.
Do it now if:
• It finishes what you are working on right now
• It’s a 911-type emergency
• It can be done in two minutes or less
Note it now and schedule it later if:
• It will interrupt what you’re working on right now
• It’s not a 911-type emergency
Focus
Right brainers are very good at seeing the whole forest, and not
noticing the trees. This makes it difficult for them to divide
a job into manageable parts. In beginning to work on their desk,
they may not know where to start, randomly shuffling papers and
getting sidetracked by reading (not skimming) an article in the
pile. If you tend to have this approach, envision yourself wearing
blinders, so that you focus only on what’s in front of you,
or get a tube from a paper towel roll or gift wrap, viewing the
project through this narrow focus, and then working within that
focus. If you’re faced with an entire room of heavy clutter,
throw a Hula Hoop in the room and focus on clearing the clutter
inside the hoop. See, organizing can be fun!
So when you hear yourself saying, “I’m not good at
organizing”, purge the thought and ask yourself why not.
You can get better at anything you choose to focus your time and
effort on. The key to being better organized is you.
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