Stop Trying To Get Organized
For years I obsessed over being organized. Then in 2006 I realized it was the wrong way to go about things. I will explain everything... and it will probably change the way you live:
Personal productivity has become all the rage, from Franklin Day Planners to Getting Things Done with David Allen... modern life is so fast paced and packed with opportunities, responsibilities, and choices.
Earlier today I found an article about a Professional Organizer and her client..
"...together they purged her office of unnecessary clutter, set up a system of file folders and discussed strategies that would allow Mohan to make decisions more quickly. Not only is Mohan's desk spotless, but her files are so organized she can delegate more work to her assistant. The cost of Hemphill's consultation: $5,000. "It was outrageously worth it," says Mohan.
$5,000! And yet still 'outrageously worth it'. See even high powered business folk with that kind of money to spend on getting organized are 1. incapable of knowing how to get organized without help and 2. are able to see the very real benefit of getting that help.
But maybe your pockets aren't as deep, or perhaps you prefer to do a few simple thingstake measures right now to get better organized before becoming so disorganized that your only course of action is to pay for professional organizer assistance.
So here is what I personally realized late in 2006. Getting organized is impossible! But even better than that is when I saw that getting organized is not even important.
What's really matters with regards organized living?. Forget about getting, being or staying organized. As soon as you make food in the kitchen, you've messed everything up.
But to live life we need to mess things up in order to get things done, which means we should only be as organized as is necessary for our life to be functional, satisfying, and fun.
What I re-discovered at the end of 2006, in a word, is efficiency. I found an old 1920s business course on efficiency published by the Emerson Institute of Efficiency. The concept of efficiency seems to have been lost until the rise of the latest Web 3.0 technologies in favor of getting organized'. And finally after almost 90 years, we have come to realize getting organized doesn't work.
And here's what economist Mark Zandi of Moody's Economy.com said which exposes the serious need for this re-discovery of efficiency as being way beyond 'organized':
"I just can't physically find another spare moment to do more, so I've reached the point where I need to ration what I do, or do what I do better".
The demands on his time exceed the time available in a day, despite his Blackbery, laptop and mobile phone.
I use the phrase organized living' a lot in my articles, only because the word organized' is still such a buzz word. But really it should be efficient living'.
Organized efficient' Living means being efficient enough to get done what you want to get done, find enough space to enjoy yourself, and let the rest go to hell, for you needn't sweat the small stuff, right?
Now going over to the extreme are some people taking advantage of the breakdown in normal 'get organized' philosophies like David Allen or Franklin Covey, and saying that chaos is the better way...
The mess-for-success advocates like Abrahamson and Freedman say that turning your life over to any "system" has a downside.
Well, what do you think about that? It doesn't stand to reason, it doesn't hold water...
Even Abrahamson, the advocate of messiness, knows that he couldn't get through his week without putting every appointment in his Outlook calendar, which he syncs to his handheld computer AND his wristwatch!
So I admit it sounds cool, that being messy and living via chaos is the solution to the get organized problem of our times, but...
Please make permanent note in your thinking that the true distinction I teach is Organized Living means more about being efficient than getting organized, because chaos really doesn't lead to success, and getting organized really is impossible.
So strike the balance of flexibly arranging your life and things important to you. So my friend, that is the goal of Organized Living.
Personal productivity has become all the rage, from Franklin Day Planners to Getting Things Done with David Allen... modern life is so fast paced and packed with opportunities, responsibilities, and choices.
Earlier today I found an article about a Professional Organizer and her client..
"...together they purged her office of unnecessary clutter, set up a system of file folders and discussed strategies that would allow Mohan to make decisions more quickly. Not only is Mohan's desk spotless, but her files are so organized she can delegate more work to her assistant. The cost of Hemphill's consultation: $5,000. "It was outrageously worth it," says Mohan.
$5,000! And yet still 'outrageously worth it'. See even high powered business folk with that kind of money to spend on getting organized are 1. incapable of knowing how to get organized without help and 2. are able to see the very real benefit of getting that help.
But maybe your pockets aren't as deep, or perhaps you prefer to do a few simple thingstake measures right now to get better organized before becoming so disorganized that your only course of action is to pay for professional organizer assistance.
So here is what I personally realized late in 2006. Getting organized is impossible! But even better than that is when I saw that getting organized is not even important.
What's really matters with regards organized living?. Forget about getting, being or staying organized. As soon as you make food in the kitchen, you've messed everything up.
But to live life we need to mess things up in order to get things done, which means we should only be as organized as is necessary for our life to be functional, satisfying, and fun.
What I re-discovered at the end of 2006, in a word, is efficiency. I found an old 1920s business course on efficiency published by the Emerson Institute of Efficiency. The concept of efficiency seems to have been lost until the rise of the latest Web 3.0 technologies in favor of getting organized'. And finally after almost 90 years, we have come to realize getting organized doesn't work.
And here's what economist Mark Zandi of Moody's Economy.com said which exposes the serious need for this re-discovery of efficiency as being way beyond 'organized':
"I just can't physically find another spare moment to do more, so I've reached the point where I need to ration what I do, or do what I do better".
The demands on his time exceed the time available in a day, despite his Blackbery, laptop and mobile phone.
I use the phrase organized living' a lot in my articles, only because the word organized' is still such a buzz word. But really it should be efficient living'.
Organized efficient' Living means being efficient enough to get done what you want to get done, find enough space to enjoy yourself, and let the rest go to hell, for you needn't sweat the small stuff, right?
Now going over to the extreme are some people taking advantage of the breakdown in normal 'get organized' philosophies like David Allen or Franklin Covey, and saying that chaos is the better way...
The mess-for-success advocates like Abrahamson and Freedman say that turning your life over to any "system" has a downside.
Well, what do you think about that? It doesn't stand to reason, it doesn't hold water...
Even Abrahamson, the advocate of messiness, knows that he couldn't get through his week without putting every appointment in his Outlook calendar, which he syncs to his handheld computer AND his wristwatch!
So I admit it sounds cool, that being messy and living via chaos is the solution to the get organized problem of our times, but...
Please make permanent note in your thinking that the true distinction I teach is Organized Living means more about being efficient than getting organized, because chaos really doesn't lead to success, and getting organized really is impossible.
So strike the balance of flexibly arranging your life and things important to you. So my friend, that is the goal of Organized Living.
Source...