Since the beginning of the year we have looked at 10 of the top Productivity & Organizing Myths. They have been collected, examined, and refuted so that you can recognize when your thinking or actions are moving into they mythical. Myths seldom serve you. Realizing you’re operating in the mindset of a myth can help you to change course to reality where results really come to the front and center.
Our top 10 myths are:
- #1 – Some People are Born Organized
- #2 – One Can’t stop influx of email and paper mail
- #3 – I don’t have time to prioritize
- #4 – Only Handle it Once
- #5 – The right planner (tool) is all you need
- #6 – I can find anything in my piles.
- #7 – A person’s office or home can get decluttered and organized in hours or weekend (or 30 minute t.v. show)
- #8 – Getting Organized Takes Too Long
- #9 – We need a lot of stuff!
- #10 – We need to be at all those meetings!
Myths are sometime easy to agree with and sometime easy to embrace. They have a bit of reason so we say they have a ring of truth for a short time or a while. As a result we end up buying into non-productive thinking. And that can get us stuck. It can get us stuck with a distracting and cluttered office, calendar, and life. It can get us in habits that mess us up and have detrimental consequences on our careers by being late and missing deadlines. Acting according to these myths can stress us out and wreck our health.
Operating according to some of these myths can make us feel popular, needed, and integral to a department or project or company. When our presence seems considered necessary at meetings we have a value that comes from no where else. It’s powerful to hear, “We couldn’t have done it without you.” And, we’re just not that important. If something would happen that prohibits you from contributing, the department, project, and company would have to carry on. They’d have to figure out what you were doing and how to get that done without you because the organization needs to carry on as it did before you got there. You might be replaced. You can be replaced. So, keep perspective.
Reality: the anti-myths#1 – Being organized is a set of skills.#2 – There are many ways to stop paperwork and emails from flowing at you.#3 – I don’t have time to stay unpriortized.#4 – Handle things the minimum number of times but as many as it takes to stay productive.#5 – Standard operating procedures are the heart of productivity and using a tool well.#6 – It usually takes a long time to find things in your piles – that’s wasted time & stress.#7 & 8 – Getting organized takes time. A little time invested every day yields huge returns.#9 – We can get along quite well with fairly little stuff.#10 – We can find alternatives to being at a string of meetings every day.
Operate according the anti-myths and see your life become easier, streamlined, and yielding worthwhile results at work and home.
Susan Sabo is an intrepid traveler who has organized her life to be out of the country for months at a time. She’s visited South & Central America, Europe, Asia, ‘Down Under” and traveled across North America. Susan writes at www.productivitycafe.com, consults with professionals on improving their personal productivity and presents motivating productivity programs & tips to groups. The most popular presentation topic today is, How to Get Ready for the Busy Season.
Not sure how I feel about myth no. 1. Granted, nobody is “born organized.” But I think some of us are more talented at organizing, and learn it easily, while some of us are handicapped in that area.
As an adult with ADD, I’ve spent my entire life trying get organized and say organized, and eventually failing at each attempt. I’d look at other people and wonder why they could do it and I couldn’t .
Once I got diagnosed, I realized that my brain works differently, processes differently, than most. Now I know that my problem is less about getting organized than staying organized. I can adopt a new system, but the moment it becomes routine it slides off my radar. So, if I’m going to stay organized, I have to change it up every three months or so. And even then, I’m not going to be “organized” by most people’s standards. (Yes, I do know what’s in my piles.)
The sports analogy is interesting. But you have to keep in mind, sports may be part skill but it’s also part talent and innate characteristics like height or hand-eye coordination, etc. The mechanics of the game, the rules, etc. can be learned by anyone, but it’s not going to get everyone into the NBA, because part of it is what you learn but part of it is what you’re born with.
This addresses a critical and growing topic.
Our society needs to be more aware of how organizing our space and time can actually lead to being more productive, living under less stress, and doing more of what we enjoy.
Technology is accelerating at a dizzying pace, and demands on productivity are now greater than ever. Having organizing systems in place which are efficient and easy to maintain is essential to long term stability.
Its easier than most of us think!
[...] read more | digg story Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]