Organized in 10 Minutes? You Must Be Kidding!

Most people want to get organized. Some actually do. Time and again. But, before they know it, they are back where they started. That is hugely frustrating and de-motivating. That's why I tell my clients: "The goal is NOT to GET organized, but to learn HOW to STAY organized."

I agree that getting organized (in the first place) is not a 10 minutes job. Depending on your level of neglect, it may take hours, days and sometimes, even weeks. That's the bad news. The good news is, that once you made that investment, you will have had to make that investment only ONCE!

Part of the investment is to create a system and to learn some habit-forming processes, which will allow you to stay organized with minimal daily effort.

Once you made the initial investment, staying organized, will, most of the time, take only about 10 minutes a day. Sounds too good to be true? Let me explain. 

• Say, you receive new (paper) mail every day. Five? A dozen? Probably not much more. (Certainly not the kind of piles resting on your desk at the moment.)
  
  
• You must review them at specific times of your day. It's best to mark this time in your calendar as recurring entries. As you read the mail, decide what, if any ACTION they require. There is a long document? You can decide to read it. Later! That will be an action, too! So, in that light, shall we say, 3-5 minutes to decide on the disposition of your papers?
  
  
• In the process of getting organized, you created an effective filing SYSTEM. You file away what you need to keep for action or reference. Toss the rest. Another 2-3 minutes.
  
  
• Enter all the actions (that you decided on) into your CALENDAR or your Task/To-Do list. Enter the locations (and/or key words) for your documents in a Database (such as the PaperTiger ^TM). The latter will let you find any document in seconds. Another 2-5 minutes, tops.

Now, you have a clean desk. Your documents are resting in a place from where you can retrieve them at the click of a key word. Actions are noted in your calendar (or TASK PAD). Everything will be neatly out-of-sight, yet nothing will be forgotten.

Essentially, the same process is used to process email and voicemail messages. Yes, I know, that for many people the amount of email they deal with, will require more than 10 minutes a day. And so it should. But I suggest that that's part of your job and not part of the "staying organized" (read: clutter-free), which is what my 10 minutes refer to.

Not only is your desk (and hopefully your email in-box) clean, your mind is also at peace. You can focus on your business. You can leave the office on time. Arrive the next morning rested and ready to tackle your priorities.

So, is your day going to belong to the clutter around you or will it be a productive one?  

The choice is yours.