Organizationally Challenged: A Love Story (part 2)

… so there I was, hopelessly in love with Organization, longing for the pitter patter of Productivity.

And yet, I didn’t seem to be able to have a meaningful relationship with either concept. I needed help. I couldn’t afford the fancy corporate productivity experts that seemed to exist at the time - and besides, I figured they’d look at me like I was crazy (because I was), so I did the next best thing.

I pleaded, whined, cried and begged the most productive and successful people I knew to help me.

Amazingly, they did help me.

One after another, they tucked me under their organizational wings like just another of their projects, and went about teaching me basic productivity skills. I’d have to pay them an hourly consulting fee as a Life Coach these days, but they just approached it as helping a friend (or maybe they saw it as community service, teaching the organizationally disabled).

Here’s a little bit of what I learned from hanging out with them:

• Figuring out priorities isn’t important. If it all gets done, the order in which its done doesn’t matter much, does it? Really important things are rarely forgotten, and if something *does* slip my mind, it probably isn’t really that important in the scheme of things.
• Doing things is more important than organizing doing things. The coolest organizational system in the world won’t help you clean the house if you don’t put down the index cards and plug in the vacuum.
  
• Organized doesn’t mean rigid. Organizational systems should develop and flow naturally. Don’t try to force your life into a someone else’s idea of what is “organized”… for example, if you don’t have a lot of appointments, and your day consists almost entirely of flextime, the appointment pages in a Daytimer aren’t for you.
• There is no right or wrong way to organize your life. If it makes you productive, if it works, and allows you to work with those around you, then it’s right.
• Simpler is better. Complex systems with lots of bells and whistles and timers and goal setting affirmations and inspirational photos are incredibly cool. Personally, I love them. I love playing with them. But if they complicate my life, rather than simplify it.. the coolness isnt worth it. So whip out Occam’s Razor, shave it down, and keep it simple.
• You almost always accomplish more than you think, even on a bad day. When assessing your days work, take note what you did do, rather than what you didn’t do… not just items that were on your todo list, but the other things, the things that never made it onto the to-do list. Write it down. It’s important to feel successful, and pretty soon, your progress assessments and lists will make you feel good, rather than anxious.
• Big projects take a lot of small steps. Sometimes very small steps. The steps don’t have to be planned, just taken. Sometimes, a step might just be “thinking” about something for an hour. Don’t forget to take note of each small step you make… each one is an accomplishment. Yay for accomplishments.
  
• Make sure your system includes non-productive, fun things and downtime. Watch a movie. Play with the dog. Surf the web for info on some oddness that catches your fancy. Go outside and watch the grass grow. Treat these things with as much importance as paying bills or meeting with your biggest client, because they are that important. Schedule them, put them on your to-do list, or whatever you have to do.. just make sure you do them!
• Some things are not going to get done. Ever. And that’s ok. Really.

I can’t say that my relationship with Organization is a complete success story, yet… I still buy way too many index cards and post-it notes, I still investigate way too much organizational software… but Organization and I are once again sharing the same office, if not sleeping in the same bed…. and I would have sworn I heard the pitter patter of productive projects tiptoeing around the house last night.

In case you missed it, here’s Part 1