By Linda Chu

Being disorganized is tough. It’s stressful. Maybe your home or office is full of clutter. Or the electronic clutter that fills your email inbox seems unmanageable. You get interrupted. You miss appointments. You don’t accomplish your goals. So how do you get organized?

Perhaps you recognize some of these challenges in your own home or work setting? Eight out of 10 Canadians classify themselves as disorganized, according to a Leger poll for Professional Organizers in Canada. Among this group:

• 91% feel that disorganization negatively impacts their lives.
• 70% who work say their workplace is disorganized.
• 43% report feeling stressed
• 39% feel frustration

Here are some solutions for becoming more organized and productive:

Time Management and Prioritization
Use a calendar and a single checklist to focus on what matters most at any given moment. Know what your high priority tasks are and make sure you schedule time for them or they won’t get done.

Be Clear On Your Vision and Goals
Figure out what you want to achieve in your organization, business, work, personal life.

• Do you know what your company vision is?
• What are the goals you need to accomplish to meet this vision?
• What are your short-term and long-term goals?
• How does your personal goals fit into your day?

Paper Information Management
Take an inventory of every item in your office and understand how you access each item. Next, purge the documents that are no longer required by business need or regulation and organize them according to a consistent process. Divide your paper files into active information requiring action, reference materials not requiring immediate action and archival materials. Make the high-priority files easily accessible, move reference materials away from your immediate work space and consider storing other materials offsite.

Managing Email
Process your email in batches. Schedule dedicated time to process emails. Turning off your email notifications will also help reduce your interruptions.

Work-Life Balance
Take back your time, starting 15 minutes per day. Ask for assistance. Consider leveraging your routine administrative tasks to an assistant (virtual or otherwise). Also, do not make yourself available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is up to you to educate your clients and colleagues. And turn off your cell phone and email after hours. If you respect your time, others will as well.

Use the ‘Decide in Five’ Model of Decision Making
Apply the following decision making model for correspondence.

• Delete: Delete messages that are not required, like junk mail inside an envelope. This includes opening an email, reading it and leaving it.
• Do (in two minutes or less): If you can complete a task in two minutes or less, then complete the task (like Nike says: Just Do It).
• Delegate: Even if you may be ultimately responsible for this task, you may be able to delegate a portion of it.  You can still manage the results, without having to do every task.
• Document (in your reference library): We often receive emails with information attached – no action required. Save the attachment in your hard drive or network drive.  You email inbox is meant to receive correspondence, not act as a storage vehicle.
• Defer: If you can’t Delete it, Delegate it, Do it in less than two minutes, or Document it. Then you can defer this action to your to-do list so you can prioritize your tasks.

Tech Savvy Organizing
Outlook Tasks is an electronic to-do list that can be used to manage all your to-do actions. It also has the ability to defer your emails by creating an action-to-do item on your Task List and giving it a date priority.

Just Say No. Then Say Yes
Saying “no” to one thing means you are saying “yes” to something else. If you have already made a list of your priorities, you’ll feel better about turning down tasks (or requests) since you’re working towards your goals in an organized way.

Linda Chu is presenting The Fundamentals of Time Management as a webinar on February 19, 2011. For more information on this and other professional development opportunities, please refer to BC HRMA’s online calendar.

Linda Chu is an organizing consultant and the past president for Professional Organizers in Canada. She is the founder of Out of Chaos, working with clients in the municipal, corporate, and residential areas. www.outofchaos.ca