It is another beautiful day here in Colorado Springs, not too hot, not too cold, and not too many clouds.
They say, “If you need something done, give it to somebody who’s busy.” What they are really saying is, “If you really want something done give it to someone organized.” The difference between organization and being unorganized is the difference between getting something done, and not knowing where you even put the request.
Please don’t look to me as the perfect person who is preaching to everyone else. Nine times out of 10 I fall into the latter part of the above difference. Not because I am a terrible person. I’m not blowing you off. I’m not acting passive aggressive. I just like to do a lot. Unfortunately, being organized is not one of those things I love to do, nor am I good at it.
I must’ve missed the lecture in school. The one that taught us to make everything else easy keep working at the hard things. Especially, if the hard stuff is organization. And yet, there is good news, you are never too old to learn new skills and ideas.
For years I told people who I worked with, to make sure they see me write down what they are asking me to do. I explained to them I had a mind like a steel trap. That poor thing was permanently rusted shut. And, I did write down the requests I was given. I found I needed one more solution to one more problem.
I would write down the requests that people gave me on anything I was carrying with me at the time. Anybody see the problem I was running into? Yeah, that’s right, I would have notes all over the place, and either not know where they belonged, or they were super cryptic because I was writing too fast. Okay, I needed an organized system.
My system came in the form of a small spiral notebook put out by Cambridge who is a subsidiary of Mead. It has pages lined on one side and graph paper on the other. I go through between five and six a year.
My system is to write down who is requesting, what they need, and when they need it by, any relevant notes and names of anyone else involved who I should work with. If these people are off-site, I need their phone numbers and/or email addresses.
Does this mean I never missed a deadline and never miss something I should be doing? No. It does give me a better chance to get whatever it is done in an efficient and timely manner.
Have a great day, and please feel free to ask questions at any time.
processimprovement.me 