Hi!
An article in a major American business magazine nominated personal organisation as the main reason that senior, top level super-executives are so successful.
The story admitted that while vision and energy were very important, the most vital of all the qualities needed by these men and women is that they all have their professional lives together and also have a life outside of work.
HOW???
For a start, they work in a clutter free environment. Everything in their office is in its right place. They prioritise and delegate.
They never waste time on trivialities. They use a strategy called LEVERAGING. This means that they reserve serious work for “prime times” when their energy level is at its peak. They work quickly and effectively.
Accomplish More in Less Time
You need to know how to maintain a tidy, organised working environment that will enable you to block out periods of the day when you are able to accomplish creative work without interruptions.
By using our weekly planner it is easy to plan to action your major objectives for the week for the business and your life as well.
These are times when you can be assured of being left alone in your own space to get things done… as long as you don’t let other people interrupt you. Often when they do, it’s because you’ve let it happen. You have to set the rules.
The problem in most cases is that people are unable to organise their office space (or anything else for that matter) and are surrounded by so much mess that they cannot put their hands on what they want when they want it.
The process of searching for needed files or other items often accounts for an extraordinary amount of vital time that could be better used to do productive work,
e.g. if you search 6 times per day for lost paperwork, you could be wasting a minimum of 30 minutes a day.
That’s unproductive time equivalent to:
10 hours per month, or 3 weeks per year.
If your time is worth $100 per hour, that’s costing you $12,000 a year!
Are You Losing Money and Don't Even Know It?
And how would you know how much time you waste?
Write down what you do with your time. You can design your own time sheet or use our weekly planner and record what you do as it occurs.
You may ‘think’ you are ‘busy’; well this will prove whether you are being effective or just wasting time.
You’ll find after analysing a minimum of one full week there will be areas you could have saved heaps of time by delegating, saying ‘no’ and taking your own time seriously.
The Lawyer
Sometime ago I was called in by a law firm that had a brilliant yet totally disorganised solicitor whom they wanted to organise.
This man was highly respected for his ability to grasp complex legal matters and reduce them to simple terms. He was also convinced that he did not have a problem.
One look at his office showed that he was in real trouble.
His desk was buried by a mountain of paper, there were stacks of files all over the floor and piles of reference books in all directions.
Through coaching he gradually whittled down the paper on his desk and at the bottom of the heap made an amazing discovery - a cheque from a client for $5,000 that had been there for months.
For you business owners reading this story, that would never happen to you in your business… or could it?
The Computer Maintenance Company
One of my clients who runs his own computer maintenance company admitted to me that prior to being coached, paperwork would often be lost amongst the clutter in his office. He would invoice clients much less than he should have because he couldn’t find the necessary information, particularly for parts he supplied.
Also his lack of systems and poor use of his time meant he didn’t invoice regularly and had major cash-flow issues.
Now that he has learned how to get himself organised, he’s now on top of his paperwork, his business and his life.
Clear the Clutter
Clearing the clutter helps to dissolve the procrastination that so many people experience in their work every day.
Of course you also need to motivate yourself to get started. That is a vital ingredient in the process of becoming a super-executive or business owner. The initial motivation is the desire to achieve and taking the necessary action.
Everything else is built on that. The object of the exercise is to get more done - faster. By MORE I mean more quality work. There is no point doing lots more work if most of it is meaningless.
The Final Word
The important thing about clearing the mess from your life is that it helps you to prioritise and then immediately put your hands on the files and reference works that can help you to get the job done fast and effectively.
Discover how organised you really are by filling in our free assessment. You’ll soon find out if you need to make changes. If you seriously want to profit from being organised, then take action now…because nothing changes if nothing changes!
Have a great week
Lorraine Pirihi
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About The Author
Lorraine Pirihi is Australia's Personal Productivity Specialist and Leading Life Coach. Her business The Office Organiser specialises in showing small business owners and managers, how to get organised at work so they can have a life! Lorraine is also a dynamic speaker and has produced many products including "How to Survive and Thrive at Work!"
To subscribe to her free ezine visit www.office-organiser.com.au
loraine@office-organiser.com.au
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This article was posted on August 19, 2005
