Getting Organized

Is it possible to be effective in business without strong time management skills? Not from my experience. Becoming organized and productive has been a strong focus of mine in this past year. I have made huge strides considering where I started.

Now is a new phase though. I had been feeling completely overwhelmed these last couple of months with the amount of projects and tasks on my plate. I just did not know where to start, or what to focus on. I had no idea how I was going to possibly get it all done. It was like this massive overpowering feeling of helplessness. Not pleasant.

So I have had to regroup. This past week has been spent going back to the basics. I completely reorganized my bedroom/office. I got rid of every useless item I did not have some strong attachment to. I installed new shelves, cabinets, and a large desk. Everything now has its proper place. How neat my workspace is directly affects my mental state. If it's busy, and in disarray, so is my head. Clutter is the enemy. And no, I am not OCD :-) Quite the contrary.

Another thing I've done is write down all my projects. Every project has been broken down into all the individual tasks that will lead me to their completion. The more precise the tasks, the better. Each task is scheduled into my calendar in a reasonable way. You see, I have a tendency to schedule too much in each day. Then when I don't get it all done, I get upset with myself. So I am working on being more conservative or realistic in my planning.

Planning is the key. Plan the work, then work the plan as they say. By the way, in case you're wondering, I am using the Franklin Covey system to do all that. It's all integrated and highly effective. You can learn more about how it works here. They give you the option to go either the paper or the electronic route. I have been using a day planner for a year now. I just started with the electronic one this week though. It's called PlanPlus. They have a free 30 day trial, so I'm checking it out. I'll give you a review once I've got a good feel for it.