This week, I challenge you to get organized!
Life in today’s hectic world can move so fast that sometimes you can feel like you are doing great just to get through the day without falling behind. But being organized is a fundamental skill that makes it easier to live, work and play successfully. You may feel that you don’t have time to get organized, but the truth is, you don’t have time not to get organized. It is costing you more than you may think in time, money and energy with issues such as:
. Procrastination
. Chronic lateness
. Missed opportunities
. Lack of productivity
. Redoing projects and assignments
. Paying more for flights, bills, and expedited services
What steps can you take to get more organized over the next week?
1. Take a break.
It is impossible to get organized when you refuse to take time out to evaluate where you are and make a decision about where you want to go and how you want to get there. Can you imagine if football games offered players and coaches no time outs, no half time and no breaks between quarters? They need that time to re-organize before getting back into the game. To be effective, you need regular time to evaluate and get organized before moving forward.
2. Decide what you want.
Don’t organize your life to support a vision that you don’t want. If your life isn’t producing the results you want, it is quite possible that you haven’t organized it to produce the results you want. Decide what you would like to see happen differently in your personal and professional life. Pray for the wisdom to know what is best for you, and the courage to embrace it.
3. Decide why you want it.
Even more important than deciding what you want is deciding the purpose behind your desires. If your vision is to lose 20 pounds, the purpose is not losing the weight. The purpose is the outcome – perhaps it’s more energy, a more attractive body, or simply feeling more confident about the state of your health. Knowing why you want something gives you a compelling reason to change your behavior, and sustains you when you don’t feel like pressing on.
4. Set up systems to make it easier to achieve the result. Identify what isn’t working well in your current lifestyle. Perhaps you’re frustrated because you never seem to have time to eat breakfast, or enjoy enough quality time with your children, or complete your new business development projects in a timely manner. Ask yourself, “What would make this easier for me to do?” Give yourself three minutes to brainstorm every idea that comes to mind – and if you need more ideas, ask someone else to brainstorm with you. Be open to learning from others – you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to find the best way to organize your life. Choose the top one to three changes and replace the system that is not working with one that will.
5. Implement your new system.
There is no need to organize a system for yourself if you are going to go back to doing things the way you did them before. If, for example, you decide to get up 30 minutes earlier so that you can make breakfast and sit down for 15 minutes to eat with your children, then take action and do it. Many people are stuck at the planning stages of their dreams, but dreams come alive through action. Ecclesiastes 5:3 says, “A dream comes through much activity, and a fool’s voice is known by his many words.”
Take action to get organized so that you can strengthen the foundation on which your dreams are built. Leave your comments below, I’d love to hear from you!
