Confessions of An Organizer: My Organizational Challenges.

I think of being organized much like yoga or Pilates.  It takes practice and consistent effort, realizing that you won’t bend exactly the same way as your gym mate.  Your muscles have to learn how to move and get stronger to support how you twist and turn to achieve your goals.

Just because I’m an organizer doesn’t mean that I don’t have organizational goals and challenges, it means quite the opposite. I realize that no one is perfect (and the ones who have their life all labeled and color-coded make my left eye twitch uncontrollably). But it takes practice, consistent effort and making room for the situations that life brings our way.

I recognize my organizational limits and boundaries. I also know at what level of organization I feel comfortable. I create daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals that stretch my limits and boundaries. Sometimes it's not fun testing your own comfort levels. One day I may reach the all-labeled and color-coded status (sorry in advance for making your eye twitch) but for now I’m mostly labeled and not really color-coded. And for now, things are organized and uncluttered enough for me.

I can find what I need 90% of the time.  The other 10% I call sparkle. Sparkle is like when you get lost going somewhere but you find a wonderful frozen yogurt place that you didn't know was there but if you hadn't gotten lost you would have never known.  You can’t control everything, and for what you can’t control you can let go and let it flow.  Call it sparkle.

This picture was a sparkle moment:

I was supposed to be meeting a woman I met on OfferUp (similar to Craigslist) at the National Harbor who wanted to buy my hair dryer.  She was a no show but the sun was setting and we decided to get out of the car and take pictures.  I snagged this shot.  I would have never gotten it unless this lady didn’t meet me.  I decided to make the best of what could have been a total waste of time and gas. See, sparkle. :)

Anyway, I digress.

So you know my thought process around being organized and you realize that I’m still working on things myself.  Like: I will be paperless by 2015!

But this year I did pretty well in reaching my own organizational goals.  In fact, I did so well that one day I sat on the couch and I went through my brain for something I had to get done and I couldn't think of anything.  My receipts had been filed, my check register was caught up, there was a known tiny pile of paper I wanted to scan but it wasn't imperative.  Then the anxiety set in.  I have be forgetting something.  Something important. I ALWAYS have crap to catch up on.  Always.  That feeling of rushing around, being over-obligated, and time crunched and never having enough time in the day set it.

Could I actually sit here and read a book without a small voice telling me I wasn't being productive enough and I really should be {fill in the blank}?  Alas! The moment had come where I reaped the benefits of an important goal for 2014, that of saying NO to obligations that didn't serve what’s truly important to my life and over all goals and saying yes to all the things that are. Perhaps in that moment I had to acknowledge that all the practice and consistent effort paid off.  Then the anxiety slowly melted away and I enjoyed a few minutes on the sofa.

Recently I re-read/listened to the book The Gifts of Imperfection.  I think so far it’s one of the books I will re-read every so often to remind myself that the reason I get and attempt to stay organized isn't to impress my friends or family.  It isn't to allay the fear that one day my clients will knock on my door and demand to see the state of MY desk at any given moment.  But I realized organization in my life is to support my life and my business.  Sometimes my life gets hectic but when I put the most important things first, that’s all that matters.  I feel better about my day when I have my priorities in order. Filing can wait if it means there is a heart-to-heart to be had with my husband, the pile of business cards from a recent networking event can be done another day if it means I need to cook my family a healthy dinner, and although I agree that owning your own business takes sacrifice and some sleepless nights, I also believe that I can’t stay at 110% if I don’t get a good night’s rest on a regular basis. Exercise…let’s not forget about that (even though I had for almost 4 months).

Organization should support your life and goals, not take away from them.

Here’s my tips on getting to a point in your organizational practice that leaves you feeling supported:

1.  Ask YOURSELF: How organized do I want to be? Does my current way of doing things leave me feeling chaotic and uneasy?  Or do I feel I need to emulate someone in my life that seems to have it together all the time? If you answered yes to the latter question.  It’s time to dig deep as Breneé Brown would say. Be realistic.  You may realize that perfection for you may not look like a magazine cover or a Pinterest page.
2.  Create a plan of action to get as organized as you need to be.
3. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Sometimes if we create or regurgitate too many rules like “I can only touch a piece of paper once.” Or “I have to reach out to these people I met at a networking event within two business days.” Then we might find it paralyzing to ever move forward.  If you have to touch a piece of paper a second time to make a decision on it then DO IT. It surely isn't going to file, shred, or recycle itself sitting on your desk just because you already touched it.  And (my business consultant would probably disagree with me on this one) but if I waited a week and two days later to reach out to someone I met at a networking event, it surely beats the heck of me not doing it at all because I missed the two business day deadline. A little action gets more results then a lot of intention. Here's a Tweet: "A little action gets more results then a lot of intention"
4. Realize your weak spots. There are some things I’m not good at, and no matter how much I WANT to do them, I can’t either because of lack of desire, ability, or time.  I had to let go of my bookkeeping and a few other tasks that were simply holding me back from moving forward.  Figure out what you’re not good at and see if there is someone you can delegate to.  Stop being cheap.  There are tons of services that provide assistance from grocery shopping (Peapod), to cleaning (Homejoy & TaskRabbit) that are effective and affordable. Your return on investment will be tremendous. You can spend time making follow up calls, instead of reconciling your bank statement.
5. Get some accountability. A lot of our clients hire Dexterous Organizing 20% for the fabulous suggestions we give on creating organizing systems and how to store things but 80% for the accountability of actually doing it. Making decisions on what to keep and what not to keep and actually taking the not keep items away, and not going to watch Netflix instead of finishing an organizing project helps get it done and also help you see that it’s usually not as bad as it feels.

Getting organized is a journey. Don’t expect it to happen overnight, get some help if need be, take consistent action and then relax and enjoy a guilt-free moment on the couch when it all comes together.

Want to use this blog post in blog or other content? No problem, just let us know and use the below statement verbatim:

Andrea Hancock is a professional organizer, blogger, and speaker that assists and empowers busy professionals and business owners to create and maintain organizational systems that work for them personally.  Andrea is also Founder of Dexterous Organizing, a results-oriented professional organizing company.  To receive free productivity and organizing tools, or to venture into a more organized home, office, and life, click "I'm ready to get started!" at www.DexterousOrganizing.com or by phone at (703) 606-8968.