Ann Rusnak has released ‘Focus on Success’ May 30 issue 21. Read Rusnak’s article titled “Tackling the Clutter Monster – Part 4”.


Ann Rusnak has released ‘Focus on Success’ May 30 issue 21.

Contents

The contents of the Newsletter are:

– Feature Article: Tackling the Clutter Monster Part 4

– Timely Snippets: The Sun is Still Shining

– Upcoming Events: Time Management TeleSeminar…
Help! I Need More Time Now

– Weekly Time Technique: Staying Organized

Article

Ann Rusnak’s article is reprinted here with permission.

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Tackling the Clutter Monster – Part 4

I hope you enjoyed this month’s theme on getting organized. Did you actually take action and began to turn your work area into a highly effective space? Today is the final installment of Tackling the Clutter Monster.

I don’t know about you, but in the past, keeping that space organized didn’t stay that way.

Make sure your organizing fits your needs and personality. Organizing around somebody else’s system may not work for you.

Stay flexible. Keep experimenting until you find what works for you. You can maintain it easier. Think about your organized space like a car. If you didn’t do routine maintenance on your car, like changing the oil, eventually it will quit running. It will cost you more to repair it.

Keys to staying organized begin with planning maintenance in advance and developing a routine. When you do your weekly planning, automatically block time to maintain your organized office. Set up rules you can keep.

Spending a little time every day staying organized can save you a lot of frustration in the long run. For instance, set aside the last 15 minutes of your business hours to put things away. Put the paper clips and pens in their place; file the day’s papers, etc. Clear off your desk. If you make it a habit to stay organized, you work more efficiently and spend less time finding misplaced information.

By staying ahead of the clutter, you can prepared better for what is coming up, and can be better prepared to handle situations that tend to pop up at the least convenient time.

At the end of every quarter, I go through files, papers, computer files and book marks and get rid of outdated information. A good indicator for me that it’s time to clean out the drawers is I’m running out of scrap paper.

I do the same thing at the end of the year. I set aside the last days between Christmas and New Years to wrap up the year and get ready for the next year.

All the methods mentioned in this series can apply to any area in your life. When your home is organized too, you feel better. When events and changes happen in your life, you may need to adjust your organized space to reflect those changes.

That’s what happened to my office. It worked fine until I added another work area. It didn’t take that long to get the work flow happening again. Now, two of us can work effectively without getting in each others’ way.

Don’t beat yourself up while you form this new habit. It’s natural to slip back. If you find yourself going back to chaos and clutter, evaluate what’s going on in your life. For me, it’s a major signal that I’m sabotaging my progress and success.

No one said you need to take on an organizing project yourself. I didn’t… I received a lot of help from my good friend and organizing specialist, Jane-Marie Sandberg. They don’t call her the Queen of Organization for nothing. If you don’t live in Canada, she can perform miracles with pictures and phone calls. Visit her site at http://www.queenoforganization.com.
Of course I welcome you to post your time management or organizing questions or comments about this series at http://www.simpletimemanagement.com/category/moretime/ . I’d love to hear about your organizing story.

(c)2006 Ann Rusnak

Ann Rusnak, “The Time Diva” developed a system to show busy self employed people and business owners how to achieve success with less effort and time. Receive her free Time Package and find more additional articles at: http://www.SimpleTimeManagement.com

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*IMNewswatch would like to thank Ann Rusnak for granting permission to reprint this article.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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