Blog

Everyone procrastinates sometimes.  It only becomes problematic when procrastination is the norm.  Reasons for procrastination include perfectionism, overwhelm, over-analysis, and lack of planning.  What can you do when you have a project that needs to get done?

Clear the Decks:

• Plan ahead and get your routine and critical tasks taken care of.
• Schedule time to work on your project.  Be sure you plan enough time to get a fair amount of the project work done. Starting and stopping is hard; it takes a lot of discipline and wastes a lot of time and energy.

Make a Plan:

• Write down the steps of the project on Post-its – one step per Post-it.
• Put the post-it’s in a logical order.
• You now have a plan.

Make it Fun:

• It’s ok to alternate fun parts with more tedious ones.
• You don’t have to start at the beginning either – if the first step is too hard or too boring, start on another part of the project.

Get Ready:

• Pull all related material together (start this a week or two early), when you sit down to work, you’ll have your materials at hand.

Get Set:

• When it’s time to get down to work, do what you can to minimize interruptions:
  • close out your email and Facebook
  • Forward your phone to voicemail
  • Clear the clutter off your desk
  • Close your office door.

Go:

• Jump in and do it:
  • Know that as hard as it is to start it’s worse if you don’t get the project done or miss your deadline.
  • Don’t worry about perfection, if you never get started, you’ll never get finished.

professional organizer (noun)

1. A Professional Organizer enhances the lives of clients by designing systems and processes using organizing principles and through transferring organizing skills. (source: National Association of Professional Organizers)

professional coach (noun)

1. A trained professional who partners with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. (source: International Coaching Federation)

Professional Organizers’ work is extraordinarily valuable to many different individuals in many different situations.  Learning new ways to manage space and time can have a dramatic impact on improving the quality of peoples’ lives.

Professional Organizers’ work encompasses many different situations.  Sometimes Organizers:

• teach techniques and develop better ways to do things
• provide supportive guidance and assistance to work through accumulations of papers, files, toys, clothing, memorabilia and family heirlooms
• share ideas about better ways to use and enjoy existing spaces

But sometimes the actual act of organizing isn’t enough.  For some people it is important to delve into the “whys”.  With an Organizer Coach those clients can spend time:

• gaining clarity around the long term vision for one’s situation and how disorganization impacts their quality of life
• understanding why it is that being organized is important
• anchoring the actions of becoming organized with their long term goals

The synergy of organizing and coaching can bring dramatic results.  Coupling the WHY with the HOW helps to ensure motivation and commitment that leads to the completion of an organizing project.

If you think the combination of organizing and coaching is something that you’d benefit from, I urge you to consider a Professional Organizer who is skilled and trained in both of these areas.

Many members of the Greater Philadelphia chapter of NAPO are trained and/or certified as a Coach.  As with organizing, differing emphasis are found throughout the coaching profession, but all coaches trained to International Coach Federation standards will have competencies in ensuring the client’s work is congruent with their needs, values, and situations.

Time Management has changed.  It is no longer about getting it all done, it’s about making smart choices about how to spend your time.  Time Management theorists have been discussing methods for identifying what to do next for years.  While in concept it would be great to have these options, all too often we spend our days putting out fires and doing what we have to do.  By setting priorities we make better choices about which tasks we spend our time on.  This results in fewer “fires,” greater satisfaction and better results.  Over the years I’ve found the following process helps my clients in clarifying priorities:

1. SET GOALS – this helps you to become clear on what is really important to you.  The process doesn’t need to take a long time.  I suggest to my clients that they create one action statement for each relevant life area such as family, business, self-care, community, leisure, etc.

2. MATCH TASKS TO GOALS – when making a decision about if you should do something or not, determine if doing the task will assist you in meeting your goals.  By thinking about the task in context to what is important to you/your goals, you will gain better insight and make better decisions.  You might also notice:

• that a task you’ve been doing a long time no longer serves you.
• that doing something because you think you “should” just isn’t a good enough reason anymore
• that you are spending time on things that don’t have the highest pay-back

3. CREATE A FILTER LIST – before you say yes to a task, a position, or an opportunity run it through a list you’ve created for yourself.  There are no standard questions that should be on your list – this is your list, you get to create it and you get to evaluate it.  What is important is that you are clear in determining what is important to you.  Here are some questions you may want to include:

• Will it help me to reach my goals?
• Will it help me grow my business?
• Will it help someone who is important to me?
• Will it give me joy?
• Will I have fun doing it?

4. BECOME OK ABOUT SAYING “NO” – not just to others, but also to yourself.  Giving up opportunities is hard, but never accomplishing anything important is harder.  If you want to be true to yourself, saying “NO” is an important part of the process.

The final step is determining just how much time, energy and effort you want to put into a task you’ve decided is important to do.  For this, we go to 80/20 rule or Pareto’s Principle – you get 80% of the results in 20% of the time.  To get 100% of the results takes 80% longer.  That means you can get it done fairly well in 1/5^th of the time.  For example I could write a really good blog post in an hour, or I could write a perfect blog post in 5 hours.  I need to decide which things need to be perfect and which things are sufficient when they are really good.  You can decide that too – that’s all part of setting priorities.  I hope my 80% effort has inspired you to make smarter decisions about how you spend your time.