Organized Organization

Being Organized

We are constantly told that it is important to stay organized. Successful people are organized people. How could you be successful if you can't find a file on your computer or you don't know the time of an important meeting? And it makes sense. It makes sense that one needs to be able to easily navigate their schedule, their possessions, and the other parts of their life if they want to be efficient and get things done.

Disorganized organization

The problem is that staying organized can be hard. I think that the hardest part about staying organized is doing so in an organized fashion. Let me explain. I love to make lists. Lists keep me organized. Generally, I like to make lists when I have multiple ideas in my mind and I don't want to forget about any of them. So I write them down. The question is where do I write them? I often find myself writing notes in the most convenient place possible. When I'm on the move, that's probably my phone. When I'm at home working, it's probably my computer. When I'm in a lecture it's often a spare piece of paper. But this is not a good system! My efforts to stay organized, my lists, are not organized. They are in multiple places in multiple media.

Getting it organized

There are a number of changes that can be made to make this system more organized. One thing I'm doing to try and stay organized is avoiding making paper lists. It wastes paper, takes a while to write, and is difficult to transfer. If I do write something on paper, I try to move it to a virtual list as soon as possible. I don't like having a whole bunch of papers cluttering my desk.

The second thing I do to organize organization is to keep my lists in some sort of program that can sync between my phone, computer, and any other devices I use. This does not only apply to lists, but other organizational tools like calendars or spreadsheets. Recently, I've been using Google Keep for note keeping, since it is very easy to quickly check it whenever I'm using another Google service like Gmail.

Results

Keeping my notes and lists in one central place helps tremendously with my organization. I know where everything is and I do not have to worry about forgetting something because I wrote it down somewhere else. With my data stored in the cloud, I'm not concerned about it being deleted or misplaced and I can access it from anywhere with an internet connection. I can focus on getting things done instead of just trying to figure out what needs to be done.

It's important to find an organization style that works for you. You have to be able to stay organized in your attempts to be organized. Find a system, stick with it, and keep it updated regularly.