Johannesburg - When you think of disorganisation, an image might pop up of piles of dog-eared papers, wardrobes of scrambled clothes, a garage that looks like a junkyard. But you’d be surprised at how disorganised some seemingly “organised” people are.
Organisation doesn’t apply only to physical clutter. It also applies to what your e-mail inbox looks like. Do I detect a double click on “this is me”? Well, cheer up. You’re unlikely to be in the league of one of professional organiser Tracey Foulkes’s clients, who at last count had more than 19 500 e-mails in his inbox.
Foulkes is the chief executive of Get Organised, a team of professional organisers and business productivity specialists. She’s also the co-founder of the Professional Organiser Association Africa (POAA), which now has 40 members helping clients in the home and office space maximise their spaces so their practical lives are mapped much more clearly.
“Our industry is growing in South Africa. People are beginning to recognise that being organised is a valuable asset, that it saves time and money, improves relationships at home and at work. It allows you to ‘breathe’,” says Foulkes.
One of the myths of technology is that it enables us to be better organised, she says. “Technology just makes things faster, not necessarily better organised. You’d be amazed at how many personal assistants are disorganised, who in fact have built up time-consuming and ineffective systems that end up overwhelming them.
“Being organised is actually a skill, and one that few of us are taught in our formative years.”
Even in the technology age, paperwork is the biggest contributor to disorganised clutter in people’s lives. Foulkes says the situation has become chronic if paper piles cover most surfaces, so there’s no clear working area, and if cabinets, drawers or bookcases are overflowing.
At home, unopened envelopes and piles of invoices and statements may reside in boxes or on available surfaces, or the children’s school notices lie around in the kitchen or the bedroom.
This is often due to the lack of an efficient filing system, but a bigger problem is procrastination, which most of us are prone to, at least now and then.
“Some of the telltale signs that you’re procrastinating are when your to-do list is growing longer and you start feeling overwhelmed, the niggle in your tummy is growing into a giant knot, you’re spending way too much time on Twitter, Facebook, and other menial or unimportant tasks, avoiding the high-value, high-return actions and you start feeling panicky,” says Foulkes.
The trick to beating procrastination, says Foulkes, is to prioritise a list of things to do, but stick to only two at a time. “In deciding on the priorities, ask yourself, ‘What’s critical?’ These are your high-value, high-return tasks and are all you should be focusing on right now. Choose one, or a maximum of two things from your list to tackle today. It’s a start.”
Then set a time for each.
“Keeping to the clock keeps you focused and minimises the procrastination,” says Foulkes.
If you haven’t got around to tackling your accounts and tax return, say, you may need to set aside a day to do it, but low-priority tasks, such as clearing out the desk or side-table drawers, should not take more than 10 or 20 minutes.
Women are well known for trying to tackle everything, but Foulkes says one of the best tricks in being organised is asking for help and, in the home, delegating duties to the children.
“Asking for help is not an indication of failure. It allows someone to gift you with their time, resources and/or expertise,” she says.
Isabelle de Grandpre, the president of the POAA and owner of Neat Freak, says we live in an acquisitive society, so we accumulate a lot of things, but getting rid of stuff is not so easy.
She runs a poll on her website asking why people are untidy and cluttered.
“Twenty-eight percent say they just can’t focus long enough to tidy up. The other reasons are people feel guilty about getting rid of things, or they’re emotional about their things, or they feel overwhelmed,” she says.
Holding on to something that reminded you of a loved one is fine, she says, unless there are mounds of things that affect how you can live your life.
“Keep these items, but in moderation and in proportion to the space available,” she suggests.
As for feeling guilty about getting rid of things for which you paid good money, there are plenty of people who live below the poverty line and what may be second-hand for you, is gold for another, so this might ease your guilt, she says.
“And we should be more frugal when buying new things, considering whether we need them,” she says.
Organising garages and home spaces is De Grandpre’s speciality, and she has a list of products, such as shelving, that she sells along with her organising service. The garage or spare room is where the debris of moving house is to be found, in boxes that are not unpacked.
“When people move home, they’ll take it all with them. I’ve tackled garages so packed with boxes there’s no space to park the car,” she says.
“Often what happens is the client doesn’t want to deal with the junk, so they just box it up and move with it.
“The rule of thumb is, don’t move with the junk. You have to be ruthless. Throw out any old papers, cheque books, accounts, receipts, magazines, books and other items you haven’t clapped eyes on in ages, because in reality, 80 percent of the paper you save ‘just in case’ is never needed again.”
De Grandpre says that when you’ve arrived at your new home, boxes should be unpacked as quickly as possible.
“This is where friends and family come in handy. If one of your friends is an ace in the kitchen, chances are they’ll do a superb job in that space,” she says.
One of the most unfortunate fallouts of being disorganised is broken bridges between you and your children.
You may not be able to keep up with all your child’s events, so he keeps getting into trouble, or your child feels she can’t rely on you to be on time, or your child is embarrassed by the state of your home so he doesn’t invite friends over.
“If your lack of time management has made your children angry, discuss how they can help you get back on track. Maybe they have ideas you haven’t thought of yet,” suggests De Grandpre.
Although it’s a good idea to ask for help, you need to be committed to chipping away at the mountain yourself. Which means going back to step one: make a priority list, then step two: get going with it.
Tips for getting organised
* Before you start organising a space, get rid of things that you don’t need or that don’t add value to your life. Don’t waste energy organising items that shouldn’t even be there.
* Look at why you are disorganised to begin with. Do people sharing your space think they can dump things everywhere?
* Getting organised means creating systems and keeping them going. This is more than just tidying up a space.
* Label as much as you can. It takes the guesswork out of where things should go. This is especially helpful when you delegate to someone else.
* Don’t put things down – put them away.
* Create a routine for day-to-day tasks. For example, household admin is done every Monday morning.
* If you are a list maker, don’t have loads of lists running at the same time. Consolidate your lists to avoid duplications, double-bookings and confusion.
* If you work with a lot of paperwork, try to keep it off your desk. Handy products are a wall-mounted document organiser and a wall-mounted pen organiser. Pre-sort your paperwork into categories. File paperwork in a way that makes the most sense to you, such as filing bills by month.
* Become more creative when purchasing furniture and fittings. For example, if you’re buying a coffee table, get one with a shelf beneath it to accommodate magazines.
* Your ability to get and stay organised is directly related to your inability to make decisions, so become more decisive and STOP PROCRASTINATING. Source: Isabelle de Grandpre
Tips to manage your e-mail inbox
* Create folders: Folders allow you to separate and manage the important issues first. Practise working out of folders instead of directly out of your inbox.
* Create sub-folders: Sub-folders keep your folders manageable. So for example, in a client folder you might have the following sub-folders: admin, passwords and access, work versions, revisions, legal and contracts, finance.
* Set up folder rules: To ensure that your inbox really does not distract you, keep it empty from the outset by setting up rules that place your e-mails into the correct folders as soon as they arrive into your inbox. - Source: Tracey Foulkes
Your iphone apps
* If you own an iPhone running on iOS 4.0 or later, you can create app folders to store and categorise over 2000 apps.
* Press and hold on an app until the app icon starts to jiggle as if you were going to rearrange your apps.
* Drag one app on top of another and you’ll have created a new folder containing both apps. You can stick with the default name or rename as you wish.
* Keep dragging and dropping additional app icons into this and new folders.
* An iPhone can hold 12 apps in each folder; you can have 16 folders on the screen; you can have as many as 11 screens.
* Manage your apps similarly on your iPad. - Source: Tracey Foulkes
Your wardrobe
* Working shelf by shelf, take out each item and decide if you need it, use it or love it. If not, put it into a box for a local charity store or garage sale.
* Use shelf dividers, plastic boxes, shoe bags and scarf hangers to make sure items stay separated into their categories and don’t end up back in a jumbled mess. - Source: Tracey Foulkes
CONTACTS
* For more information on the Professional Organiser Association Africa (POAA), visit www.poaa.co.za or e-mail [email protected]
* Get Organised – www.getorganised.co.za
* Neat Freak – www.neatfreak.co.za