Strategies for the Unstructured, Creative Individual

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Five Organizing Strategies for the Unstructured, Creative Individual
By Evelyn Gray

Evelyn Gray is a productivity expert, AD/HD consultant and hoarding specialist. She helps HR managers solve this delicate and sensitive issue in the workplace. Her mantra is: If you can’t find it in 30 seconds, it’s in the wrong place.

Evelyn is also the author of Simple Organizing Strategies for the Unstructured, Creative Individual, along with co-author and fellow NAFE member June Davidson. Evelyn works with stressed-out professionals whose disorganization has affected the quality of their lives and their personal and business relationships. Her techniques can improve workplace performance up to 40% through behavior modification with her method called “Stop, Drop, and Roll.”

1. Where Does Chronic Disorganization Start?
Can a person be challenged by disorganization at work and not at home? The answer is yes. Once they get buried in an avalanche of paperwork, people stop making decisions and the clutter begins to pile higher and higher. Some people waste as much as two hours a day looking for things—whew!

2. What is AD/HD? (Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder)
AD/HD is a “neurological and developmental disorder, most often inherited, characterized by recurrent difficulties attending to tasks, and following them through to completion.” Through behavior modification, changing how someone with AD/HD thinks will lead to a more happy, successful, and fulfilling life. Then they can maximize their workplace strengths like creativity and inventiveness.

3. Managing Activities: Getting It All Done
Write down an important task on a piece of paper and post it in a visible place. Determine how long the task will take, and break it down into bite-size pieces to do each day. Organize at the time of day when your energy level is the highest. Retrieve and respond to e-mail/voice mails just twice a day: once in the morning and once in the afternoon, at the same time every day.

4. Run an Interruptions Log
No matter how well we plan our day, we get interruptions and distractions. Keep track with an Interruptions Log. Write down who or what interrupted you, the length of time you were interrupted, and a brief comment about what the interruption was. My general rule is to plan up to 50% of my day and leave the other 50% for interruptions and distractions.

5. The Psychology of Clutter
Why do we hang onto items of apparently no value? There are three reasons. (a) Grieving. When someone who is no longer in our life gives us something, we may cling onto things that remind us of them. (b) Being Thrifty. People often refuse to let go of something believing that the item will be useful someday, and don’t want to be wasteful in getting rid of it. (c) Denial. Holding onto our stuff can be a way of trying to hold onto what is over and can’t be reclaimed in our life.

Remember, if you can’t find it in 30 seconds, it’s in the wrong place!