I could begin this article by providing a checklist of organizing techniques for you to incorporate into your daily work routine. The goal would be to become and remain organized, improve your time management and reduce your stress while increasing your productivity. This checklist could include items such as managing incoming information, keeping the desktop free of clutter, creating a user-friendly filing system, etc. And I suspect there are many other organizing and time management consultants out there who could provide something similar. But I want to share a different type of list with you.

It's a list with a bigger picture. It’s got more to do with preparing yourself to move forward than with taking immediate ‘action steps’. In fact, it’s about the groundwork you need to lay in order to have the action steps work.

Reality check

Are you organized? Are you an effective time manager? Ask yourself. Then ask others. If you are a supervisor, you are a role model and your actions are studied by others. You might not have asked for this particular role, but your staff or team is watching and wondering how they can be just like you… or not anything like you. Same is true of your peers. How often do I hear, ‘If you think my desk is bad, let’s go for a walk and I’ll show you Ted’s.’ So take a reality check and be honest.

Skills check

Do you have the skills necessary to become organized? Contrary to popular belief, an organized person is not genetically pre-disposed to this condition. Getting organized is a learned skill. Some of us had great role models, some had poor role models and some had no role models. Some of us are organized in one area but not in another. Whatever your situation, there is plenty of information out there on ideas of how to improve your skills and plenty of help to guide and support you to success.

Emotional intelligence check

Daniel Goleman coined this phrase and spawned a revolution. Without emotional intelligence the rest seems somewhat moot. Ask yourself some tough questions about what you need to do to be more successful and less stressed. Chances are that getting organized and becoming a more effective manager of your time might crop up as areas of importance.

What will you do about it?

Copyright 2005 Cynthia Kyriazis. All rights reserved.

Cynthia Kyriazis is an organizing and time management consultant, trainer, speaker, coach and author with over 20 years management experience in multi-unit corporations. Organize it, a division of Productivity Partners, Inc. is an organizational training firm she founded in 1995 and has been serving Fortune 500 clients ever since. Cynthia works with business and their employees to help improve performance and realize productivity gains.

Cynthia has appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kansas City Star and the Legal Intelligencer. She currently serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), member of the National Speakers Association (NSA), member of the Kansas City of the International Society for Performance Improvement – (ISPI-KC) and consultant to the American Coaching Association.

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