What?

How many times have you started to get organized, but for some reason you abandoned the project before you finished the job? You had great intentions and got off to a great start, but the clutter and chaos eventually overwhelmed you and you gave up. This may have happened because you didn't understand the different phases of getting organized or you didn't complete the phases of getting organized in the proper order. Your approach to getting organized was disorganized.

So What?

One of the main reasons for getting organized is to get things in order and establish the habit of doing the right things in the right order. By approaching your organizing project with the same goals, you will increase your chances of success.

There are four distinct phases of getting organized:

Gathering (gather everything that needs to be considered or acted upon)

Filtering (get rid of unnecessary items or things that don't matter)

Prioritizing (determine the order of importance for your actions)

Doing (act on the items in priority order)

It is important to keep these phases separate and to do them in the proper order. For example, say you have too many things to do and too many things on your mind. Your natural reaction may be to speed up and work harder. A better approach is to slow down and get things under control by methodically going through the four-step process of gathering, filtering, prioritizing and doing.

If you want to get organized, it is also very important to avoid microfocusing during the four-step process. Microfocusing means getting lost in the details instead of focusing on the larger task. For example, instead of going through all the items in your in-box and applying the four-step process above, you stop and start working on the third item you encounter and stop looking at the remaining items. After finishing the third item, you return to the stack and discover the fifth item was more important than the third item. A rookie mistake in the organizing game!

Now What?

Learn to slow down when you feel like speeding up. Th

e typical response to anxiety is action…and action drives out thought. People who do not think about what they are doing usually lose sight of their objectives. In this situation, anxiety escalates and people often respond by redoubling their efforts. They are not getting anywhere, but they are getting there twice as fast. If you are under stress or out of control, it is counterintuitive to slow down and implement this four-step process. Like a race car driver coming in for a pit stop…you don't want to slow down. However, sooner or later even champion racers must stop and take care of critical issues like tires and gas if they want to finish the race. They must slow down when they feel like speeding up. Gathering, filtering and prioritizing are the equivalent of coming in for a pit stop.

Your approach to getting organized must be organized.

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