Help for Disorganized People

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm not the world's most organized person.  (Someone recently suggested I might truly have ADD.  Who knows?  But hey, maybe I can use that as an excuse, right?)

My super-organized (and extremely patient) husband has taught me a thing or two about how to keep things organized.  I'm sure I would be 10 times worse without his help.

So for the next few weeks, I'll be running a series on Time Management and Organization for the Disorganized Procrastinator.  I'll be sharing some of the things I have learned from my husband as well as personal obstacles that I have overcome.

Ready for part 1?  Let's dig in…

Do you have piles of paper surrounding your desk? Do you have boxes of paperwork to go through in the attic, inside closets, or in the corner of your office that need to be organized? Are your computer files a disorganized jumble of text files and Word documents full of ideas that you will never find again? Do you have many plans and ideas that you just never get to? Does the idea of getting organized make you uncomfortable and a little bit nervous? If so, then this guide is for you!

Week One:

Identifying Your Organizing Style

The first thing you need to do is figure out your organizational style. Even as a disorganized person you have an organizational style. Trust me. Knowing your own personal organizational style will help you avoid choosing methods that won't work for you.

• Neat Nelly — She puts everything away out of sight; however, the term neat can be questioned. She feels neat because it's all out of sight and out of mind.
• Piles Polly — She puts everything out where everyone can see it, usually in piles all over the place. She cannot find anything when she needs it.
• Basket Betty — She puts everything into baskets so that they look neat and out of sight, but they are anything but neat (and maybe not even out of sight).

Understanding your organizational style will help you move forward with creating a system of organization that works for you. Working with your personality, instead of against it, will make becoming more organized a lot simpler. So, it doesn't matter whether or not you pile everything up, stuff everything out of sight, or have lots of baskets and bins with all your work in them. You can work with your natural inclinations to create a plan and develop a system that works for you.

If you're still not sure about your organizational style, think for a moment about what you do when you receive a monthly bill. Do you throw it on a “bill pile”, file it away, or throw it in a basket (or drawer)? Some people just prefer to be able to see everything because they're afraid they'll forget something. Other people feel more accomplished if it's all out of sight (and out of mind), while others do a mixture of the two. Which one are you?

Week one challenge:  Identify your organizational style and tell me in the comments.

(If you're the organized type, none of us naturally disorganized people will mind a bit if you chime in with your helpful suggestions during this series!)