Oh My!
I think many of us associate something like The Power Of Now with ‘living for the moment‘ and not mithering about the past or fretting about the future.
But it recently dawned on me that much of my disorganisation is actually caused by me not following the Power Of Now – or doing stuff as it comes up.
Let me explain how this has been working, or not working, for me. I realised there are so many things which I don’t do when they should be done, which means I have to go back later and pick up from where I left off and sort it out. Or, the other thing that happens is I end up repeating a task simply because I didn’t do the admin at the time.
Here are a few examples:
Creating a new online account but not recording the new username, password, email address used, paypal account or any other associated admin stuff. Why doesn’t it get recorded?
The goal is wrong…If the end result, or goal is to get the account set up then there is a tendency to whiz on to get the thing set up and going, without including all the organisation as part of the job. If the end goal or task included not only the set up but the recording and administration to create a system to use the new tool efficiently, then we’re in with a chance of getting the job finished.
It could be because there is no designated place to record it. Or, where there is a special place like a notebook, it isn’t immediately to hand so the recording gets left until later. But what happens? Well I usually forget to record the details and then when I come to log on again I’ve forgotten the passwords and usernames I was convinced I would remember and on we go. If you have something to record or file away and you don’t immediately know where it goes – then it doesn’t have a home and you will never be able to recover the information easily. So create a home.
The Shove It In There And Sort It Out Later…How about all of those receipts and invoices which come into our handbags, pockets and inbox? Well often they stay where they landed or they get shoved into a box to be sorted out later – by which time it’s become a major job. But how about if at the end of the week we collected all of the receipts together and just popped them into an envelope labelled up for that month. It doesn’t take any longer than mashing them all down into a shoe box, but how much time has been saved not having to sort them out at the end of the year? I reckon about 4 hours at least. And don’t all those 4 hours mount up!!
I’ve put this post in the ‘How To Be Happy’ category because finally I realised how frustrating this disorganisation was becoming, and how it was affecting not only my productivity but my sense of well being.
How frustrating is it to waste 15 minutes trying to find a forgotten password?
Not as frustrating as doing it all again the next day!
What could be done if we reclaimed that 15 minutes back each day? Well for starters this blog post took me about 15 minutes to write and publish. What else could be done in those rogue 15 minute time slots we throw away on doing stuff twice.
- Make a call to a potential business partner
- Listen or read a chapter of a personal development book
- Have a sit down with a cup of tea and a biscuit and listen to a chapter of the afternoon play
- Chase an unpaid invoice.
And I’m sure you can think of some more enticing activities!
So what does this mean. In the slivers of time I spend hunting for passwords in places where they haven’t been written down and racking my sore brains for inspiration on what I could have used THIS TIME for – I could have grown my business, got some cash, improved my mind or just chilled out.
So the next time I create a new account, I’m going to get up and get the damn book where I record them all! Instead of shoving this weeks receipts into a box with all the little bits of paper I’ve collected over the year, I”m going to put them into the folder for December receipts. If you’re going to shoving something somewhere to fester until you need it then it might as well be easy to retrieve.
{ 0 comments }
