What Is Your Organizational Style?

Everyone is different.  Everyone has their own unique styles, quirks, and personalities that make us different.  Some people are outgoing, some are quiet and shy…some are funny and others not so much.  Because of this, what works for some won’t work for others.  This is why one style of organization won’t work for everyone.  Everyone can’t and won’t get organized and stay organized in the same way.

Before you embark on any organizational project you really  need to figure out what your organizational style is first. A great place to look to get a idea about your organizational style is your calendar.  How do you keep and maintain your calendar?

• Are you driven by details to the point of color coding each family member’s schedule for the entire year? If so, you are a detail-driven organized person.

• Perhaps it works better for you to take a couple of extra seconds and figure out who has to be where instead of getting lost in color coding stress.  If this is you, I’d say you are a generally thorough organized person.

• Someone who typically manages to get to appointments on time but doesn’t spend much time consulting their calendar, would be generally organized.

• Someone who misses appointments altogether because they can’t even find their calendar would be truly unorganized.

Each of these organizational styles will work for people except for the last one.  An important thing to understand is that getting organized is a process – not a result.  The result of being organized should bring you and your family less stress – not more.  You should see an increase in productivity as a result of having your home and life organized.  The whole idea is to organize to the point where you are improving your life.  If organizational efforts are causing increased stress and pressure then reassess your efforts.  The goal is to get organized and stay organized in a way that works for your family.  Figure out what is comfortable for you.

The bottom line?  The goal of organization is to decrease stress and increase productivity with less effort.  Figure out what the highest level of organization is for you and your family that does not create additional stress.

This is the first post in a new organization series where I will share my thoughts and experience about organization in general and more specifically what has worked for me as I’ve refined my organizational system over the years.

Technorati Tags: organizational project, organizational style, organize, organized