Disorganization can literally cost you your business, and even in some cases, your entire family.
The stress that disorganization can cause a person is enormous. Things are often not done on time, everyone is always late everywhere, and you probably never know where to start and aren’t even ready to start when it’s time to start.
All of this stress caused by disorganization can also affect your health. Its just not good on any front to live in chronic disorganization. If you consider yourself disorganized, here are seven reasons why.
1) You Don’t Have a System
If you’ve ever had a job that already had organization and systems in place, it is likely you managed to maintain that organization at least for that job. Everything had a place, and everything had a reason, and there was a set system to do what needed to be done. That’s what you have to set up for your business and your life if you want to be successful long term without stress.
2) You Don’t Have the Right Space
Trying to run a business without the space you need can be near impossible. It doesn’t mean you have to have an entire office. But at the very least you need a space where you can set up your computer in a comfortable manner and have a roll-away file cabinet to use for keeping all your work and important documents together. The right space can also include the space on your computer since many offices run paperless now.
3) You Lack Focus
If you don’t have something specific to focus on, you might find yourself doing a little of this, and a little of that, and never getting anything done. If you’re literally running in circles instead of focusing on each task at hand, you will end up feeling worn out but having nothing finished. Find a way to place your focus on each task until you have an end result. After all, thats the part that matters most.
4) You Have Too Much on Your Plate
Many people get disorganized due to the simple fact that they have too much to do. There are only so many hours in the day. If you find that you’re in this predicament then you need to get help. Find tasks you dislike doing and outsource them to people who like doing them, can likely do them better, and for less than what it costs you to do them yourself. Remember that your time has a value. If you can spend time on tasks that make more money and that you like, you should.
5) You Tend to Procrastinate
Many people claim that they work best under deadline at the last minute. You’ll hear all types of people saying that. But, it’s simply not true. They’ll never really know how well they could have done something had they given themselves time to do it right, so it’s really hard to say. If you tend to procrastinate you need to get to the bottom of why you’re putting things off to the last minute. Sometimes procrastination is a symptom of a whole other problem.
6) You Think Multitasking Is Good
One of the biggest misnomers of the last decade is the idea that multitasking is good or even something people can do well. The truth is, studies have proved many times over that multitasking doesn’t work. It pays off more to concentrate on one project or one task at a time (without concurrently checking email and allowing other interruptions!). Try it out and see how better you perform.
7) You Are a Poor Decision Maker
Many people who are disorganized are also poor decision makers. They spend far too long making a decision, and often they wait so long that the decision is made for them. So, they make what they think are easy and quick decisions to lay one more pile of paper on the desk because they cannot decide what file it belongs to, and likely don’t even have a file folder for it yet.
You can learn to be organized. If you haven’t tried before, pick one thing at a time to work on each month, make a plan for 30 days to follow, and then add to it the following month.
If you try very hard and still having trouble succeeding, there are coaches and counselors that can help you. Or simply get an accountability buddy and learn how to focus on one thing at a time. Odds are you’ll get much farther than you think.