3 Tips To Out Perform Yourself
Here are 3 tips that you can use to out perform yourself in the things that you have been doing. One of the main things that you can do is to organize. When you organize, you are also simplifying your “Stuff”, such as paperwork, tools, kitchen utensils, etc.
Whatever you have that seems to look like clutter, should be organized. Don’t forget to get out that trash can when you organize. It is almost a certainty that when you go through things that you will find plenty to toss into that trash container.
So far I have been referring to those things that are in your home, office, or other workplace offline. What about all of those thousands of files on your computer? And. . . how about those hundreds of bookmarks that you have punched into your computer’s memory banks that you will never in a million years remember why you have them bookmarked in the first place?
These are just a few examples of the many things in your life that can get completely out of control if you let things go too far, for too long.
We all seem to have varying levels of organization. Some people are organize fanatics. I have written about a cousin who has his screwdrivers organized in his toolbox by direction. Flathead screwdrivers facing one way, and the phillips head screwdrivers facing the other. Everything is also “Ultra-Clean”, but that is another subject.
For you getting organized may just be very natural. You may be one of the few who finds organizing things easy and necessary. Or, you may be one of the many who are not so organized, or not organized at all. If you are like most people, you likely fall someplace in-between. No matter where you are at in the scheme of organizing (unless you are like my cousin and his screwdrivers), you can improve your organizational skills. Daunting a task as it may seem, anyone can improve this skill, even you, if you take things one step at a time.
Tip #1: Pick a day and time to organize
You need to pick a starting point, especially if you do not organize very often, if ever.
Tip #2: Keep Things Small at first
If you are going to organize something at home, choose only a small space, or amount. De-clutter just a bedroom, or bathroom, or just a desk at first. You don’t need to do everything at once.
To organize your computer you can actually use the “View” option and decide if you want things organized by files, date, or whatever other options that your computer gives you. In most cases this only separates the files into their respective categories. Using the date option, if you are not already organized, could cause even more confusion as it would mix up all kinds of different types of files.
When you name your files, don’t try to abbreviate what your file is about. Make sure that you can look at the name and know where it goes. If you can’t tell what the file is about by it’s name, then you will always need to open up the file to find out what it is about, and where it should go to be more organized. You will also want to take your computer files and organize in sections, or even by folders (if you use them).
Tip #3: Schedule when necessary
It does no good to clean things up one day, get things messed up the next, and then just let things get more and more disorganized. Unless you stay on top of keeping yourself ordered (at least a little), you will find yourself spending countless minutes or hours searching for things that should only take you seconds to find if only you had things put into some kind of ordered space.
Not everyone is willing to take the time to clean his/her box wrenches every time that they use them, or to hang them in order of size on a pegboard in such graphic perfection that you want to take pictures. Yes, my cousin again.
The real key to staying more organized is to dedicate a logical place for certain things, and after you use the item, put it back in it’s place. You may find yourself in a hurry, lazy, unmotivated, or just not thinking to place things back in proper order. If you find yourself living with this behavior, then you really need to schedule a weekly “Organizing Hour”.