Time Management Tools - How to Get and Stay Organized and Restore a Sense of Order to Your Life

Get organized to begin solving your time management and cash flow problems. When you're working on projects which you can bill for, and you can't find a crucial piece of that project, you know you need to work on getting organized.

A loss of order in our lives creates chaos. Get organized so you can find what you need when you want it.

Organization is in the eye of the beholder!

How many times have you walked into someone's office or home and been overwhelmed by random stacks and stacks of papers and books and boxes everywhere? It boggles your mind, doesn't it? But I'll bet you a file's ransom that if you asked this person for a specific piece of documentation they'd be able to put their hands on it in short order. Who's to say that their definition of being organized is flawed, even if if drives you bonkers to be in the same room with the stacks.

The bottom line is they have found and developed a system and time management tools which works for them.

Overall though, when you get organized you will save time and become more efficient to focus on those tasks which produce income for you.

Please don't confuse the constant busy work of getting organized with procrastination. Many will spend entire days proclaiming "they have to get organized" when in fact they are avoiding doing important work. If that important work happens to be a project which you can make money on, abandon getting organized for the day and work on the money producing activity. You need to be able to bill for your hours worked.

Some of the warning signs you need to pay attention to if your income is dropping is if your lack of being organized is causing too many projects and jobs to fall through the cracks beyond a promised deadline.

In that case begin devising a simple system to get organized which includes a filing system, some form of an in and out tray or basket system, a tickler reminder system, and a database system to keep electronic records together.

Over the course of the next few months - you want to continue being focused on money making projects - begin to get organized.

Focus on three things: organizing things, tasks and people.

How to Organize Things
Create a sense of order on where you put things - everything from your assortment of keys, your electronic devices, to where and how you file things. Take a look at your closets and your living and working space. Begin to give all areas a sense of order. But do this after you've worked on important billable projects.

How to Organize Tasks
You need to put your "to do's" into an order and sequence. Develop and use anything from simple lists to white board planning charts or even project management software. You know what your needs are and so should be able to develop a system to get your tasks organized.

How to Organize People
I realize that heading is a bit funny in its own way. It's similar to proclaiming a new way to organize a herd of wild cats!

However, what you can do is decide what you can do, and what you should be doing to work on the important tasks which are connected to money you can bill for your time. If a task is not important and not connected to an activity you can make money on, delegate it or outsource it to someone.

I first became aware of the economics of outsourcing from Rich Schefren of Strategic Profits. He really drove home the point of knowing what your time is worth. Let's say your time is worth one hundred dollars per hour and you are working on something which you could pay someone ten or twenty dollars and hour to do, then delegte or outsource the work or project. You don't have to do everything. What you do have to do is focus on and work on the important projects which you can make money on. Get organized around the projects and jobs which will build your income, first, then work on the other issues.

When developing an organization system for people, do create a tracking system to know who is working on what task for you and also include a simple method to track their progress.

My first experience with "organization-envy" was when I was in fifth grade. A classmate had a tidy blue canvas binder with everything hole-punched and neatly organized behind tabbed dividers. Everything about her schoolwork was neat and organized and in that blue binder. And everything about her was neat and organized. I was crushed when the time came when one of was selected to be the captain of the safety squad and the teacher chose her. I was more qualified, but she was organized. It taught me a valuable lesson of how others perceive our lives and businesses based on how we organize items attached to our lives. Years later when I met someone who was at the far end of the "I have to get organized" pendulum, I realized he never did anything except for stack and shuffle papers into neat little pile. Somewhere along the line I found myself reciting, "And then he got organized, and sighed, and died."

Make your goals to get organized realistic so they fit within your life and business and work first on those task which will add to your bottom line and bring money in through your doors.

Bill More Hours in Less Time
 Managing Distractions
Stop being the time victim of everyone else's urgency addicitons.

When you develop a time management system based to get organized you will focus on three things, things, tasks and people.

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