Are You Too Busy to Get Organized?

At least once a week, I will hear somebody say, “I’m too busy to get organized. Are you crazy? I can’t stop what I’m doing to get organized!” 

If you think getting organized is a waste of time, you are wasting time by not being organized. If you continue to say these words, you will continue to be stressed out, frazzled, paralyzed, and stuck due to your disorganization. How long have you been operating this way? Has it been weeks, months, or years? It’s time to carve out some time in your day and make a plan to get organized. 

The people that state they are too busy to get organized are usually the same people who are doing the following:

Wasting time and energy searching for files. If you filed it when you initially received it or finished working on it, you will have no problem grabbing it when you need it. It will take you seconds to put your finger on it. How much time have you wasted searching for a file in a stack of papers? 

Not billing clients in a timely manner. Do you have a process to bill your clients? Are you consistent with following through with that process? Your clients will take notice, especially if they are organized. 

Paying bills late. Are the bills you need to pay underneath a mound of paper on your desk or stuck in your email inbox? Do you occasionally forget to pay them? If you pay these bills late, you are going to be paying late fees, your interest rates will increase, your credit score will drop, and collection agencies will be hounding you. Also, the company that you owe money to may drop you as a customer. I have seen the latter happen many times. 

Don’t return calls in a timely manner and show up late to appointments. Do you always sound frazzled and distracted when speaking to customers? They will notice and because you are distracted, they are going to question if you will manage their business in an efficient and productive manner. 

Mounds of papers are taking over the desk. There may be checks, cash, and other vital information mixed in these piles. Have a process and system for everything you do in your office. These piles won’t form if you create routines from those systems.

Time management skills need some tweaking. Are you running around telling people there aren’t enough hours in the day? Are you disorganized? If the answer is yes, then you have to re-evaluate how you function on a day-to-day basis. If you want to work on your time management, you have to declutter, get organized, and streamline processes. Your time management skills will improve once you do this. Are you the type that completes a task in ten steps when it only really has to take five to tackle it? Streamlining processes and procedures will help get you back on track. 

Bottom line, if this is you, you are losing time, money, and clients due to your disorganization. The majority don’t have working systems in place. There aren’t any processes and procedures in place. Maybe you need help because you are lacking the organizational skill set to get you where you need to be. 

If you are disorganized, stop saying you don’t have time to get organized. Carve out a few hours in your day and make that change. Does your business have a slow time of year when you could tackle this project? Can you take one Saturday or evening to tackle this? Are you giving the excuse that you don’t have enough time when you really don’t want to tackle this project because it’s going to be too overwhelming? Break this project down into small tasks. After you finish reading this, make a plan and tackle this. You won’t believe the amount of free time you will have once you get organized. You can thank me later.