How to Develop Organizational Capacity
While some seemingly exit the womb ready to organize, others do not come across the skill so naturally. If you have always envied the excessively organized with their neat lists and tidy files, aim to join their ranks. Though you may never be quite as skilled as some, you can certainly develop your organizational capacity beyond its current limits by dedicating yourself to the task. Building these skills does not have to be painful, but can instead be a step-by-step process of self-improvement, at the end of which you will find yourself organizing with the best.
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Instructions
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Set organizational goals. Start your self-improvement process by deciding what it is you want to accomplish. Set small, specific goals, such as getting your filing cabinet under control or being on time for all of your appointments. As you accomplish these goals, set larger ones, jotting down your goals as you go to better keep track of your efforts.
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Dedicate time. Becoming organized is not something that will just happen on its own. Set aside a block of daily time, such as dedicating the morning to organization, or instead promising yourself that you will spend the last 15 minutes of your work day tending to this task. Stick to the schedule to ensure that you do not give up before reaching your organizational goals.
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Purchase a planner. Select a day planner that fits your lifestyle. For example, if you are a business person who has lots of meetings to attend, a planner that features hourly notations may be best. If you are a student with classes and projects scattered throughout the day, chose a planner that allows you to customize.
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Create and use checklists. Start by making a weekly checklist of things you would like to accomplish. Keep the list posted prominently, crossing off items as you go and throwing away or storing the list upon completion. As you become adept at doing this, start to make smaller checklists, creating daily ones to guide your work completion.
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Practice prioritization. After you have developed your checklist-making skills, make the tool even more useful by prioritizing the listed items. To do this, color code the items, highlighting the most important in one color and the lesser in another, or number them one to three, placing the must-dos with ones and the less important items with the threes.
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Reflect upon your success. Pause and think about your organizational improvements to help keep yourself on target. If upon reflection you notice that something is not working for you, change your methodology. There is no one right way to organize, but instead many ways to select from.
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