The Tidying Trick
Closely related to the cleaning cure-all is the tidying trick. We have all spent time tidying up our space instead of organizing. Rather than restoring long-term order, we’ve created a short-term neat appearance. This organizing mistake is especially easy to make because it feels so productive!
With good intentions, many of us have stayed late at work or come into the office on a weekend to deal with our messy cubicle. We tossed out old, stagnated paperwork and recycled some tattered files. We tidied and tidied until our office looked presentable. Returning home, we felt proud of our progress.
Sadly, within a couple of weeks we found ourselves sitting in a messy cubicle once again, shaking our heads in disbelief. Why does tidying never last very long? If you have not implemented good systems for capturing and processing incoming paper and information, you will be stuck in an endless cycle of tidying. If you have not discovered and eliminated your bad habits, your tidy space will be sabotaged. If you don’t understand your priorities, roles, and job description, you mat take on too many projects, neglect delegation, or work in your weakness instead of your strengths. An authentic organizing process takes all this information into account.
Once you have engaged in a viable organizing process and you’ve done the due diligence of discovery, you will reduce the amount of clutter in your space. Of course, being organized will not eliminate the need to maintain your space with daily and weekly processing.
Related:
- Common Organizing Mistakes Part 1: Product Panacea
- Common Organizing Mistakes Part 2: The Rearranging Remedy
- Common Organizing Mistakes Part 3: The Cleaning Cure
- Common Organizing Mistakes Part 4: The Stashing Solution
- Common Organizing Mistakes Part 6: The Cookie Cutter
- Common Organizing Mistakes Part 7: Why We Cheat
- Common Organizing Mistakes Part 8: Due Diligence
