Organizing Your Office for Less Stress and More Profit

If you discovered your speaking career depended on how organized your office was, your reaction could vary from complete composure to sheer terror. Even the most successful professional speakers sometimes utter, "Some day I'm really going to get organized," but purging files, organizing computer files, tackling piles of unread journals, or learning a brand new computer software (even the one that will help you get organized!), usually gets pushed to the bottom of one's list of priorities as you handle today's crisis.

But are you able to afford to ignore overstuffed files, unidentified computer files, unlabeled floppy disks, miscellaneous handouts, nebulous receipts, and a generally cluttered office? In years past, it was possible to postpone as well as ignore "getting organized," but today it's not, for three major reasons:

1. The total amount of information you've to arrange is higher than ever before. Although computers once promised us the paperless office, many of us are organizing more paper than ever before. With computer files, faxes, e-mail, voice mail, and on- line services, organization is essential. 2. The demand from meeting planners for a quick turnaround on information is increasing. Meetings are planned with less and less lead-time. Consequently, meeting planners need information quickly. If they are able to send us a fax in 15 seconds, we can't wait a week to reply, and expect them to hire us.

3. The number of people staffing businesses is decreasing. That means we need to do whatever we could to create meeting planners jobs easier. Managers and staff at all levels are expected to produce more in less time, and it's to your advantage to simply help them accomplish that challenge.

So what is an "organized office?" Don't confuse organization with neatness. Understand that old adage "A area for everything and everything in its place?" In my own experience, it's half right. A area for everything is very important, but everything in its place might not be. The strain comes, not from the clutter, but when you'd like to completely clean up the clutter, but don't know where to place it so you will find it again! To place it another way, organization provides you with the "capability to recover." The truth of keyword planner the speaking business today is that people often find ourselves in a crisis mode -- flights canceled, meetings scheduled at the final minute, etc. Good organization afford them the ability to recoup from these inevitabilities whatsoever stressful way.

My definition of "organized" really is easy: "Does it work?" and "Do I like it?" If what you do affects others, you need to ask a next question, "Does it benefit others?" If the answer to some of these questions is "No," here are five suggestions to assist you begin on the road to organization.