​Organization and Efficiency

My Personal Key to being Efficient through Organization

The key to organization is finding out what works for you. Some work great in chaos while others need structure to perform at an optimized level. I personally use what I like to call the “White Board Effect”. It is a heavy dose of chaos with a little bit of structure. If it is an important task, goal, concept, thought, or anything else I view as important I write it on one of my 4' X 6' white boards. There is very little order or thought as to where to place words on the boards. There is no color structure or any other order as to what is placed where and how it is written. I simply think of something, grab a marker, find an open space on the board, and write. From there I sit and stare at it….. and the magic happens! Not really. 

I am the type of person that needs a million things going on at once in order for me to succeed. I struggle with sitting down and completing a task from start to finish without any interruption. I skip around from task to task in whatever order I see fit for that day. This is why the “White Board Effect” works for me. See under each thought or topic written on my boards, I list the next step to progress the task. Once that step is complete I write the next down until there is nothing left to write. So at any given time I can look up from my desk, pick a step from one of the listed task (currently there are 37 to choose from) and move forward. Luckily with my current job duties my style of work efficiency works great for me and my employer.

                                                                                                                                             (My official white board in my office)

 have identified what works for me (within reason to my  employer’s wishes) and practice it on a daily basis. Whether you have already identified what works for you or not it is important to fine tune your methods and make them work for you. If you think you need more help then you probably do. Ask the people that you trust the most; friends, family, co-workers, etc… Ask them what works for them, and then try their methods. If it works then continue to move forward, and if it doesn’t then stop and ask again. There is no magic formula or special pixie dust, the key is trial and error. Even if you think you have it nailed, there is always room for improvement. The whole idea behind being organized is so that you can become more efficient at your job and life. I am personally the most efficient when I can operate with a mixture of chaos and structure. However, that is not to say that in one year from now my efficiency could depend on more structure than chaos. I am constantly fine tuning my methods and asking for help. I am by no means perfect (just ask my wife) and I am always trying to self-improve in all aspects of life and work. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that everybody finds out what works for them and then fine tune their  personal organization methods to become more efficient!