Small Business Today Magazine MAR 2015 IMPACT STONE DESIGN | Page 22
EDITORIALFEATURE
Getting Organized:
Are You Organized or Neat?
By Holly Uverity CPO®, Office Organizers
C
lients often breathe a sigh of relief when
I tell them that just because their office is
cluttered, doesn’t necessarily mean that
they are disorganized. Piles of paper all
over an office, unread reading material, unopened mail, and responses not written all point
to both clutter and disorganization. However,
organized offices can frequently look cluttered
and, conversely, just because an office looks neat
and tidy, doesn’t mean that it’s organized.
Let’s say you work with Joe whose office appears neater than yours because instead of piles
on his desk, he has neatly arranged rows. Oftentimes, one row represents work that needs
to be done today, another row contains items
that can be done later, and another row contains items Joe doesn’t want to forget. Do you
think that Joe is better organized than you are
because his work is laid out neatly on his desk?
If so, you’re wrong; he’s not better organized, he’s
just neater. Your stacks may be vertical and his
may be horizontal but they’re still stacks. A pile
is a pile is a pile.
People often think that cleaning and clearing are synonymous with organizing but they
are only a part of organizing. You need to do
them but you also need to do more. Here’s a
simple way for you to think about being neat
versus being organized: If your office is cluttered and you have to hold a meeting there in
five minutes, shoving everything into a drawer to hide it will make your office neat but it
won’t be organized.
People often think that
cleaning and clearing are
synonymous with organizing
but they are only a part of
organizing. You need to do
them but you also need
to do more.
20 SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE [ MARCH 2015 ]
Take this quick quiz to see if you are organized or
simply neat; the answers may surprise you:
1. Do your current/active/hot files have a specific place in your office? Can you easily clear
your space if you need to?
Organized offices have specific, designated places for everything; neat offices have items hidden
away or stacked tidily wherever there is room
for them.
2. Do you keep track of your current and upcoming projects by referring to your To Do
List and/or calendar or do you need to see
your projects to know what to do next?
Organized people rely on lists and calendars to
keep them on track; neat people rarely use lists
or calendars. They believe they can keep track
of everything they need to do by laying it out
neatly on their desks.
3. Do you ever change how you manage your
work or have you been working the same way
for years and years?
Organized people take advantage of new tools
and techniques to better manage their time and
space; neat people don’t see a need to change
the way they’ve worked since their office is always tidy.
Remember that any organized office may
look messy at any point during a workday but if
everything in your office has a home AND you
can easily clear your desk at the end of every
day, you’re organized. Neatness and organization can go hand in hand but not always do.
Office Organizers is The Entrepreneur’s Organizer. Founded in 1993, they work with business people to create solutions to their organizational challenges. Contact them at
281.655.5022, www.OfficeOrganizers.com, or www.fb.com/
OfficeOrganizers.