Getting to the point of having successfully organized your time or your space is only half of the effort. It’s a great start, but if you want to stay that way, you have to have a few things in place.
Getting organized causes you to shift your thinking. You might have heard me say before that being organized is a state of mind. It calls for a shift in behavior; for you to develop new habits around how how you work; how you manage yourself. When you organize your time, you have to have not only a system in place, but new habits that support you in maintaining that system and staying effective when it comes to managing tasks and your calendar. This means that you have to plan on a regular basis, prioritize what you’re doing, be in the habit of delegating and saying “no”. That system has to run like a well-oiled machine if you’re going to manage your time and your business effectively.
When it comes to your organized space, systems have to be in place too. If you’re going to maintain an organized space, you need systems to keep it that way. A filing system to contain your paper and rules for maintaining it, a way to manage paper and it flows to you, as well as a way to handle email and phone calls. You also to develop new habits like clearing your desk and returning things to their designated home at the end of the day. Building the muscle to develop those new habits to maintain what you establish will help you stay organized for a long time to come.