The Organizing Corner from In Its Place

What Did You Learn While On Your Summer Vacation?

Can Organizing Really Be That Simple?

The beach is one of my favorite vacation destinations. I am usually exhausted and "on overload" before going, but I come back refreshed and rejuvenated. My experience this summer was no different, except this time I noticed some "organizing principle" parallels between life at the ocean and life in our businesses. . .

Keep similar items together and store them closest to where you use them.

As the tide goes out, it typically leaves a curving line of shells, stones, and seaweed on the sand, making it easy to find little treasures we seek when we go shelling along the water's edge. Storing our office supplies, paper, active project folders, and archival files accordingly allows us to quickly and easily find what we need when we need it.

Don't strive to be perfect; strive to make progress toward reaching your goals.

A seagull doesn't worry about whether it drops a clamshell on a rock at the exact angle to make a perfectly clean break; nor does it decide to not drop the shell at all because it's afraid it won't crack the shell perfectly. It just tries to break the shell enough so he can get to and eat the clam. So, too, we should simply take action to reach our goals without the burden of perfectionism.

It's easier to reach your goals when everyone understands the work flow.

A flock of seagulls hugs the shoreline in search of crabs, fish, and other morsels of food. A bind of sandpipers flies along the water and then swoops around to land at the water's edge and grab their snacks out of the sand each time the waves ebb. The same is true of employees in a company: productivity increases and wasted time decreases when they're clear about their goals and the actions they need to take to reach them.

Do a little bit each day.

At the end of the day, people gather up their chairs, towels, and belongings and throw away their garbage as they leave the beach. And not long after the sun rises, the beach-raking machine appears to make its daily sweep of the beach to remove any clutter from the sand that people may have left behind the day before. Whether you do a "clean sweep" in your office or cubicle first thing in the morning and/or before leaving at the end of the day, returning items to their homes and creating a list of action items and priorities helps you maintain an organized environment and stay on track to reaching your goals.

Organization can improve the quality of work life.

Sunrise and sunset. High tide and low tide. Ebb and flow. These cycles help set the rhythm of the day and shape how and when animals and humans do what they need to do. You could argue that since they provide basic stability and structure for our schedules, they are boring, stifle creativity, and turn us into robots. Yet every day we still experience happiness and enjoy the variety of colors that surround the rising sun and the clouds that float through the sky. The same can be said for the use of systems in our businesses and offices - they can help save time, eliminate confusion, and serve as guidelines for getting things done efficiently without us having to reinvent the wheel. And just as no two sunrises are alike, no two employees, coworkers, or customers are exactly the same. So being organized and using systems free us to experience and enjoy the variety of different people we interact with and to be creative and develop new ideas.

Need help putting organizing principles to work in your office? Call 724.850.7282 or email In Its Place.