Jim thought it was organized. Everything was colour-coded, and there was a file for every project he was working on – each containing sub-files, research files – all stored neatly in sophisticated file cabinets. So why can’t Jim find anything?
One of the biggest frustrations of being called a “organizing consultant” is that people assume you’re always organized (some would call it “cool!) Truth – at least in my case! Let me explain.
I recently came home from a shopping trip with several bags of groceries tossed on the counter. In the midst of unpacking it I decided to bake the cake I had planned for dinner. In the middle of mixing the cake, I realized there was more fresh coconut than I needed for the cake, so I decided to make a Pineapple Coconut Salad. While researching the recipe, I found several others that I haven’t used recently, so I decided to leave them out until I could make a list of the ingredients I needed to purchase them. Within an hour, the kitchen looked like a tornado had passed – not the “white tornado” variety!
The rest of the story: The phone rang with news that a friend wanted to bring his daughter to see our house for ideas for the house she was building! In less than ten minutes, everything was put away – not just tucked away in a cupboard out of sight.
Productivity Principle: “A Place for Everything” makes “everything in its place” a reality – not all the time, but just in time!