You, or someone you know, may have already been diagnosed with depression – mild, severe or somewhere in between. For those of us moving through menopause, this is often the time that depression is identified although its symptoms may have been evident for years before. You may have experienced a severe loss and your depression related to grief. Or perhaps you have suffered many years of abuse – physical or emotional – and are now struggling to regain some confidence.
Whatever the background, reason or lenght of time you have suffered from depression, its impact on your ability to organize will be the same. Organizing takes energy. One of the first symptoms of depression is a lack of energy. You may also be suffering from difficulty maintaining focus and challenges with your memory.
The most important thing to keep in mind when trying to organize if you suffer from depression is to keep your goals as realistic as possible. You will have days when sorting through paper is just not possible – especially if it requires not only mental but physical energy. If you have an organizing project that just has to get done regardless of your energy level, try and get help. Call in a trusted friend or family member. Their presence alone can sometimes provide additional energy for you to work with. Try and break your project into small pieces and keep track of your successes. It is important that you recognize your accomplishments. Celebrate your successes no matter how small.
Archive for Organizing Challenges – Page 5
If you suffer from ADD you may be all to well aware of the dangers of hyperfocus when you get into a project. Four hours after starting, you pull your head out of the project to find that your family will be home for dinner in 5 minutes and you were planning to shop for groceries before the end of the day. Meanwhile, the project at hand is spread across the dining room table. Sound familiar?
Consider keeping a time tamer alarm close at hand for these situations. Set the alarm for 45 minutes to an hour. When the alarm goes off, get up from where you are working, walk around, get a drink to stay hydrated. After 5 minutes or so return to the task at hand and reassess the degree of focus you have given based on your objectives for the time you have to work.
Remember to reset the alarm before you return to work.
Individuals coping with dyslexia are often looking for strategies to support them both in the workplace and at home. As a professional organizer, I am often asked about organizing strategies for managing varies learning disabilities. This knol, recently written by Sandra Crux, may be helpful to those of you who are managing with dyslexia. The knol, or bit of knowledge, is designed to be an authoritative article on a subject. Ms. Crux provides a comprehensive collection of strategies for managing dyslexia both for adults and childrens. I hope you find it helpful.
http://knol.google.com/k/sandra-crux/dyslexia-4-using-organizational/8d8s0hdum67q/5#
As a professional organizer, I am often asked about organizing strategies for managing dyslexia and other learning disabilities. This recently written knol provides a collection of organizing strategies for individuals managing with dyslexia. The knol, or bit of knowledge, is designed to be an authoritative article on a subject. Sandra Crux has written a comprehensive set of such strategies which will be helpful to any of you managing this attribute in yourself or your children. I hope you find it helpful.
http://knol.google.com/k/sandra-crux/dyslexia-4-using-organizational/8d8s0hdum67q/5#
You think you run a great company. Maybe you do. You’ve studied the books, taken the courses, run the retreats. At the same time, you admit to yourself when no one else is looking that something isn’t quite right. You, and your company, may be suffering from a basic lack of organization. Here are the top five indicators I find when companies are swimming in corporate clutter and stuck in the land of corporate disorganization.
1. Targets are not being met.
This is the indicator that keeps you awake at night. As we scream through the third quarter you are already sweating. You didn’t meet first quarter or second and here you are behind the eight ball for third.
2. Employees don’t understand the mission and/or strategic goals.
You have the mission memorized. You’ve agonized over your strategic goals. Every word is perfect. You’ve done the retreat and handed out copies. Why is it then, that no one remembers? Why don’t your employees remember what the company is trying to accomplish this year?
3. Employees are unhappy.
You have a sense that there are just too many good bye lunch parties. Meanwhile you’re soaking up your training and development budget with new hire orientation rather than development of your existing and loyal employees. At the same time, you’ve hearing complaint after complaint from employees about this, that and the other thing. They never bring it up to the team meetings, (do you have them?) they just grumble.
4. Offices, work spaces are cluttered.
Starting with yours; Do you, or your staff, keep asking for another copy of ____________ because they can’t find it? Do you, or your employees spend too much time looking for things and not enough time acting on goals? Sure, you know exactly where that proposal is, right? If I said you had 10 seconds to find it, could you? What about 5? What is under, behind or beside your desk? Your employees desks? Check it out.
5. Someone, or ones, is (are) working longer hours than they should. i.e. outside of the normal ebb and flow of business and seasonal cycles, you have one employee, maybe its you, that is always there later than everyone else, comes in on weekends, and probably still is not meeting their performance objectives.
So now you are going to spend the day acutely aware of these indicators in your company. That’s ok. Remember, the first step to change is recognizing when there is a problem. I’ll continue the Top 5 Series this week. Tomorrow – Top 5 Reasons why Companies are Disorganized.
