A professional organiser shares her golden rule for managing time in today’s hectic world, and it’s all about regaining your focus.
‘Professional Organiser’ – I’m curious about how many people out there already know about this term. In my experience, not too many people are aware that professional organisers even exist, and because of this I’m going to guess that you are all wondering, what on earth is a professional organiser?
Well, simply put, it is our job to make you more efficient with your time. Whether that be through cleaning up your disorganised office, or teaching you about time management, a professional organiser should be able to introduce calm in to your world that would otherwise be chaotic.
On a personal level, I love to see everyone have more time for the things that they love in life like family and hobbies, and it is my passion to help you get the most out of your time.
And so bring on the first lesson I say!
One of the things that I have learnt over the years is that chaos compounds. It builds and builds until one day, you have nothing left to do but snap – and this is never a good place to be in. And when chaos compounds on you, all of the important things slip from the front of your mind to the back and it leaves you in a constant state of questioning, how am I going to get everything back under control?
Like most things, you need to recognise you’re in this place and need help to come back from it, before you can really start to pick up the pieces around you and put them back together. One of the ways to do this is to sit and think about the process you use to get things done. Is it sporadic? Do you constantly move from one thing to the next? Do you ever really finish something?
The best piece of advice that I can give anyone, and this is my number one golden rule in managing time, is to focus. And here is how we start:
- Get yourself a notepad, paper and pen and write down everything that you need achieve today.
- Now give everything a number from 1-10 (1 being highest) and rank them on order of priority. We are going to tackle the list, highest priorities first and so on.
- Pick your first task – ONE ONLY – and away you go. There can be no deviation, no distractions and no switching. Pick one thing, start it, see it through and finish it.
The more focused that you can become on picking one task and finishing it the easier your life will become, I promise you.
Now, I bet that didn’t sound anywhere near as difficult as you thought it would! In fact I’m wondering how many people are reading this and chuckling a bit about how easy this is going to be. How about you try one thing first before passing judgement? Changing old habits is hard work and it may well turn out that this little challenge is going to be a little harder than originally thought.
Good luck with your first task, and I will be back in two weeks to follow up. In the meantime, if you need help, all you need to do is ask.
– Lady Calamity is Jessica Reid, a personal organiser with panache and elegance who offers organising solutions with a woman’s touch. Lady Calamity was formed when Jessica saw that executives weren’t the only busy people who needed help with managing their time and the space around them. She has over 9 years’ experience in organising and now dedicates herself to helping those who need it to get the most out of their valuable time.
