What are you trying to prove by doing so much?

I recently attended a workshop through Jack Canfield regarding Structuring Your Day, and he posed the question, “What impact does clutter and personal disorganization have on creating success and prosperity?”.

In my recent workshop, I addressed the issue of procrastination and how to overcome the stress and fear involved with it. This really goes hand-in-hand with disorganization and I thought his statement sparked a good topic here. I wanted to dig a little deeper into how disorganization prevents us from getting what we truly want in our lives. It not only clutters our garages and closets, it clutters up our thoughts and desires.

Let’s take a look at some ways disorganization prevents a successful outcome:

1. We have too much to do in one day which causes stress by spreading ourselves thin.

2. We waste valuable time searching for lost item.

3. We lose money by misplacing valuable paperwork or cash; (You would be amazed by how many clients actually find forms of money; Savings Bonds they stashed away, Rebates, Un-cashed checks, etc.)

4. We weaken relationships by forgetting important dates or not finding the time to connect with someone who would love to hear from us.

5. We miss out on opportunities by forgetting details, or not making the time to follow through.

6. We have a dirty car by storing unwanted junk in our garages, and risk having an un-necessary break-in by parking outside.

7. We waste hundreds of dollars a month by paying for a storage unit for junk that is causing even more stress in our lives.

8. We miss the opportunity to get healthy working out by not structuring our days & end up watching too much TV or wasting time on the Internet.

9. We settle on a poor diet of fast food and junk food because we didn’t plan our meals or grocery list.

10. We let life get in the way and miss out on quality family time.

11. We run out of clean clothes, or feel that there is never anything to wear our closets.

12. We are always trying to catch up on housecleaning during our valuable time off.

13. We lose important paperwork because we don’t have a proper filing system.

14. We miss appointments due to lack of planning.

One reason for this, is that we as a society tend to believe we have to do it all. We are conditioned to believe we are saving money by keeping things we don’t really need, and doing it all ourselves.

One way of dealing with this overwhelming feeling is to learn how to delegate. Delegating specific tasks does not mean that you are giving up. Think of it as buying yourself valuable time where you can put to better use, like spending it with family, getting pampered, resting, or getting more work done.

I remember when I managed a very busy office, where I wore upwards of 30 hats. The corporation decided to hire a part time employee to assist me, and somebody asked my boss why she was hiring an assistant for her assistant. It made me beam with pride that the company trusted me enough to manage my valuable time and delegate the smaller tasks so that I could focus on producing my best work.

The same applies in any area of life. When you trust yourself enough to hand off the smaller things, you can get right to the most important tasks on your To Do list. Some ways of letting the little things go, would be to give your kids or spouse more responsibilities. Identify what their talents are and give them tasks that they would enjoy doing like watering the garden or walking the dog. Hiring outside help is worth its weight in gold when you apply it correctly. A housekeeper that could come in once a month to tackle the tough wet-work that you dread, a gardener to edge and weed, a concierge service who could run errands & pick up dry-cleaning, or even a Professional Organizer to give you a new outlook on your space.

Take some time today to go through that list and see if you’re missing out on something important due to disorganization. If you are, identify a few ways to delegate those nasty tasks and success is sure to follow.