SBTM October 2015 | Page 18

EDITORIAL FEATURE Getting Organized: You Don’t Work in a Vacuum                    BY Holly Uverity CPO®, Office Organizers O ften people say they’re comfortable with their clutter; they know where everything is and their lack of organization and time management skills don’t affect anyone else. Those people are wrong. No one may ever tell them but their poor planning absolutely impacts everyone they work with – or for. If you are one of those people, your disorganization affects your co-workers if you: Have a messy desk and/or have no filing system If your desk is messy and/or you have no system for keeping track of your files, your co-workers will have to wait for information from you. Making people wait while you look for something wastes their time and impacts their workday. Don’t have a clear agenda when making a call Making a rambling call or leaving a rambling message forces the recipient to listen to the message more than once, interrupt you to ask you to get to the point or bite his/her tongue and let you ramble – all the while being irritated. None of these options are good. Have an agenda for your call and be able to quickly and clearly articulate what you need and when. Work reactively instead of proactively People who work reactively have no priorities or plans for their days; they simply work on what’s bubbled up to the top. If you are always working on what’s on fire now, you may often have to ask your co-workers to rearrange their schedules to accommodate what’s on your plate. Not only are you interrupting what they’re working on, you’re also being rude. Plan your work and you’ll get more cooperation, and gratitude, from your co-workers. Don’t Delegate Delegation is an underutilized organization tool. 16 SMALL BU