The Stress of Getting Organized

For todays blog post I thought I would bring in a fresh face. Let me introduce Ronii Bartles. She is a business consultant that helps small businesses grow and run more efficiently. I personally use her services and have noticed a huge increase in my productivity. So here is Ronii...

So when Dr. Zipp asked me to be a guest blogger for iStress.org, it kind of stressed me out. What did I know about stress management? Or how could I talk about dealing with stress when just the thought of doing this blog post stressed me out? I can’t even handle my own stress let alone tell other people how to handle theirs. But once I calmed myself down, I realized that I do have something to offer. I am a business management consultant and as part of my job I work with clients in calming them down and helping them organize their business so that it is successful and (hopefully) less stressful.

When I meet with a new client I start with a basic assessment of their organization; how it runs and the culture they have garnered. I take the system they have created and use it to organize and create a customized workflow. Why do I not come in and start with a clean slate and make them conform to my way of organization, you ask? Good question. I use their existing system for 2 reasons. One, they are already comfortable with their system and how it flows and making small changes is more effective and efficient. Second, I’m not one to re-invent the wheel.

I have a friend, who is normally extremely organized, let her home office go and when you walked in you couldn’t move because there was so many things floating around. She had let it go because every time she went to clean it up she would get overwhelmed and stress out. When I went to help her it really didn’t take us but a few hours because we worked with her natural way of organizing and we conquered her overwhelmed, stressed out feeling of getting started, which is common when you are conquering a project such as organization and time management.

When you are working on being organized or managing time take your existing system and your natural tendencies and work with them because your results will always be better in the end. If you work best with a day planner that you literally write your appointments in, then use that as your schedule (and don’t let the electronic people pick on you about it). Me, I like to keep my appointments electronically in Outlook and sync it with my Blackberry. I find that once I have an appointment entered into my calendar I just naturally remember it and I’m much more organized because I have found the system that works for me. Don’t let getting organized overwhelm you because once you get started you will find it won’t take that long and you do know where to start.

Best,

Ronii Bartles

If you would like to learn more about Ronii and the services she offers please check out her website http://www.bartlesandassociates.com/

Wishing you the best,

Dr. John Zipp