The Novice's Guide to Getting Organized

This week was one of those weeks where getting started every day was just difficult.  The problem I had was how to clear off my tiny little work desk of the mountain of recent paperwork. 

This past year, I decided that I would really get organized and get all my business records into QuickBooks. Little did I know what I was getting into. As it turned out, I had no clue how to enter records into QuickBooks…and neither did my industrious spouse, who said, as I was incorrectly entering data, “Yeah… that looks right.” So, I had to get a bookkeeper. Needless to say, she had to undo and unscrew-up the program. About a month ago, she politely asked me to please not enter anything else until she was able to correct what I already done. Yes, it was that bad!

Meanwhile, as multiple orders arrived, along with a whole slug of other papers, the office pile grew to rival Mt. Everest. Fortunately, good news finally arrived earlier this week. My clearly psychic bookkeeper had managed to wade through my mess, figure out what I had done, and fix my totally-incorrectly-entered data. She finally finished untangling my mistakes and I could begin to correctly enter the bills.

I’d like to point out that I do realize that in order for energy to flow freely, things really shouldn’t get too cluttered. This is because when things get really disordered, it becomes difficult to function, and knowing how and where to start remedying that gets ever more difficult. When things get really messy, most people begin to feel overwhelmed, like there is just too much to do and they have no idea where to begin.

This month, that is exactly what had happened. By the time my truly wonderful bookkeeper managed to untangle my computerized mess, I had some real trouble getting started on fixing it. I had ignored the problem for far too long. It finally occurred to me that I had to get to work. So I tried a method that sort of works for me. I thought that I would share that method today. 

Here’s my tried and true clean up method: Just start. Do one file at a time. If you get interrupted, stop. It’s okay. If you aren’t sure you are doing your work correctly, don’t be afraid to ask for help. It’s better to get help than do things incorrectly. Once you are on the correct path, regroup and take baby steps forward if you need to. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t finish it all at once. Start with the easiest files. Get those into order and put them where they belong. If you can’t find all the papers, just put the file aside and then go back to it later. If you find papers that belong in a file you have already worked on, then go back, fix the problem and move on. Take breaks when you have to. You’ll find that by the end of each day, even if you think you didn’t get much done, you really did. The most important thing is not to stress out over it. 

After a week, my desk is almost clean. My office no longer feels overwhelming, and I know that what I didn’t finish this week, I can finish next week. If I need help, my bookkeeper, Saint Kathryn, is only a phone call away. I can breathe knowing that life will go on. 

Do you have tips for keeping organized either in your business or at home? Tell us in the comments!