Disorganized or Organized: Which Choice Will You Make?

I remember reading Highlights Magazine during my younger days, and always appreciating the Goofus and Gallant adventure stories. For those of you unfamiliar with these stories, they were about two fictitious boys brought to life in side-by-side drawings to illustrate a bad way and a good way to handle a situation.

In relation to Goofus and Gallant, there are always going to be situations that depend on you making either a disorganized or organized decision.

Here are some examples of Mr. or Mrs. Disorganized versus Mr. or Mrs. Organized:

1. Situation: It's Friday and the mail carrier begins walking towards your front door, holding a big pile of mail.
   
   Mr. Disorganized: Adds it to the pile of mail that has been building up since Monday. It's currently about 2 feet high. Just looking at it overwhelms him.
   
   Mr. Organized: Quickly glances through his mail, tossing definite junk mail away immediately. He then sorts the mail into 4 piles: a) To Do b) To Read c) To File d) To Distribute. He then tackles each pile, one by one, until every pile is either done, read, filed, given to the appropriate person or tossed.
   
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2. Situation: Using your digital camera, you snapped a bunch of photos from a town festival you just attended.
   
   Mrs. Disorganized: Places the camera on her dining room table, figuring she'll get the photos off the camera when she has extra time. Another event comes up, and she snaps more photos. Another event, more photos. Another event, yet more photos. Before she knows it, she has filled up her memory card and doesn't even know what's on the camera anymore.
   
   Mrs. Organized: Downloads the photos the day after the town festival. Handles any photo editing. Deletes the bad ones. Burns the good ones onto CD-Roms. She then prints out a few to scrapbook.
3. Situation: It's Thursday. You have to run to the grocery store to pick up snacks and beverages for a Friday morning play-group you're hosting.
   
   Mrs. Disorganized: Figures she doesn't have time to make a list. She runs to the store and wings it. When she arrives back home, she realizes she had forgotten to buy juice boxes, and has to make a second trip out to the store.
   
   Mrs. Organized: Takes the time to think about what the kids and moms play-group may like to snack on. She makes a list including snacks and beverages. She looks through her coupon organizer to see if she has a coupon for anything she needs. She then makes one successful trip to the store.
4. Situation: You just started a new job, and the person who you've replaced has left you with a pile of paperwork that your boss says needs to be filed.
   
   Mr. Disorganized: Decides he'll get to it eventually and continues to pile more papers on top. A week later, his boss asks him to find an important report he needs to reference. Mr. Disorganized wastes over 2 hours before he locates the report.
   
   Mr. Organized: Divides the big pile into 7 little piles.
   Each day, he works for 20 minutes until all papers from one of those piles, is filed away. By the end of the week, he's done filing. When his boss asks him to find an important report he needs to reference, Mr. Organized simply opens the cabinet and pulls it out, all in a matter of 5 seconds.
5. Situation: You're waiting for an important call to come in from your doctor. He finally calls with the information you need.
   
   Mrs. Disorganized: Jots the information on a sticky note and leaves it on the kitchen table. The kids come home from school and toss their school books on top of the note. They later grab their books and head to their rooms to do their homework. Later, when you're looking for the note, you can't find it. You end up having to call the doctor again, who isn't too happy that you just wasted his time. Later that night, you find the original sticky note in your daughter's room attached to the bottom of her school book.
   
   Mrs. Organized: Jots the information into a 3-ring binder where she stores all of her family's medical information. She then stores the binder on a designated shelf in her home office. Later, when she needs the information, she retrieves the binder and follows the doctor's instructions.

by Maria Gracia - Get Organized Now! http://www.getorganizednow.com FREE Get Organized Now! Idea-Pak and E-zine, filled with tips and ideas to help you organize your home, your office and your life, at the Get Organized Now! Web site.