IS DISORGANIZATION GETTING IN THE WAY OF YOUR SUCCESS?

insurance feature Is Disorganization Getting in the Way of Your Success?

BY TODD SHEPARD, FOUNDER OF SHEPARD & SHEPARD INSURANCE SOLUTIONS

There are many reasons for disorganization including perfectionism, indecision, fear, lack of skills, or mental health conditions.

What are the symptoms of disorganization? Not surprisingly, the disorganized majority may not even realize they are disorganized. They believe they are just super-busy or suffer from bouts of bad luck. If the following feels a bit too familiar don’t beat yourself up. I’ll be providing a few tips to help later. • Are you often late for appointments? • Do you find yourself running into surprise deadlines? (What? It’s our anniversary already?) • Do you often run out of office or cleaning supplies causing unplanned trips to the store or finding ways to substitute? (paper towels are not toilet paper, a stapler is not a hammer, black tape is not a band-aid) • Do you find you never have enough time to get to the important tasks? (procrastination) • Does it seem you are bringing in money selling cars yet find yourself short of cash? • Do you seem to misplace items such as your keys, wallet or need to reprint the same documents because the ones you already printed disappeared? • Is your email inbox overflowing with unanswered mail? • Do people tell you your voicemail is full or that they left messages you don’t recall receiving? • Do you hesitate to take a risk even though everything is lined up because the thought of adding one more uncertainty to your life makes you uncomfortable?

If you can identify with some (or all) of the above it’s a pretty sure bet you may be suffering from disorganization and it is likely causing stress in the important areas of your life such as family, friends, personal relaxation, productivity, and profitability. The good news is, as with many things, once you are aware of the problem, the fix is easy.

Here are a few tips to help resolve the most common symptoms of disorganization:

LACK OF FOCUS - Albert Einstein once said, “use paper to write thing down, our brains are to think!” Al was known to be a pretty smart guy in his time, and he realized that even the brightest among us lack the mental bandwidth to remember everything. It causes what’s called brain clutter and gets in the way of productivity. Devote 5-10 minutes each morning to download all the things you need to accomplish onto paper. You may be amazed at how much less confusing and achievable your written list becomes when it’s not bumping against all the other thoughts in your head.

PROCRASTINATION – usually caused by attacking smaller or even unnecessary tasks because they seem easier, fear of the unknown, and the mistaken belief that you will get to it later (hint: you won’t). To eliminate procrastination, I recommend the Eisenhower Matrix. Take a piece of paper and draw a line down and another across creating four boxes (dealers may find this familiar. I call it the 4-Square of organization). Label each box as follows; Do (important today), Delegate (assign to someone else), Defer (schedule it as a ‘Do’ on a specified future date) and Delete (stuff that doesn’t matter or has no benefit). Now start filling in the boxes. Commit to this each morning or complete it at the end of each day so you have a plan the next morning. Your focus should then be on accomplishing the ‘Do’ box each day.

PERFECTIONISM – nothing is ever perfect so if you refuse to move forward, insisting that everything needs to be completed to perfection first, it causes a bottleneck in your day-to-day business and it costs you time and money! Striving for perfection causes indecision, anxiety, and wastes time that could be better spent on more beneficial and profitable tasks. Perfectionism may be the result of a personality trait, fear of judgment, or concern over the disapproval from others. Try to become more aware of this tendency and remind yourself that your business cares about one thing, making money! Realize that usually done well is more profitable than waiting for a task to be done perfectly and to stop worrying about what others think. Most are focused on themselves anyway.

REALIZE THAT ORGANIZATION

IS A LEARNED SKILL. Anxiety is caused when someone lacks skills. Don’t believe me? Try to remember the first time you got behind the wheel of a car or the first customer you greeted as a new salesperson. Sweaty palms, tensed shoulders. What seems so simple now was a big deal way back because you lacked the experience and the skills. Organizational skills are the same way. Once you learn and practice these skills, allowing them to become habits, organization will become second nature. Yes, at first glance implementing these tools seems like adding just one more thing to your growing list, I get it. Just remember that nobody ever decided to get organized after they become successful. Make the commitment to yourself and your business and you’ll enjoy the benefits of organization in no time. n