Caunt - How to Organize Yourself

• Dealing with Difficult People Roy Lilley

• Decision Making and Problem Solving John Adair

• Develop Your Leadership Skills John Adair

• Develop Your Presentation Skills Theo Theobald

• How to Manage People Michael Armstrong

• How to Manage Projects Paul J Fielding

• How to Organize Yourself John Caunt

• How to Write a Business Plan Brian Finch

• How to Write a Marketing Plan John Westwood

• How to Write Reports and Proposals Patrick Forsyth

• Improve Your Communication Skills Alan Barker

• Successful Time Management Patrick Forsyth

• Taking Minutes of Meetings Joanna Gutmann

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Publishers note

Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and author cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or the author.

First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2000 by Kogan Page Limited as Organize Yourself

Fourth edition published in 2013 as How to Organize Yourself

Sixth edition 2019

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses:

John Caunt, 2000, 2006, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019

The right of John Caunt to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBNs

Hardback978 0 7494 9896 2

Paperback978 0 7494 8479 8

Ebook978 0 7494 8480 4

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Control Number

Names: Caunt, John, author.

Title: How to organize yourself : simple ways to take control, save time and

work more efficiently / John Caunt.

Description: 6th Edition. | New York, NY : Kogan Page Ltd, [2019] | Series:

Creating success | Revised edition of the authors How to organize

yourself, 2016.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018057322 (print) | LCCN 2018058144 (ebook) | ISBN

9780749484804 (Ebook) | ISBN 9780749484798 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Time management. | Personal information management. | Life

skills.

Classification: LCC HD69.T54 (ebook) | LCC HD69.T54 C39 2019 (print) | DDC

650.1/1dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018057322

Typeset by Hong Kong FIVE Workshop

Print production managed by Jellyfish

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY

Never have we experienced a greater need to be organized. The working environment of today is characterized by constantly rising pressure to deliver with fewer resources. Against a background of restructuring and cost-cutting we are expected to keep a larger number of balls in the air and to do so with less support. The picture is increasingly one of self-sufficient professionals responsible for all aspects of their workplace organization. The information age provides us with some of the tools to organize our working lives, but it also presents us with many new challenges in the form of increased volumes of information, constant connectedness, expectations of immediacy, and interruptions to our routines.

Outside our working lives, we have greater expectations of our leisure time, and we readily expect to be able to fulfil family commitments while we and our partners hold down demanding jobs. We juggle the different elements of our lives to cram in trips and excursions, duty visits, entertainment, house-keeping, health pursuits, personal development, voluntary responsibilities, family activities and time with friends.

To cope with all of this we need to be organized. We need to handle time, information, people and technology as efficiently and effectively as possible in order to deliver the results on which we will be judged. Being organized means:

• less time spent firefighting and responding to crises;

• sharper focus on the things that matter most in terms of producing results;

• the ability to see your way through complex problems and challenges;

• more time for family, friends and leisure;

• reduced stress and fatigue;

• greater sense of achievement;

• the chance to step back and take pride in a job well done.

Even though the benefits of greater organization are clear, we present ourselves with excuses for failing to acquire them:

Excuse 1 The ability to be organized is something innate. Its a quality that you either possess or lack, and I just dont have it.

Certainly its true that we vary in our natural tendency towards being organized, but it isnt true that there is nothing we can do to overcome that inclination. Ever since the 1960s there has been a tendency within popular psychology to associate certain traits with a dominant role for one or other of the two brain hemispheres the left being judged superior for analytical functioning and the right for more creative tasks. Numerous questionnaires, inventories and personality profiles have reinforced the notion that attributes such as being organized are part of the way we are wired up, and that left-brain or right-brain dominance are fixed behaviour-determining features. But recent research has suggested such rigid categorization is erroneous, and revealed that all parts of the brain are engaged in activities that had previously been attributed to one or the other hemisphere. Its true you may not have a natural inclination towards being organized and methodical, but that just means you have to work a little harder at acquiring the necessary skills. And just in case you are wondering, Ill own up now to being a person who has to work quite hard at being organized.

Excuse 2 There is no way that I could be organized in this place. The constant interruptions, the crises, the disorganized colleagues.

Yes, there are plenty of workplaces where it is hard to be organized, but that is no reason to give up. In the chapters that follow we will look at how you can take control of your working environment to reduce interruptions and distractions, and well consider how good planning and effective delegation can help forestall crises and minimize colleague dependency.

Excuse 3 I would like to be more organized but Im just too busy to spend time on it at the moment. Perhaps in a couple of months time.