The Importance of Getting Organized

When pursuing goals, it's easy to become distracted by pressure, doubt, and obligation, whether it be the pressure to perform, having to tackle the inevitable "what ifs", or just adapting to the equally inexorable changes and detours that manifest throughout the day. 

Sometimes stress can come from people—the pushed back meetings, the failed commitments, or the miscommunication between team members.  The sheer amount of details to keep in order can grow burdensome. And for many, they often do.

Interestingly enough, they don't need to. 

What if I told you there was a simple way to mitigate stress and prevent headaches? 

What if I told you that the bulk of your anxiety comes from an inherent lack of effective preparation?

Failure to plan is an automatic plan for failure. Playing it by ear is a priceless skill, but not as a means of yielding consistent results. The ebb and flow of an ordinary day is guaranteed to include unplanned challenges and interruptions—interruptions that make it difficult to operate even with a plan in place. Imagine how much easier details slip through the proverbial cracks when there is no plan to begin with. The mentality of building the plane as you fly it is only as effective as the weather is agreeable. Preemption is the closest thing to prediction, because it enables us to tell ourselves what is going to happen before the moment actually arises, in much the same way that budgeting your money is equivalent to telling it where to go, as opposed to wondering where it went. Planning allows us to be preemptive, and preemption is power. 

Another detail to keep in mind, is process.  When too many dynamics operate at once, it's easy to feel the need to juggle tasks.  Rushing from one thing to another is inefficient and leaves most tasks undone or done poorly.  Instead, seek to create a system of procedures for tasks that must be accomplished on a regular basis, and then follow through.  Consistency in this regard will make certain obligations second nature, freeing up one's focus for more challenging endeavors.   

Implementing these methods will significantly mitigate stress, improve productivity, and maximize time.    Proper preparation prevents poor performance, and an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.