Organizing Systems for You, Not Your Friends
My husband and I went on a date last night and we had so much fun. We don’t do these often enough. After dinner, we met up with some friends at a local coffee shop. We had a lot of fun just laughing, reminiscing about the 80’s and 90’s and talking about blogging. Yes, I managed to stick blogging into the conversation somehow. :)
It came up that I have an organizing blog and one of my friends asked me if I could help her by coming over to her house. Sometimes I miss my hands-on days when I was running my organizing business, so I always look forward to opportunities like that. I told her I would love too.
She was talking about how someone can tell her about a system or tell her, “organize it like this” but it never seems to work. That’s when I started explaining to her that you can not organize yourself necessarily like your friends or co-workers. You have to organize yourself according to your personality and the way that your brain works.
If you are trying a system and you are honestly trying to be consistent with it but it just isn’t working, seems to complicated or is just frustrating the heck out of you, most likely you are using a system that works for someone else.
Experiment with different ideas until you find what works. Yes, this may take awhile, but it wil be worth it in the end.
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8 opinions for Organizing Systems for You, Not Your Friends
Jennifer
Aug 4, 2007 at 4:45 pm
You know that is a very good point. My best friend is the world’s worst organizer (actually that’s most of my friends — what am I a disorganization magnet?) But I’m always trying to “fix” her. Like sort her baby clothing drawers by size or put all the medical info in the same spot. It lasts about a day. Then the crazy starts up. I do that a lot to people. Some friends do ask me for help but sometimes I just barge in. I think I should stop. I bet that’s super annoying.
I guess people need to find (or not) their own balance of organization or it won’t work. Thanks, very think-worthy post today. Now, of course I have to write, “sorry I’m a pain” notes to everyone:(
But still good a post.
Julie
Aug 4, 2007 at 9:11 pm
I used to be pretty hard on my daughter until I figured this out. Sure, i still shake a little and feel faint when I walk into her room, but her idea of organization and mine are totally different.
For example: What I would organize into categories, she’d put all the pink ones together.
At least you have tried to help your friends and not given up on them. :)
Alan
Aug 6, 2007 at 1:59 am
Great tip. I agree that our personality is an important factor in this problem. Comparing ourselves to others is useless because we all have different limits and capabilities.
Julie
Aug 6, 2007 at 7:56 am
@Alan - Very true. I’ve tried over the years to look at myself as an individual and realize that the way I do things may be different than my neighbor and that’s okay. :)
Pamela
Aug 6, 2007 at 8:34 pm
True. Most of the time, people don’t get the results they need on a system, but still continues on with it. We need to know when to stop and when to look for something else.
Julie
Aug 6, 2007 at 9:21 pm
@Pamela - Complicated systems are so frustrating for people. I loved it when I would help someone organize their files and we would change the categories to something THEY would remember and also lessen the amount of categories. They were always amazed at how much easier it was to file!
Thanks for stopping by! :)
Ariane Benefit, Neat & Simple Living
Aug 7, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Right on Sister! You said that beautifully. My biggest pet peeve with the organizing industry is how many resources there are out that make recommendations without putting in disclaimers that the solution may not work for everyone and without at least mentioning that there are alternative ways of doing it right. Thanks for all your great posts!
Julie
Aug 7, 2007 at 9:05 pm
@Ariane - hey there! That is so true. We need to collaborate and write a book on how to find the right “system” for your personality type. Or has it already been written? :)
Thanks for stopping by.
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