How To Fake Being Organized

Turn Here is a guest column on Wednesdays by Caitlin McCabe who blogs over at Smile Like You Mean It and is into architecture, social media, and irreverence.

I am not nor have I ever been an organized person. It’s not like I ever set out to simply ignore the rules of being organized….. it’s just not something that comes naturally to me. For example: remember “clean out your cubby day” when you were in 4th grade? That was my nightmare. I was the kid with 100,000 papers jammed into their cubby so that they had to start a “clean your cubby day” to get the kid to take it all home. I’m not proud of it, it just is.

The worst part is I don’t really want to be organized I just want it to be ok. I just want it to look like I am the type of person that doesn’t have 100,000 papers jammed somewhere.

Over the years I have learned enough tricks to seem like I’m organized enough that people actually tell me “you’re such an organized person” which makes me chuckle because it’s worked. I have enough tricks now to make it seem like I’m not the “clean out your cubby day” kid.

I’m not endorsing being unorganized but here are a few tips in a pinch.

1) Be on time. I can’t stress this enough. Being on time for a meeting sets the tone that people’s time is valuable and you respect that. My trick for this is to set every clock in my house and my car clock ahead at least 10 min. The person who is late always looks unorganized even if they aren’t. Forewarning: No one else in your household will enjoy the clock trick but you.

2) Send follow ups. People who send an email after a meeting with a client, interview, whatever will look well put together. Bonus points if you write the deliverables or next steps in the e-mail.

3) Carry your things in a nice folder. I like those folders that are leather and have pockets for business cards and a notebook. Don’t carry a junk notebook unless you take really good notes otherwise it will look sloppy. If you take few notes (I have a really good memory and I don’t take notes because I can’t pay attention and take notes) you’ll need something more professional.

4) Use Google calendar. I’m not a calendar person and have been beaten by so many calendars I’ve lost count. Not writing dates down means you’ll miss appointments so if you go into Google Calendar you can set up a million reminders for each appointment. I usually have at least 2 emails and 1 pop up and have managed to miss no calls or meetings in the last 6 months.

How to delegate for people who hate delegating

Turn Here is a guest column on Wednesdays by Caitlin McCabe who blogs over at Smile Like You Mean It and is into architecture, social media, and irreverence.

Something that not a lot of my online network knows is that I have fake nails.  Everyone in my face-to-face life has an opinion about it. For example, my mom hates them and tells me that it’s ridiculous.  My friend’s husband is enthralled with how much money I spend on them and lots of people think it’s wasteful and/or too much time to have them.  Some people like the fact that I paint them weird (I say stylish) colors.

Really, it’s none of those things.  Instead, my nails were lesson 1 for me in delegating.

Good grooming is important in business and so are your hands.   I hate the idea of presenting an idea with gross, chewed up nails so I started doing them myself.  Keeping up with this generally meant spending two hours each week and buying products.  When I had them professionally done, I only spent an hour every other week and $35.

Hi, my name is Caitlin and I have spent years learning to delegate.

That sentence has made me very, very busy throughout my life.  So busy that I’ve missed a lot of birthday parties, family brunches, movies, and get-togethers.  So busy that I’ve sometimes had a job title longer than I probably should have just because I was “way too busy” to take on any other responsibilities.  Being “super busy” doesn’t mean that you are really important or moving forward.  It just means that you might be halfway to work and realize that you forgot your laptop.  I have gotten to the office and realized that I forgot to put on a bra as a result of early morning conference calls and paperwork.

You are probably too busy too.

I know someone has written “the 4 hour workweek” but here’s the thing:  most of us are just trying not to go nuts with all of our to-do’s and maybe we need a baby step or two.  Also, there are people out there like me who just don’t really delegate well.  Here’s how you should start:

1) Realize that you are too busy. It’s possible you are too busy to move forward.  Once you admit that you are at capacity, you will be able to decide which things need to go.  So say it.  Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Ok, now you are ready to let someone else do something you were once doing, because you want to move forward right?

2) Start Small.  Delegate 1 thing.  For me, that one thing was the 2 hours I was spending doing my nails each week; there was just no way I was going to start with work delegation.   Pick out the thing that you spend 3 useless hours on a week that you can let someone else do.  Maybe it’s answering cold sales calls or explaining what your company does to people.  You might even be surprised, my nail people put my self-manicures to shame and once I calculated what I make an hour and apply it to the two hours I spent doing my nails, it’s less expensive to get them done.

3) Delegate beyond work.  Maybe you spend just the right amount of time on work and you can shift things in your personal life easily.  For example, could you join Peapod and stop grocery shopping?  Could you get a salon blowout and spend less time in the morning doing your hair?  Resist the urge to say that it’s more expensive because that’s assuming that your time is worth nothing which it isn’t.

4)  Pay someone.  This might make you feel better.  Simply asking someone else to take on more responsibility makes me cringe.  Why would someone do another job simply because I asked?  Even if I am their boss.  Create incentive.  Pay them or find some other reward to even the playing field.

The sort of sinister side to this is that if I pay someone or create a reward, I am far more justified in yelling at them if it’s not done or not done correctly.  I could have asked the New Jersey-ite to walk the dog every day, but since I don’t pay him I’d probably end up stuck with it occasionally and I couldn’t really yell at him.  So we hired a dog walker and spend a lot less time running home at noon to do it.

5) Don’t delegate jobs you love even if they are below you.  I will never delegate reading social media blogs.  Even if I am the most busy person in the universe.  My boss once tried to make me delegate advertising strategy sessions to someone else and I felt the bright spot going out of my day.  Don’t delegate things you love in order to move forward or you’ll regret it.

Once you start with small things, I promise it gets easier.

Purge first. Creativity second.

For creativity, you need to get rid of the crap. Your surroundings are a reflection of who you are, and the state of your environment is a reflection of the state of your mind.

I work best when everything is in its proper place. At this point, I should make a disclaimer. Everyone works differently. You might work well in crap. I cannot. The piles and dust and general disorder weigh on my mind. Like a big stinky dump truck with tin cans tied to the bumper that clang against the sides of my brain. No, I do not work well with disorder.

Chaos and confusion within your to-do list will also make a mess of your mind. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. Get it out of the way. Right now.

For me, it’s tough to deal with accounting-related tasks. Not only because I am so clearly a right-brained person, but because I’m also directly responsible for my own salary. It’s incredibly stressful. So I sub-consciously avoid the numbers game because it’s difficult and hard and sticky.

But it’s also incredibly important, so I push it to the forefront daily. After all, the show cannot go on without money, and I really love that thing called eating. So while I would really prefer to be brainstorming the next big idea, finishing the accounting makes me feel just as good, euphoric even.

Purging your to-do list of items that bring you anxiety means not only crossing off the difficult and boring tasks, but getting rid of the items that suck your energy.

For instance, I have a habit of adding unnecessary to-dos to my list. Items that are so ridiculously broad such as “recruitment,” or so entrenched in abbreviation like “LM to SC and in DB & Ltr” that I have no frickin’ clue what I’m supposed to be doing or where to start. Such items are now banned from my college-lined notebook. Don’t let them show up in yours. Sneaky rascals, those to-dos.

It’s kind of like the style shows where they embarrass people into dressing properly. The fashionable teach the outdated, passé, and defunct how to rid their closet of negative energy and bedazzaled Capri jeans. By doing so they make the simple act of getting dressed a retreat of confidence, coolness and beauty.

Now, just think if your to-do list were that sexy.

Face your work woes. Creativity will follow the work that you do and the risks you take.

Work woe no more.