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Your first step in coming up with
effective organizational strategies is recognizing that you may be truly
disorganized. Take this unofficial “test” and see whether becoming better
organized is an area you need to work on.
Read each of the following statements
and see to what extent each statement describes you. Use the following ratings
to help you better gauge how disorganized you are:
3
= Very much like me
2
= Somewhat like me
1
= A little like me
0
= Not at all like me
1. Your home is filled with far too
much stuff.
2.Your closets, drawers, and cabinets
are disorganized.
3.You’re frequently late for your
appointments.
4.You’re a big procrastinator.
5.You find that you spend lots of
time looking for things you’ve misplaced.
6.You’re often late paying your
bills.
7.Your friends and family tell you
that you have a problem with clutter.
8.You feel stressed out by all the
stuff in your home.
9.Your computer files are generally
disorganized.
10.You rarely use lists to help you
get organized.
11.You buy duplicates of things you
already own because you can’t find the originals.
12.Your desk or workspace is
disorganized.
13.You feel you don’t have enough
time to get organized.
You probably answered with twos or
threes for at least a few of these quiz items. However, if you identify
strongly with many or most of these statements, poor organizational skills may
be playing an important role in creating excessive stress in your life.
More important than determining a
global organizational score is identifying your specific areas and patterns of
disorganization. The following categories help you do this.
Identifying your
personal disorganization
Getting better organized means being
aware of the areas in which you could use some help. Disorganization can be
broken down to more discrete sub-groups. See which ones best describe your own
forms of disorganization.
You don’t manage your time well. If your time-management skills are wobbly, you find that
you often run late, miss deadlines, work inefficiently, procrastinate, plan
poorly, and feel overwhelmed by not having enough time. Too many things don’t
get done. Time management is such an important stress-reducing skill that it
warrants its own chapter .
You’re surrounded by clutter. You own far too many things, and those things are way out
of control. Your flat surfaces are invitations to put stuff on, preferably in
piles. You have great difficulty getting rid of your stuff. It could be
clothes, books, papers, out-of-date electronics, or broken just-about-anything.
You feel like you’re drowning in your stuff, and you’re not terribly optimistic
that the situation is going to change.
Your home is in constant disarray. Your storage spaces are randomly organized. Cabinets and
closets are a mish-mash of organization. Finding anything is a hit-and-miss
affair. You make poor use of containers, storage bags, shelves, and drawers.
You rarely use labels.
You lack a good system for keeping track of bills and other important
information. Your
personal records, bills, passport, mortgage paperwork, and important files are
somewhere, but you aren’t sure just where. You have no filing system. You don’t
use your computer, tablet, or smartphone to help you organize your life.
Copyright © Allen Elkin Phd – Originally appeared in Stress Management for Dummies 2nd edition by Allen Elkin
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