8: Step 1: Assess. The Power of Planning Ahead
Planning for success. We are going in depth with each of the 7 Steps to Organizing (almost) Anything. In this episode, we are focusing on Step 1, which is the Assess Step of an organizing and productivity project.
In this episode we talk about:
- Planning your organizing and productivity project
- Questions to ask yourself when preparing to organize
- Reasons that planning reduces stress
- Avoiding overwhelm when organizing
Mentioned in this Episode:
Episode 1: 7 Steps to Organizing (almost) Anything
https://theorganizedflamingo.com/7-steps-to-organizing/
Episode 6: Should You Do It Yourself or Outsource It (M.A.P.S)
https://theorganizedflamingo.com/6-should-you-do-it-yourself-or-outsource-it/
The Organized & Productive podcast is brought to you by The Organized Flamingo and hosted by Stephanie Y. Deininger. For those of you who love the thought of organizing & being more productive, but don’t know where to start or constantly up against hurdles that don’t let you advance the way you want to, this podcast is for you!
Review full show notes and resources at https://theorganizedflamingo.com/podcast
Connect with Stephanie
https://www.instagram.com/theorganizedflamingo/
Review the Transcript:
There is a famous quote by Dale Carnegie that goes something like this, an hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing it is one of my most favorite quotes of all time, because it gives you the visualization of how much time you can save. When you have a plan. When you're organized, and you're new, you're productive, but most importantly, when you have a plan, and so that is what we are going to focus on today. Welcome to the organized and productive podcast with the organized Flamingo. I am your host, Stephanie, a professional organizer and productivity expert, ready to explore the right organizing and productivity solutions for you. Yeah, well, then let's go.
In today's episode, we are going in depth with one of the seven steps of organizing almost anything. What we're going to do is go deeper and more in detail with each of the seven steps in each of these episodes. So today's episode is all about assessing, which is the planning phase of an organizing and productivity project. If you're not familiar with our seven steps of organizing almost anything, you can head on over to one of the earlier episodes, which I will link in the show notes and get the big overview of what this is and how it helps you simplify your organizing and productivity projects. The concept is this, there are seven steps that we have identified and we being the organized Flamingo, the brand and our company that are critical for long lasting organizing and productivity efforts. After 20 years of being in this industry, I narrowed it down to the seven steps. And each step has its own sub steps that give you more detail and guidance. So this way, you have context over why each step is important. And that is why we are going to be outlining each one and giving you more details, because I do think that explanations help people understand steps in theories a little bit more. So that's what we're doing with these episodes. I'll give you examples and solutions on how to get through each particular step. And you can also find the guide over on our podcast page, which you can download for free. And that way, if you're more of a visual, you need a workbook or you're a note taker, that way, you can download the free guide and follow along with all of these episodes. Let's start with the first step. And the first step is the assessed step. There's a total of seven steps with smaller sub steps within each of them. And this format will give you flexibility with which order you go first and which one you do first, so there's seven of them. But steps two, through six, they can be interchanged with the order in which you do them in. So they don't have to go exactly 23456 They can go in any order. But this first step is really important. This one does come first. This one is all about setting you up for success in setting up the process. And so what we're going to do is we're going to start with step one. And then when I talk about the other steps, I'll give you options of how which one should be step two, but like I said, this particular episode, and this step is actually the first step you should be taking. So why do we call it assess instead of planning? When I was looking for the perfect word for this step,
I kept coming back to assess because it's the action of stepping back for a moment and thinking through what you want to do. Yes, I could have called a planning. But assessing is more than that. This is where you're thoughtful and less reactionary. Which is what you get when you're feeling when you get overwhelmed and disorganized and feeling like it's a hot mess Express like those feelings. That's usually tied to being reactionary, like you just go all in without thinking anything through. And although that's a great concept to have, maybe in life and other parts of your adventure as ways when it comes to organizing and planning, the last thing you want to do is be reactionary, because then that is when burnout happens. That is when you start a project and you're so excited, you've got the momentum going. And then because there was no plan midway through, it just becomes overwhelming, and then come back right where you started. Or you just don't even want to finish the project and you get disillusioned. So we want to avoid that. So the goal is to stand back and assess the project and your space. Ask yourself what your end goal is and work backwards from there. Here are some questions that I would suggest you ask yourself in this first step, your Why? Why do you want to get organized? Why are you trying to find a better productivity system? And the reason you should ask yourself this question is because you may find out that you are about to empty that closet or delete all of those files. Because somebody is made Can you do it, because you're feeling frustrated in the moment, but then months from now you go right back to your old habits. If you don't have a strong reason why you are trying to get organized, what's going to happen is that instead of a solution being presented, it will be a hindrance and their chore, and then you can start resenting the process. And we're trying to avoid that, we want a positive correlation to organize it and productivity, so that you're not looking at, I want to get organized because you have to, but because you want to. Some examples of this are, when you ask yourself, I want to get organized, because I hate being, you know, late for work all the time. Like that's a really strong emotion to have, I hate being late all the time to work, and I'm over it, I need to find a better solution that is strong, and very specific, which is what we want. Let me give you another example. So maybe you really aren't too worried about being fashionably late, like, that's something that doesn't pertain to you. But what you don't like about being late is that when you do get to your destination, or even if you're there early, you don't feel good about what you're wearing. And why because you couldn't find anything to wear. Because you don't have any organizing or system or way of finding the things that you do want to wear and feel good in. And that is really frustrating. So let's talk a little bit about digital organizing. So that side, right, an example of a really strong why is I never know what is due. And when I have a deadline, and I was told about it. And I'm always missing the opportunity because I don't open up the emails on time. I didn't maybe I opened it, maybe I opened it, but then didn't read it later forgot that I you know, to set the date on my calendar, or I only check emails whenever you know, once a week, and then I forget that there's something important there something to that effect. And that is frustrating me. That is a very specific, why that is you tie in an emotion that you don't like about an action that you keep doing repetitively, but you want to fix after you write down your why, which is very personal to you define the project plan, and its boundaries. So when you're assessing a project, when you're about to start a project, and you're stepping back, and you're you know, you wrote down your why, and you kind of know what you want to do, you want to organize this, you want to declutter this or you want to be more productive in this part of your life, you need to have a clearer understanding of what the project is supposed to accomplish, you will ask yourself what your goal is. But you also will set boundaries to it. And boundaries can look like this, they can look like putting in a budget. So making sure you have a budget. So I want to organize this part of my house by drawer, my closet in my garage, but I don't want to spend any more money, or I have a million dollars or I have 1000 or 100 devoted to this project. This will allow you to set some clear boundaries for yourself and for the project so that you can measure the progress along the way. Another example of this is setting time boundaries, which is really important. When you start a project, you should have at least an idea of when you would like to have this done by when would you like to accomplish this by you know the next by the end of the day, or in a week or a month, or maybe before the holidays, maybe before your next birthday, whatever it may be have a clear deadline. Because when you do, then you set yourself up for success with some boundaries and avoid the overwhelm that comes when projects start to run a little too long. Now that you have a plan, think about the realistic side and if it's doable, so what this means is okay, you have your why and you have a plan. But let's talk about how realistic it is to do. And if it's doable. And as you're answering these questions like you know what, this is a really big goal. This is a very aggressive goal. You know, I want to get all this done in a week. Wow, this is a lot now that I step back and look at it. This will help you determine what kind of help and resources you need to complete the project. And this is the part where you start to figure out okay, do I do it all myself? Do I outsource it which we have a framework called maps that you can utilize? We also did an episode about this, which I will link in the show notes. And it gives you four questions to ask yourself if you're trying to figure out if you should do it yourself or if you should outsource it. It's a great handy set of questions that will help you determine which way to go. But this is the part where you're starting need to figure out okay, I have a plan. But I just need to know what kind of resources I need. Is it realistic, and or do I need to change parts of the plan so that it does become doable and realistic for me. And I set myself up for success. Along the lines of setting yourself up for success and figuring out if it's doable or realistic. The roadblocks, this is a really good time for you ident to identify risks and challenges. Don't overthink it, this is not one step that you should be going too much in depth in. assess the potential risks and challenges that the project may have. So for instance, if you're organizing your garage, what are some of the risks? Well, I it could rain, so if I put everything out, it could rain. So just have some kind of like a backup a plan B. This also includes financial, technical and people related issues and roadblocks. So if you're relying on other people to help you with this project, if they're no no longer able to help you, that's going to be a roadblock, that's going to be a risk. And that's the time, this is the time for you to address that to kind of let it out to get it out of your system. So that you're not worried too worried about it later. So that you can kind of get it out side of your body in your mind. And you can at least have a little bit of a plan B, here is where you will figure out how these risks could affect the project's success and identify measures to mitigate them. So if it does rain, or if your computer did crash, what's the worst that will happen? You know, and then this is where you write those things down. So you can just get them like I said, get them out of your system. And last, figure out a way of how you're going to monitor the process and do some check ins. Maybe it's calling a friend or accountability partner and asking them to call you in the mornings to check in on you. Maybe you're doing a co working session. Coaching and accountability programs are great for this. Because you know, you can set a specific time when you will work on this project, and you will have accountability at the end. But accountability is really important. You don't necessarily have to have somebody else like another human being to do it for you, you can do timers. Another type of accountability is if you have like a reminder or reward system. So check. If you're more of a reward system type of person, then maybe you know, after two or three hours of working on your project, you will get up and go for a walk or have a treat or have your favorite beverage. Reward yourself in that way if that is your reward language. But there's all kinds of ways that you can monitor your progress. If you're more of a visual person and you like checking off boxes, a planner or something that is visually pleasing that you can you know, cross off like a checklist or something like that, that will be your preferred reward system, but figure out a way that you can monitor the process progress and actually see the needle moving forward every time you hit one of your milestones that you've identified in your plan. So now that we have a detailed look at step one, assessing your organizing and productivity project, how are you feeling? Does this feel a little less overwhelming and knowing that stepping back and planning for a moment, just a moment isn't that bad, just stepping back for just a second.
Just remember that planning ahead it can help you reduce uncertainty prevents last minute overwhelm, helps you prioritize gives you the momentum that you may need. But it also allows for flexibility because it's a plan, not a rule set in stone. This is a plan that you're making for yourself. So let us know what organizing and productivity plan that you've got planned next, we'd love to cheer you on. So tag us over on social media and happy organizing. We will be back in a couple of episodes to talk about step two through six in further detail. Thank you for listening to the organized and productive podcast with the organized Flamingo. If you enjoyed today's episode, I would love it if you'd leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast player. It helps with letting people know that we're here are full show notes and resources head on over to the organized flamingo.com/podcast Happy organizing!