Linda is 43 years old, a professional business woman who is great at her job in sales and was promoted to manage several offices around the city. She’s risen through ranks of her company using a combination of personality and smarts. But Linda has a secret.
It isn’t a big secret, but it does cost her time, money, and sometimes extreme frustration.
In January, she called me in and asked me to help her “get organized.” It’s the most common reason people call me.
However, “getting organized” means something vastly different to each person.
I walked into Linda’s office on a rainy Tuesday morning and encountered a very tidy space, a very put together woman, and big giant secret.
Linda’s secret? Under that put together exterior was chaos.
Her computer files – chaos.
Business card management – chaos.
Files drawers, desk drawers, purse, briefcase – chaos.
Even how she managed her time and energy – chaos!
How she was so successful on the outside with such chaos going happening on the inside is something that is becoming more common each year.
Many people are holding on by their fingernails, reacting frantically to each new phone call, email, and task or project being added to an already too-long To Do list. The volume of it all has created real chaos for people and now they feel like they are drowning in it.
I often hear, “I’d love to get some help with this, but I’m already working 80 hours a week just to keep my head above water.”
Or, “I’d love to manage my To-Do lists and email more effectively, but I simply do not have the time.”
So, back to Linda. I asked her a bunch of questions to get to the root of the chaos:
- How is she currently using her time?
- What are her biggest frustrations and tolerations?
- Were any triggers in the recent or distant past that caused the chaos to start and snowball?
- Is she paying attention to her energy?
- Is her email use reactive or responsive (in other words, is she controlling her use of email or is it controlling her?
And of course I got ask my favorite question: what are you going to actually DO with all those business cards, scraps of paper, and outdated files? The point of holding onto them is…?
Because Linda stopped everything and took three hours to work with me that rainy Tuesday morning, she started on a new path – one that helped her feel more in control and much less chaotic. We didn’t solve all the problems or eliminate the chaos completely, but at least she was now heading in the right direction! It’s a process – one step at a time.
How about you? Can you stop for three hours in order to take back some control? Are you walking the chaos path, tripping over your stuff, out of balance and needing change?
Give MBS, Inc. a call today – we CAN help. (704) 553-8082 or [email protected]