Could your pursuit of organizational skills really be hurting you?

For years I was an organizational skills freak. I studied Stephen Covey, Laura Stack and David Allen relentlessly. I spent hours researching and trying new Palm applications. I tried every Outlook add-in that I could find.

I was juggling a corporate job, my own startup AND this fascination that I had with the “latest and greatest” organizing tools and concepts.

I was spending hours a day trying to be better organized

My quest for better organizational skills was my most debilitating pursuit!

This lasted for a few years. Then, the startup ended and I moved on to a new corporate position. I have been here about three years now. It took me this entire time to understand what Nike means by “Just Do It”.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have always had that “whatever it takes attitude” (like any successful entrepreneur) and I have always been motivated and fearless enough to “go for it” whenever I had a new, feasible and profitable idea come to mind but I just could not get this organization thing down pat. My new company uses Lotus Notes and Blackberry’s. My home office is equipped with Outlook.

I was between a rock and a hard place.

I tried Covey again, I tried Covey knock-offs, I used a plain notebook, Moleskine notebooks, another Palm, I was all over the place when it came to time management and daily planners.  Then finally I told myself that I just needed to take control. Get out from under all of the clutter.  My Covey system used to work great for me and I was in touch with what needed done and had records of everything that I could possibly need to reference.

So I just did it. I went back to my Covey system while incorporating a bit of the David Allen Getting Things Done (GTD) organizational skills I had learned.

So what is the takeaway here?

There is always going to be something new and innovative. Bigger and better. But sometimes it is OK to stay with what you know. Be comfortable with your comfort zone. I thought being comfortable meant I was complacent. That may be true when it comes to motivation but not when it comes to organizational skills. If you find something you like and it works for you right away, adapt and utilize it. But, if you need to tweak, research, adapt again, research more and so on and so on, you may be wasting your time.

Check out some forums on GTD. There are countless posts of people struggling to be better organized, struggling with minute details of how to implement this and implement that. Take that time and put it into being productive. I have and I am back in a groove, getting things done and not skipping a beat. Just my two cents.

Filed under: Business Strategy