Get It Together

How to get organized at work and at home-and why you'll be more productive once you've simplified.

Atlanta-based organizing expert Monica Ricci is the author of Organize Your Office In No Time, a busy person's guide to tackling clutter and disorganization at work. See full bio

May 11, 2009, Happiness

Carpe Momentum

Action action, we want action! Action is key to success!

Action action, we want action! A-C-T! (clapclapclap) I-O-N! I'm soooo not a cheerleader. I admit, I tried out in sixth grade but just wasn't quite good enough to make the squad. Damn those pretty girls! (No worries, I got over it.)

Today I am a cheerleader for my clients and anyone who will listen to my enthusiastic take on simplicity and making life easier! This morning, I'm cheering about ACTION! Woo! Yay! Go team!

Action is the one thing that makes all other things happen. Thoughts are great and they should always be positive and results-oriented, but as lovely as they are, thoughts without action are useless. For example, thinking about food is cool, but dang, at some point you have to actually eat!

I believe the ability to act in the moment is one of the key characteristics of organized people. They THINK of actions, tasks and projects they want or need to do, and then ACT in a timely manner. The short time delay from their thought to action is what keeps them moving forward, keeps them caught up, prepared and organized.Things go ON their plate, then come OFF their plate.

So here's today's question: Are YOU thought-oriented or action-oriented?

Do you seize the moment and ACT, or do you think about the action then tell yourself that you'll act "later"?

When you think, "I need to do laundry", do you get up, grab a load of clothes and start it then? When you think, "I need to sort the mail", do you pick up the mail and begin it then? If you can start to notice when you have these kind of action-oriented thoughts and then act on them immediately (when appropriate), you'll find you get your maintenance out of the way as it happens, so those tasks won't pile up and haunt your weekends. Acting in the moment means things have a hard time pililing up and that's great news for you. Your home (and your mind) will be less cluttered on a day to day basis, so you'll have more time for other things.