Working Caregiver- Find Order in Chaos
Written by Lucy Katz, Katz Builders, Inc.
Organization Tips for Family Caregivers & Seniors
Written by Lucy Katz to help builders and contractors organize. This article helps family caregivers and seniors organize too. Read on to lessen your stress when helping an aging parent, older relative, or aging loved one!
One of the major sources of stress today is a lack of organization. I've listened to some people lament over how difficult it is for them to be organized, while others have said "that’s just the way I am," as though disorganization is a genetic trait. Over the years, I’ve watched and listened to suggestions of how "other" people stay organized, and those that really manage the task, I admire greatly. My goal in writing this article is to change my bad habits and not do as I do but do as I say.
Getting our professional and personal lives organized is not all that difficult, but it does require discipline and concentration. Sticking with the status quo if you are disorganized only guarantees that things will get worse as well as creates an increased level of stress. Lack of organization never seems to heal itself!
How to Find Order
Take a look at your list of things to get done on any given day. If it seems overwhelming and you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, then follow these simple steps.
Prioritize. This is one of the first steps to bringing order into our chaotic lives. Not everything is equally important, and you need to evaluate where things rank on your to-do list. Prioritizing has two main components: a mindset and an action plan. One cannot exist without the other. If you only do half the job, you will have little or no effect. Setting your mindset. Our industry seems to create and encourage a "firefighter" personality - days often consist of going from one "fire" to another and putting them out. Often "fires" that are being put out may be better left undone in order to concentrate on more important things. The only way to test this is to stop before you do a task and ask yourself: "do I really need to do this now or would it be better if I left it undone and concentrated on something more worthwhile?" Analyze youractivities to see if you are prioritizing them. Are you giving attention to those tasks that need the most attention or simply reacting to the tasks that "yell the loudest." Developing your action plan. Once you have made the commitment to prioritizing as a goal, it is time to put your mindset into action.
Use a "to-do" list to prioritize your activities, listing your action items by priority. Commit to not ending your day until those top six items are taken care of. Sometimes, when put into writing, a seemingly important activity will lose a lot of its perceived importance and can be relegated lower in terms of priority.
Managing Your Time
Time management goes hand in hand with prioritizing. Both take work before they become a habit. You may spend some time spinning your wheels as you begin to make decisions as to what is important and what carries much less importance, but simply making these decisions will sharpen your skills. Think of time in terms of money. Like money, the time that you waste (or don’t use efficiently) is gone forever. And like your finances, knowing where your time is going now is the only way you will ever be able to change how you are spending it. Take a "time inventory" for a week. Mark down all of your activities and how long you spend doing each of them. This need be nothing more than a notebook, kept on a daily basis, that keeps track of your time expenditures. For example, if you get up at 6 a.m. and stretch, jot that down. If you take a two-hour business lunch one day, jot that down too. Over several days, you will be able to assess where your time is being spent.
More Tips:
Learn to Delegate. Don't say "it's better if I just do it myself" when doing so does not leave you enough time to complete the tasks you need to do.
Do! Don't talk. You'll get a whole lot more accomplished if you simply plan your tasks and then do them.
Organizing Your Desk. Start by taking seven boxes and labeling them with the following:
1. To file, to do, to read, contacts, office equipment, magazines/catalogs, other rooms.
2. Sort items as you uncover them, and don't get side tracked with unnecessary trips to other rooms.
Read full article on Find Order in Chaos for Seniors and Family Caregivers.
Lucy Katz, Katz Builders, Inc. Contact Lucy@KatzBuilders.com
