Signs you need to get organized
Are you always late to lunch or meetings? You can’t find your keys. You don’t always pay your bills on time. People have to remind you about commitments. Or maybe you just feel edgy thinking you’ve forgotten to do something – but aren’t sure?

Perhaps you say to yourself, “This is just how I am,” or “I’ve never been organized.” But secretly you’d like to get more done. What’s cool is that so much of what we do is based on habit. And habits can change! You just need a good reason to get organized and that’s what this blog is all about.

My dis-organized past
My organizational journey started in advertising, a business that prides itself on chaos and last-minute jolts of busyness to complete creative projects. Working as an account executive, I loved the energy but hated racing against deadlines, knowing I wasn’t doing my best work.

When I got the opportunity to run the creative department at a direct marketing company outside of Boston, I jumped at the chance. Direct marketers build catalogs and websites, track what they sell, make changes, and sell more. Direct marketing is an industry built on organization and I loved it – until I realized my new job felt just like my old job – with a huge number of fast-changing variables, a zillion last-minute fixes, and a constant rush of deadlines – all leading to mediocre output.

Putting the puzzle pieces together
My life changed when the direct marketing company I worked for brought in an organizational consultant. His advice around setting long-term goals, pulling apart big projects into workable pieces, and ditching to-do lists in favor of planners, was freeing and mind-expanding. I could do anything I set my mind to. I could mix personal goals and business goals. I could work smarter and not longer hours.

Focusing on organization sent my career into overdrive with results so good I was recruited by L.L. Bean, the mother-ship of direct marketers, to run the business end of their creative department.

Today, I work full-time building community connections through programming at our local library. I work as an independent publishing consultant. And I run two online businesses. On the personal side, organizational insights got me writing, a passion I kept private for a long time, but which later blossomed into a novel, Gunny Malone; a play, The Mysterious Case of the Missing Ring; and most recently, a musical, The Dragon’s Well which I’m working on getting produced and published.

After getting Gunny out the door, I decided I wanted to get back on stage, a former passion, and took the necessary baby steps to become an actor, singer, prop-maker, and director. Theater is a passion for me, and by being organized, I have time to include  tons of theater in my schedule

So what do you want to get done?
What are you ready to declutter from your life? What drives you to do your best work? What secret talents do you want to share with the world? What would you like to accomplish in your time here on Earth?

I started Organizational Habits to share ideas, tools, and inspiration because I know what a difference being organized has made in my life. I hope reading this blog helps you figure out how you can get more done, and helps you find the peace of organizational Zen.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with questions. I’d love to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Janie Downey Maxwell
janie@organizationalhabits.com
207-233-3339