Being "organized":
- saves the time you presently spend hunting things
- makes you appear more professional and competent
- shows you care - about yourself and about your work/family/hobby
- is MUCH less frustrating than being dis-organized

The best organization plans work around the way YOU do things. Do you always sit at a desk in the den to answer your mail and pay your bills? Do you return phone calls from your kitchen, your car, or your bedroom?

Rule #1
Whenever possible, store and accumulate items where you use them. If you return your phone calls from the kitchen, the message pad, telephone book, and phone lists need to be in the kitchen.

Rule #2
When its not possible to store items where you use them, collect items in a portable container. If your kitchen isn't big enough to make storing your phone book and lists there, consider a portable file folder.

Rule #3
Sort similar items together into stacks/folders/notebooks no bigger than what you are willing to dig through to routinely get that item. One method is to store receipts in envelopes by month and writing the month and a list of the major purchases on the front. Although you cannot locate a particular receipt very quickly, this method is "good enough" for items that you will not generally need to find. On the other hand, day planners have tabs for each month, each phone list, the current day, etc. because you will be accessing those items very frequently.

Rule #4
NEVER touch an item twice if you can put it away the first time it is in your hand. When your club's Vice-President of Education hands out the club schedule for the next quarter, put it in your day planner IMMEDIATELY. Do NOT stack it with other handouts, coupons or lists to add to the stack of similar items on your coffee table at home! It may never make it back out of that stack and will you have any idea where it is a week from now when you want to check out what your part on next week's program is.