I so many times hear the phrase, "Ok, I'm going to wise up and get organized", or "I need to be a little more productive". Few people realize that these two go hand in hand, there are very few cases of unorganized productivity or an organized lack of productivity. The second can sometimes arise, but then all people need is the extra push. The first one however only occurs with true geniuses or artists and so on.
It says a lot though, that even the best of minds, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Nicola Tesla, all devised organizational methods for themselves. In fact, some of today's most popular organization fads are based on these. The Moleskine notebook shows some similarity to Edison's method, while the web application Joe's Goals can be tied to Benjamin Franklin.
Why You Need to Get Organized
Everyone's brain really is like a computer. It structures, stores, calls upon and uses information. To be most effective it stores it in special ways, it organizes, even without your intervention. Do you know the sensation when you remember an event from a smell? Your brain „filed" this info as an „attachment" to that smell record. This was very IT-like, but it does work similarly. As you can see your brain automatically organized, that is why you should too.
When you organize, you will automatically become efficient, since you will not only remember things better, due to a more logical setting, but you will be able to find what you need effortlessly. While you "stumbled on" that event in your memories by accident (a familiar smell), you can find anything with a good filing system.
This clarity also cleans your brain, which means you do not have to actually remember that many things. While you will remember more, your brain knows it does not have to, since it is all down somewhere, so a lot of mental stress is taken off your shoulders. This lets you concentrate, doing more, doing it better, and doing it without any stress. Starting to see why organization is the path to productivity?
How to Get Organized
This is a hard question. It's not easy to start off, but everyone needs a different method. Since everyone thinks differently and has different experiences (the smell that brought you a memory is meaningless to me), therefore different ways of storage, recall and structure is needed.
What you do need to make sure is that you relieve yourself of stress. You need to find a way where you get everything out of your brain and down on paper, in an application or some other method you devise. I favor web apps personally, since they give you a lot of storage and easy recall.
You may want to try some to do lists like Remember Milk, Vitalist, or maybe try some calendars like Google Calendar or HipCal. There are a lot of other apps out there. You could try the GTD method (also a lot of apps available for this) or the Moleskine method.
If you want to keep track of some of these methods and apps, and maybe put a few tricks up your sleeve you should visit some of the top productivity and Internet technology blog. Lifehacker has been one of my favorites for years, but Hack Your Day and Ask The Admin are also great sites.
