Article Organizing “Efficiently” for 2008 by Linda J. Hutchinson "Out of clutter, find simplicity ... From discord find harmony... In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." Albert Einstein For more than two years I’ve been showing TWC members how
to become more organized so that each could find more time to write. This year, I’m going to depart from that a bit while taking some cues from Albert Einstein. Einstein was likely one of the most intelligent humans on the planet in his time. He believed more in “efficiency” rather than in being organized. If you’ve ever seen photos of his work area, you’d think him not very organized, indeed. However, he believed: that we should put only enough energy into an effort to achieve what really matters to us, thereby not wasting time or energy; one should know what matters and what doesn’t and then don’t sweat the small stuff; live your life by
drawing close only those things that are important to your success; and, knowing where to find what you need is better than wasting your time memorizing information that you may or may not need. Of course, I’m paraphrasing and probably putting words in the old think-master’s mouth that I shouldn’t, but you get the idea. I did a quick Google search to find information on organization for our first Spotlight of 2008. There are specialized courses to train us to become professional organizers. Literally thousands of companies are listed, and get paid huge sums of money to do nothing but organize our homes, our offices, our closets, our cubicles, our … Fr*e advice is
plentiful at Ramona Creel’s OnlineOrganizing.com. At www.onlineorganizing.com/expertadvicetoolbox.asp you’ll find free-to-publish articles on how to organize just about everything. Good advice, freely shared, is a very efficient means of helping ourselves and others. From an article by Nathan Shaw, The Organize Doctor: “Organization is about orderliness: a place for everything, and everything in its place.” He goes on to say: “Efficiency is about cutting waste out of your way and going straight for the maximum value opportunity. Even when conditions aren't perfect, or things
aren't 100% perfectly ordered.” Of course we need to “be organized” to write. We need to be able to find what we need when we need it. We need to track our submissions. We need to know which editor is looking for our best work. We need to be in top sparring form to fight our way to the top of the heap. We all know we should have the basics of office supplies and equipment and most of us do. Some of us are better at using those supplies than others. Even those of us who should know better can get caught with our pants down. I received a phone call just before Christmas from the PR guy at a community college. I’d covered a story for a magazine that involved moving a donated FedEx plane from the airport, down a heavily traveled street to the college, using all manner
of specialized and custom-built equipment. The college will transform the plane into a first class, one-of-a-kind simulator, to train law enforcement and homeland security personnel. The PR guy wanted to know if I had any extra copies of the published article suitable for framing. I do. But … I’m so far behind on filing, I couldn’t lay my hands on them during the phone call. My internal justifier told me I couldn’t find them because dear husband had gotten me out of the shower to take the call and I was standing in my office wrapped in a towel. This is not a mental image I’d like to leave anyone with, and we all know the truth. I’ve since made sure he’ll get the copies (containing my byline), but it was embarrassing at the time. Lucky for me, he still gave me information
and contact names for a future article for the same magazine, this time about specialized training offered at the college on the latest state-of-the-art commercial heavy equipment—information I won’t misplace. While researching for this article I found some sites so basic a third grader could have done them better. Those didn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling about their ability to teach me, or anyone else, how to be organized—or efficient. There are a few ebooks for sale to teach us how to be organized. I haven’t read them, so I won’t endorse them. I doubt they cover any more than what we’ve taught right here at TWC—for fr*e. I also found a link to a book at amazon.com about organizing corpses. Now, that one intrigues me. I might draw that one closer, in the interest of
being a more efficient mystery writer. In the end, each of knows what we need to do to get and to stay organized. It’s the getting it done that gets in the way. If we truly want to succeed as writers we’ll each find a system that works for us. Or, we won’t be successful writers. Not being successful isn’t an option for many of us. To give you a jumpstart on getting organized and meeting your goals, get your fr*e writer’s calendar here: http://www.organizedwriter.com/calendar/CalendarFREE.pdf Here’s to a very productive AND successfully efficient 2008 for each and all of us! Bio:
Multi-published freelancer Linda J. Hutchinson writes about parenting, food, volunteerism, writing, heavy equipment, construction, and the art of using her grandchildren as the ultimate tools to get even with their parents. She’ll be scaling back her involvement at TWC to practice what she’s been preaching—to get more writing done. That won’t, however, prevent her from prodding Audrey and Renee’—two of the funniest writers she knows—to continue to stretch beyond their comfort zones. After all, why not? www.lindajhutchinson.com | 
