Organization gives us Resilience
When we think of organization we often think of the pretty side of organizing - the beautiful shelves and containers and pantries we see in magazines and pinterest. There is no doubt that walking into a home or space that looks tidy feels amazing. I love transforming a space and seeing a client’s face will light up the first time they see it!
However, true organization runs deeper than looking pretty. While tidy, attractive spaces are the perks of being organized, the real value comes from the support we get from our organizational systems. Effective organization allows us to meet life’s challenges and to recover from them without that horrible feeling that everything's coming undone. Organization makes us more prepared, helps us recover faster, and makes us more resilient.
Organization is built upon the systems that help us find information and things, maintain our spaces, and perform the essential tasks of our lives. When I work with a client, I make every effort to tailor organizational solutions to that person and their life circumstances so that I can give them lasting organization that won’t fail them when life gets challenging. Challenges in my own life this past month really highlighted the importance of these systems and how impossible it is to fix weak systems when times are tough.
On a Friday afternoon, during what I thought would be a routine operating system update, my computer crashed. By Saturday afternoon, the wonderful people at Apple repaired my computer but I lost every photo, file, note, and byte of data stored on my Mac. The next day, my dad became ill and I traveled out of state to be with him. My mother and I remained by his side at the hospital until his passing, and I extended my stay to support my mom with arrangements and provide companionship. In the end, I was away from home for nearly a month. It was a difficult month and I know that I’ve struggled to get back to my usual levels of productivity. I am grateful for the role my existing systems played in allowing me to navigate through this time and recover. Four systems in my life that I’ve worked to organize became the real superstars during this difficult time.
Backups - I have backups of my backups and that actually turned out to be really important. I follow the 3-2-1 rule of backups - I have at least 3 copies of my data, 2 are on different media, and at least one copy is off-site. That sounds like a lot of redundancy but I’m here to tell you not to depend on only one backup because I learned that my Icloud photo backup was incomplete. It was an incredible relief to know all my photos existed in two other backups. If this sounds complicated and overwhelming, do what I did and hire a computer expert to help set up backup procedures. As stressed as I was when my computer would not restart, I cannot imagine how stressed I would have been without backups.
Contacts - Last year I reviewed my work systems and found that I was losing time searching for contact information and addresses amidst my notes and desk. I realized that it took me less than two minutes to add a new contact to my iphone. Once my iphone was updated, I could easily back up that information and import to the other systems that help me run my business. My new habit allowed me to go from paper and post-it notes to having accurate contact information at my finger-tips. This information became invaluable when I needed to communicate with clients, friends, neighbors, and family while my notes were in my office 750 miles away.
Passwords - My work and personal passwords are kept in a password app that I access from my computer and my phone. I use the family account feature of 1Password which allows our family to have access to important info like ssn numbers, car registrations, uploaded legal documents as well as passwords. Having a secure but accessible home for all my passwords and important information made the experience of working without a computer while away from home possible. It even allowed us to avoid a ‘phishing’ email as my husband could log into my business website hosting dashboard and confirm that my payments were up to date. I shudder to think what would have happened if we had clicked on that email!
Closet - I asked my husband to pack extra clothing for me and bring with him when he came down to Mississippi. It was a nice surprise to know that we accomplished that task with just one phone call and a few texts for confirmation. Having a highly organized closet and home simplified the process of guiding him to locate my shoes, coat and other essentials.
Frequently, clients come to me because they have fallen into disorganization brought about by life’s challenges. When your home and work systems depend on you to do everything and know where everything is, YOU must be present for the systems to function properly. Trust me when I say that life can change dramatically in a blink of an eye. The efforts we invest in organizing and automating our systems will prove invaluable when we need help the most. That is the resilience that organization builds into our life. And having things pretty and tidy never hurts.