We’ve all heard that it is bad to be disorganized, but do you actually know why? Have you ever calculated the price of disorganization? You might be surprised at some of the ways disorganization costs you. Let’s explore some of the drawbacks to being disorganized.

CALCULATE THE FINANCIAL COST

Disorganization is an insidious drain on your wallet. The money leak happens in little dribbles, but over time it becomes a flood that sweeps you away. You can’t find your electric bill to pay it until a week after the due date – 18% finance charge. You throw your mail in a pile unopened on the desk and a conference registration deadline passes you by – $50 late fee. You shove your bank statements into a drawer without looking at them and overlook an error in your last deposit – $100 lost. It’s a pretty simple equation; the more disorganized you are, the more money you are likely losing.

RECLAIM YOUR WASTED SPACE

It has been said that we are bombarded with more information in one day than medieval peasants processed in a year’s time. Most of it comes in the form of paper! The stacks are slowly causing our disorganization to worsen. Without a good system for staying on top of it all (read that as “throwing away or recycling 90% and filing the 10% that matters”), even the valuable documents become disorganized clutter. It has become so overwhelming that many people pay the “document storage” industry thousands of dollars a year to babysit boxes of files they never use – we’ve got a serious disorganization epidemic!

PLUG ANY DRAINS ON YOUR TIME

Disorganization can also be found in your schedule. If any of the following apply to you, you may have a disorganized schedule:

• You always run late, no matter how hard you try to get out of the house on time.
• You are going 90 miles an hour every day, but can’t seem to get caught up.
• “Time wasters” like procrastination and interruptions keep you from ever completing a project
• You can’t focus on your real priorities because your to-do list is always full of busy work.

It’s time to get off the disorganization treadmill!

STOP WASTING EMOTIONAL ENERGY

How often has the stress in your life been related to disorganization? Your mood is greatly affected by how smoothly your day goes. Have you ever had things spin out of control because you ran late, missed a deadline or spent 20 minutes searching for your car keys? How do you feel when you come across a document you should have acted upon months ago? Guilty? Stupid? Remorseful? We beat ourselves up unnecessarily over being disorganized. But it is depressing to see nothing but piles and stacks around you – like your life is out of control. The mental toll is just as great as the more tangible costs of disorganization.

DECIDE TO BE ORGANIZED

Once you realize how much disorganization is costing you, you have a REASON to want to change. Keep the vision of a clutter-free and chaos-free life in front of you for motivation as you move forward with your organizing efforts. It’s never too late to stop being disorganized!

by Ramona Creel