Coaching About Organizing

It's amazing how often as a coach you end up coaching someone around an issue that's all too familiar to you. It happened again yesterday. I was working with a client who is struggling a little with personal organization. He's a collector -- he keeps everything because someday it might be useful, or it's just too good to toss or otherwise get rid of. And he doesn't enjoy organizing -- there's too much else to do that's more fun. The problem is, all the horizontal surfaces around him are filled with stacks of stuff, and often he can't find what he wants. He enjoys having everything organized and in it's place -- he just doesn't particularly enjoy taking the time and effort to make it that way. That sounds very familiar to me, because I'm a lot like that. I was totally able to relate to my client.

But I was also able to help him devise a plan to get started changing his situation. It's interesting that most of the time we know pretty well how to fix what it is about us that is bothersome -- we just need encouragement. His plan is to begin sorting through stuff with the goal of getting rid of a lot of it. Then he plans to organize what's left and assign a place for it. He and I both realize that we'll never be neat freaks, but there is a level of organization that we need to feel good about ourselves and function well.

And, my conscience has made me pledge to do some tossing and organizing myself -- even though there are so many other things I want to do that seem to be more fun!