For Meeting Planners: Organizing Your Office for Less Stress and More Profit

If you discovered your speaking career depended on how organized your office was, your reaction could range from complete composure to sheer terror. Even the most successful professional speakers sometimes utter, "Some day I'm really going to get organized," but purging files, organizing computer files, tackling piles of unread journals, or learning a new software program (even one that will help you get organized!), usually gets pushed to the bottom of your list of priorities while you handle today's crisis.

But can you afford to ignore overstuffed files, unidentified computer files, unlabeled floppy disks, miscellaneous handouts, nebulous receipts, and a generally cluttered office? In years past, it was possible to postpone or even ignore "getting organized," but today it is not, for three major reasons:

1. The amount of information you have to organize is greater than ever before. Although computers once promised us the paperless office, most of us are organizing more paper than ever before. With computer files, faxes, e-mail, voice mail, and on- line services, organization is essential. 2. The demand from meeting planners for a quick turnaround on information is increasing. Meetings are planned with less and less lead-time. As a result, meeting planners need information quickly. If they can send us a fax in 15 seconds, we can't wait a week to reply, and expect them to hire us.

3. The number of people staffing Businesses is decreasing. That means we have to do whatever we can to make meeting planners jobs easier. Managers and staff at all levels are required to produce more in less time, and it is to our advantage to help them accomplish that challenge.

So what is an "organized office?" Don't confuse organization with neatness. Remember that old adage "A place for everything and everything in its place?" In my experience, it's half right. A place for everything is very important, but everything in its place may not be. The stress comes, not from the clutter, but when you'd like to clean up the clutter, but don't know where to put it so you can find it again! To put it another way, organization gives you the "ability to recover." The reality of the speaking Business today is that we often find ourselves in a crisis mode -- flights canceled, meetings scheduled at the last minute, etc. Good organization makes it possible to recover from these inevitabilities in the least stressful way.

My definition of "organized" is very simple: "Does it work?" and "Do I like it?" If what you do affects other people, you should ask a third question, "Does it work for others?" If the answer to any of these questions is "No," here are five suggestions to help you get started on the road to organization:

1. Remember that clutter is postponed decisions. The reason that desks and filing cabinets become inundated with paper -- and our computers with files -- is that there are decisions we have not made. In fact, there are only three decisions you can make about any document: toss (or, hopefully, recycle), file or act. In my experience, in the typical day's mail, you can toss 40% and file 40%, which leaves only 20% to clutter your desk.

2. Use your wastebasket frequently and encourage others to do the same. When I first started as a consultant, I used to have nightmares that someone would call and say, "When you were here we threw out ... and (something terrible) happened." In 18 years, I've never received such a call! Research shows we use only 20% of what we keep, but how do you decide what you really need? For each piece of information (paper or electronic) ask these questions:

? Does this require action?

? Does it exist elsewhere?

? Would it be difficult to get again?

? Are there any tax or legal implications?

? Is it recent enough to be useful? If all the answers are "No," but you're still not sure, ask one last question: "What's the worst thing that could happen if I didn't have this?" If you can live with the results -- toss it.

3. Implement a good system for keeping