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Organization - Ways Writers Work Too Hard Series Part 5

Organization – Ways Writers Work Too Hard Series Part 5

Organization - Ways Writers Work Too Hard Series Part 5
Image by Gerrit Schneider

Organization – Ways Writers Work Too Hard Series Part 5

“Let’s see. Where did I leave off? Let me just check my notes. Oh no! I can’t find them. Notes, where’d you go?”

It’s easy to lose things. Even the most organized writers lose things from time to time. Before I could write this article, I had a little trouble finding my notebook. I mean, *the* notebook that has all the answers to my questions (okay, not *all* of the answers, but a lot of them).

The problem was, I didn’t lose it. Since I had taken a bit of a hiatus to gain clarity on where I want to be in life and what I want to do to get there, I couldn’t remember which notebook contained the information I needed. After about ten minutes of panicking and flipping through notebook pages, I found what I had been looking for. I wasted valuable writing time and caused myself some preventable anxiety. (BTW, I recommend taking some time off if you feel you’re spinning your wheels.)

I have trouble remembering where computer files run off to as well. When it’s so quick and easy to create another folder or file whenever and wherever it’s convenient, multiple files can stack up.

But that creates disorganization, and being disorganized causes stress, anxiety, and extra work looking for documents.

After working in an office environment for the past year, there is one thing that stands out as being most critical to operating an effective business and keeping employees employed, and that is organization. When files are in disarray, things get missed, balls get dropped.

To become better organized, I suggest creating a logical system or file structure that will help you keep track of where things are. Lump like files in relevant folders. For instance, I have an “In Progress” folder which contains all of the stories and articles I’m working on. I also have an “Open Me!” folder that appears on my desktop which contains the files I use most often, such as progress reports and my blog post ideas matrix.

Find out what works for you. Then create an outline that tells you where everything is. Your next step is to follow that outline. If you need to make changes to it, make the changes and update your outline. This simple process for better organization will save you a ton of time, stress, and anxiety.

Now, back to your writing!

Did you miss Part 4 – Dwelling?

Up next: Part 6 – Scheduling

Jody Calkins
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