3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys to Embracing Your Styles

Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

If you've been reading these posts and putting your styles to work, chances are you're not a Type A organizer. From time to time, you might even have felt disheartened by what you consider inferior organizational skills.

But I think our styles are something not only to use, but also to embrace. Here are a few ways to do just that.

Don't compare yourself to others. Even two people with the same styles will have different preferences. When we try to do things the way "everyone else" does, we often end up moving in the wrong direction and feeling bad about ourselves in the process.

Look around. Acknowledge your successes. When we organize by STYLE and it works, it lasts. Sure, there are always more things to tweak, more stuff to organize, more spaces to improve, but once we figure out what works, it gets easier. Then, we can replicate our successes to create the order we desire.

Look for organizational principles at work, and then expand on them. I know I put it somewhere organizers are good at putting things away -- they just need an assist when it comes to figuring out how to do so systematically. Cram and jammers know where they put things because they're all in the same place -- they just need help branching out for the sake of their things. Drop and run organizers can find what they need by retracing their steps -- they just need to create a system that makes it just as easy to put things away as it is to put them down. If we can find the piece at the root of our styles that works, we can build on it as the foundation for a system that works with what comes naturally.

And, since I'm posting so late today, I think you deserve a bonus key:

Keep a sense of humor. It's organization, not heart surgery. If the pile of papers sits on the table for one more day, the consequences aren't likely to be catastrophic. Tomorrow is another day to take the next step.

And every step we take brings us closer to not only organization, but organizational self-confidence as well.