How Organized Are You?
Posted On: 2011-05-05
Here we are again, almost at the end of another week and personally I'll be glad when this one is over because it's been a tough one.
We're in the middle of launching a rebuilt site for a client ... one that has run way over time and one that we've lost money on. It should be live in an hour or so and then I can turn my partner loose on doing a horde of 301 redirects that will take everyone from the old site to the new one and I will be so happy to see it online, working as it should and fully indexed by Google.
We've also rebuilt two sites for different clients that seem to have been damaged by hacking attempts. We still don't know what happened but both were running on Joomla ... something I once had a love affair with but now can't stand ... and while I can't see any sign of the usual Joomla hacks something has happened with the sites. There were some strange internal redirects going on and some content had been removed from some pages.
It was all very odd but now Joomla has gone and the sites are locked down and I can start thinking about other things.
Fortunately rebuilding those sites wasn't such a big deal even though they had been built several years ago. When we build a site we always keep a backup of everything that goes into a site ... the text and photos are always kept on file and are never more than three clicks away so we can re-upload content fairly quickly.
But what about you and your sites? Do you keep backups of everything so that recovery from a hack or from a hard drive failure on your server is something that you can do quite quickly?
And while we're thinking about keeping your computer files in order let's think about your work space? How tidy is that space? Can you find files and notes easily or do you waste a heap of time rummaging through a pile of rubbish that would look impressive if it was compared to New York City's rubbish dump?
My partner's desk ... actually he has three ... are all covered in piles of paper and assorted junk and how he ever manages to find anything there is beyond me. In reality he loses a lot of stuff on those desks and it really bugs me because he is so organized when it comes to his computer files.
When it comes to computer files he's probably even more organized than me yet his desks look terrible.
So maybe you don't think that it's important to have a tidy workspace ... maybe you think that you know where absolutely everything is on your desk and if you ever had to clean it up you would start to lose things. Well maybe you need to be a little more realistic about that ability to find important things in all that mess.
How long does it take you to find those things you're looking for? And when you're looking for important information do you find all the information or do you only find some of it?
I know when Steve goes looking for things he often finds that parts of the file he's looking for are missing and that then causes even more delays as he goes dumpster diving on his desk.
Some experts suggest that the way your workspace is organized is a reflection of what goes on inside your head. If your workspace is neat and tidy and well-organized it's a reflection of how organized your thinking is and shows that you have clear thought processes.
If your workspace is jumbled and messy then it tends to indicate that your thought processes are jumbled and disorganized too. And when you're not capable of clear thought processes that tends to be reflected in your productivity. The clearer your thought processes the more you're likely to get done in a shorter period of time.
Look around you and you'll see your thought processes reflected in your workspace. What do you see ... and what do others see? Now think about your productivity ... are you wondering why you don't seem to be achieving as much as you did in the past?
Could you be working smarter rather than harder and achieving a whole lot more than you are now?
The answer could be right there in front of you.