The nexus between organization and promotion

One thing a lot of people don't know about Ilise is that her roots are in professional organizing. I forget it myself, since she's so good at marketing, self-promotion and helping other people get a handle on their own tasks in those areas.

But a quote of hers for a story in this recent edition of The Oklahoman reminded me of the link between one and the other. She talks mentions that she "consistently found information on self-promotion at the bottom of piles of paper that people saved." Clutter was literally getting in the way of her clients' ability to promote themselves—and, I'm sure, a lot of other tasks.

I struggle with staying on top of things myself. On the one hand, I'm a huge fan of organizing as an art or even a science; on the other, I'm really abysmal at the day-to-day practice of staying organized, and implementing my tools and systems to actually get my work done.

I'm wondering if I'm alone in this, or how alone I am in this. Are you organized? Do you use your skills in service of work? Or do you get a lot of stuff done, self-promotion and marketing included, despite being disorganized?

(Thanks to Kay Stout for the heads-up on the article.)

Comments

[Judy Dunn]

Hi Colleen,

I always told myself that messiness was the price I pay for having the creativity gene. But deep down, I know that's just an excuse.

It goes in waves for me. I'm on top of things and then all of a sudden I look around and there are literally layers of stuff on my desk. The strange thing is that when I clean up, those are the times I seem to lose things!

So I guess you could say it's organized chaos.

[Dave Aldrich]

Hi Colleen,

I'm a mixed bag of disorganization, self-defeatism, and laziness with a smattering of confidence and many creative and marketing abilities. Some how I get stuff done in spite of my short-comings. However I find that I do much better at helping someone else market themselves or their product than I do for myself. What's with that? I often feel like the great auto mechanic whose own car sits up on blocks waiting to be fixed!