Jim thought he was organized. Everything was color coded, and there was a file for every project he work working on - each with sub files, research files - all neatly stored in state-of-the-art filing cabinets. So why can't Jim find anything?

One of the biggest frustration of being called "an organizing consultant" is that people assume you are always orderly (some would call it a "neatfreak!) Creative people often assume that "being organized" would cramp their style. Nothing could be further from the truth - at least in my case! Let me illustrate.

Recently I came home from a shopping trip with several bags of groceries which I dumped on the counter. In the midst of unpacking them I decided to bake the cake I was planning for dinner. In the middle of mixing the cake, I realized there was more fresh coconut than I needed for the cake, so I decided to make a pineapple coconut salad. While looking for the recipe, I found several other recipes I hadn't used recently, so decided to leave those out so I could make a list of ingredients I needed to buy. Within an hour, the kitchen looked like a tornado had passed - and not the "white tornado" variety!

The rest of the story: The phone rang with news that a friend wanted to bring his daughter over to see our house to get ideas for the house she was building! In less than ten minutes, everything was put away - and not stuffed in a closet out of sight.

The Productivity Principle: "A place for everything" makes "everything in its place" a reality - not all the time, but at just the right time!