Organization

Organization (What)

Organization is the process of arranging items so that an actor (person or group) can maximize their payoffs.

Analysis (Breakdown of Main Ideas)

Process (method)
A process is a set of steps for creating a great result. Processes can be taught, learning, applied and improved.
Items
Here, an item is anything that can be organized: time, tools, computer files, people on a project team, shopping list, clothing, items in a kitchen, tasks, images, projects, recipes, a desk, a textbook, to-do items, and so forth.
Actor
An actor is a person or a group. I use this term because people have roles to play: spouse, parent, accountant, goalie on hockey team, project manager. Similarly, groups have roles to play. The process of organization is similar for individuals and for groups.
Payoff
A payoff is the net rewards your get minus the drawback. We strive to maximize your payoffs and do this ethically. Examples of drawbacks: cost, time, stress, frustration, conflicts, pain, and so on.

Examples of Organization

  1. Storing data about customers as done by Amazon.
  2. Time management.
  3. Arrangement of socks in a drawer.
  4. Arrangement of classes offered by a university.
  5. Getting ready for a long trip.
  6. Arrangement of things to do; a to-do list.
  7. Arrangement of tasks in a project.
  8. Arrangement of files on a computer system.
  9. Arrangement of web pages on a website.
  10. Sequence of main ideas to be learned in the context of learning something.
  11. Arrangement of 72 people working together on a project.
  12. Arrangement of food items at a meal.
  13. Arrangement of people, machines, supplies, and so forth on a manufacturing line.
  14. Arrangement of items in a store.
  15. Arrangement of files in a file cabinet.
  16. Arrangement of 72,000 people, many sites, and countless resources by a large company.
  17. Arrangement of the code in a massive code base that has 200 programmers working on it.
  18. Arranging all of the items in a hardware store.

Rationale

Here are some reasons why effective organization is worthwhile.

  1. Feels great. Looks great. Satisfaction.

  2. Maximize well-being. Get what you most want. Get the best results.

  3. Save huge amounts of time and cost.

  4. Eliminate frustrations associated with:

    1. Finding things.
    2. Keeping things picked up.
    3. Losing things.
    4. Duplicating things.

  5. Hugely beneficial for groups.

  6. Without effective organization, some things are basically impossible: complex projects, creating large code bases, most organizations that involve multiple people, and so on.

Effective Organization (How To)

Principles

  1. Payoffs. Ensure that you always get large positive payoffs from your organization. A payoff is the rewards minus the drawbacks taken holistically.

  2. Everything can and should be effectively organized.

  3. There are effective systems for organizing anything.

  4. Focus on improving your present system by taking small steps.

Framework

Repetitions: Repeat the following actions in ways that continually provide you with positive payoffs.

  1. Design: Based on “most payoffs,” select an entity X. Figure out how to improve its organization. Improve it.

  2. Application: Pay attention to how your systems are working for all your entities: X, Y, Z, and such.

  3. Reflective Thinking: Look back on your recent experiences and figure out if it is worthwhile to improve any of your organization systems. Note: Reflective thinking (RT) is method for learning from experiences.

Tips

  1. Figure out many ways to organize things in the physical world: books, papers, clothing items.

  2. There are many great ideas out there.

    1. Julie Morgenstern’s SPACE method is the best one I’ve found to date.

    2. David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) is awesome.

    3. Bullet Journal