Would you like to discover how you can know instantly if you need to reorganize any area in your office or home? If so, ask yourself this question: "Am I going through my work to get to my work? Whenever I ask that question in my seminars, I get major groans from the audience. "That's exactly what I am doing, all day long," is the usual response. If, routinely, you are having to go through your work to get to your work, then you are costing your company money and wasting precious time when you could be working and producing - or perhaps relaxing or making memories with your family.

For example, in your home, are you lifting three pans to get to your skillet? Are you moving countless knickknacks in order to dust? In your bedroom, are you constantly sifting through your stockings or socks to find the correct pair? In your office, do you shuffle your papers from one location to another because you don't have enough workspace to do your work? Are you piling your work files and then having to unstack in order to find the current file you need? If you said "yes" to any of the above, you are going through your work to get to your work. The result? You are, in effect, doubling your work.

So, let me suggest that you take a close look at what this may be costing your company's bottom line. Let's say you gross $30,000 a year. That translates into about 25 cents a minute. If you spend precious time GTYWTGTYW, then you are losing (by a conservative estimate) about 30 minutes a day. That means in a year, the time wasted will cost your company about $1,500 in lost productivity. And what if you're in business for yourself? Could you afford to overlook a habit that is taking this amount of money from your own pocket year after year?

All this loss-and why? Because we have to find our work before we can begin. Perhaps these thoughts still don't motivate you to change. Well, what is GTYWTGTYW doing to your spirit? You stew because you constantly misplace your files, or your keys, or whatever. Your marriage is negatively affected because now both you and your spouse have to stop your normal routine to search for what was misplaced. Once again you become very angry with yourself - and you promise yourself - once again - that you are going to get organized. But then life swallows your time, and off you go-never stopping to address the real problem. Consequently, this dance is repeated over and over.

Here's a suggestion: Take some time during your workday to note whether you are going through your work to get to your work. If you are, then take more time to reorganize and establish a system for your files, paperwork, or whatever needs adjusting. The time you take to effect change will be only a tiny fraction of the time you're losing by searching and re-searching for the work you need "right now." Trust me on this. You will save your company lots of money and yourself a ton of energy wasted through frustration and irritation. Most of all, you will begin to feel better about yourself, your work and your life.