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Wringing order from chaos

By Diane E. Lewis, Globe Staff, 4/03/05

Globe Staff Photo/Joanne Rathe Marilyn Paul, a principal at Bridgeway Partners, a Lexington organizational consulting company, uses baskets to organize her home office. She realized her disorganized office life was a problem when a colleague refused to work with her.

Marilyn Paul's desk was heaped with piles of papers, empty coffee cups, and unopened mail. Her cubicle floor was strewn with reports and documents; her life was chaotic.

Paul, a consultant who holds a doctorate from Yale University and an MBA from The Johnson School at Cornell University, blamed others for her predicament, not realizing she was the cause until a colleague refused to work with her.

"I was going to deliver some data collection past deadline and he could not deal with it anymore," said Paul. "I was like, 'Late? What's a day or two?'?" But losing the chance to collaborate with a man whose opinion she valued forced Paul to step back and evaluate her situation. She also developed a seven-step strategy to change her life.

Today, Paul is a principal at Bridgeway Partners, a Lexington organizational consulting company. At 52, the woman who had difficulty unearthing her W-2 forms to pay her taxes, is assisting the disorganized and distressed. She's among several thousand professional organizers around the country who show the time-challenged and confused how to prioritize. Many work with adults whose professional lives are unraveling. Others help companies tackle chronic lateness or high turnover, which can stem from disorganization or dysfunction at the top.

Professional organizers set up systems that show clients how to take stock of their lives and organize themselves, said Standolyn Robertson, vice president-elect of the 3,200-member National Association of Professional Organizers.

"If you cannot find anything, cannot meet deadlines, and the people in your office cannot trust you to retrieve important documents, that's a problem," said Robertson. "A lot of people get fired because of this."

Paul didn't get fired. But she did come to the realization that she could not meet deadlines because she didn't know how. The changes she made in her life are recorded in a how-to book titled, "It's Hard to Make a Difference When You Can't Find Your Keys," (Paperback 2004, Penguin Compass, $14).

One central thesis of the book: The chronically disorganized must accept responsibility for their behavior and recognize how it affects them personally and professionally before they can work on the problem.

Rob Greenly, 51, of Newton, agrees. Greenly, founder of the Greenly Group, a leadership consulting and coaching practice in Newton, said the realization that he had difficulty meeting deadlines forced him to be a lot more conscious of what he was doing.

"I have had to really focus and think about time in a way that I never did before," he said. "But in some weird way I have become even more effective. I am more aware of what it takes to be on time and what it takes to organize yourself."

Still, it hasn't been easy. "It is a day-to-day struggle," he said.

Greenly, who calls himself a recovering "time-a-holic," relies on a paper calendar and colored magic markers. The calendar has a column where he jots down exactly what needs to be done, and he sometimes uses a kitchen timer so he won't exceed time limits when lecturing or working.

Diane Darling, founder of Effective Networking in Boston's Back Bay, says she's hired professional organizers twice to help her organize her work and life.

"I have battled disorganization all my life," Darling said. "I have double-booked a couple of times. Last December, for example, I looked at my calendar and saw that I had scheduled two things at the same time. That happens when I do not take the time to look at a calendar, or when I depend too much on memory."

Darling says she now keeps two journals. In one, she keeps notes from every meeting she attends. The other journal contains her phone messages. Rather than turn to files, Darling flips through the journals to find the information she needs to keep her appointments and stay on schedule.

"I have had organizers come to my home and office and work with me," she said. "They will say, 'Where do you feel good in your office? Where do you like your mail, your Kleenex box?' It is impractical to have the things you need in a place where you have to walk across the room to get to them. So, they learn how you function and they watch you function."

Joyce Fletcher, a professor of management at the Simmons School of Management in Boston, said some companies are so disorganized they create chaos and anxiety in workers' lives.

"In a way these are dysfunctional companies," she said. "But it is amazing how many companies and workplaces operate like that. It becomes a way of doing things."

According to Fletcher, Simmons management specialists worked with a San Francisco advertising firm recently that was experiencing high turnover. The company expected employees to stay all night to complete projects. Workers returned to work in the morning too exhausted to do their regular work, causing the cycle to begin again.

"Always being very busy and responding to crisis calls demonstrated commitment," she said. "So, the routine became the norm."

Don Arnoudse of Lexington, founder of executive coaching firm, the 2nd Half, has been a college administrator, instructor, and business coach. He also has written a book and numerous articles, but through it all he struggled with what he calls "seemingly natural disorganization."

"I was chronically running late, apologizing for my delays, feeling the stress of racing deadlines at the last minute," he said.

"It began to affect my relationships. Co-workers began to doubt whether I would meet commitments on time. And, at home, I was often distracted with all that I was trying to keep track of in my head." Then, his health started to suffer. His stomach was always churning, and he started chewing antacids like candy. He also vomited before giving big speeches, but his doctor could find no explanation for his poor health.

Arnoudse, 57, broke the cycle by taking a year off. He also began to look at how his actions were negatively influencing his life, relying on Paul's seven-step plan.

"Now, I don't consider a task complete until I have returned everything I have used into a position of readiness for its next use," he said.

"I no longer have to look for things when I am ready to act. They are already prepositioned for action."

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