Freeing up time

One of the great reasons for getting organized is to save time: time spent looking for stuff, time spent trying to remember exactly which stack of papers that thing is in, time spent opening electronic files to see if that's the particular one you did that cool thing in.

But it goes beyond that. The more organized you are, the fewer duplicates of things you have. That means that you've had to spend less time creating stuff again because you can't find the original, and less time shopping for and buying replacements for items you can't find, or have overfilled.

If you really want a shocker, I've got a couple of statistics on hand here: 

• In "The Overload Syndrome," Dr. Richard Swenson reports that the average desk worker spends 3 hours a week sorting through piles of paper on his or her desk to determine which project needs to be worked on next.
• According to a study conducted by a Boston marketing firm, the average American burns 55 minutes a day—roughly 12 weeks a year—looking for things they know they own but can't find.

And, you know, that's not exactly time well spent. That's time spent in a stressful state, feeling anxious and maybe getting mad at yourself, and you don't always have a great result, either. By getting a system together and keeping it together, you not only save time, you save yourself from spending time in a rather unpleasant way. That's a pretty big component of freedom, I think.

What about you? Do either of those statistics speak to you? What's the longest you've ever spent looking for something? Let me know in the comments!

Comments

[Alex Fayle]

That's why I keep as little as possible. The less I have, the less I need to go through and the less time I waste. ;)

[Catherine Cantieri]

Agreed, Alex. I think the folks who have the most potential for freeing up time are the ones who are least likely to be allowed to do it: employees of large companies. Hopefully, the "less is more" ethos will eventually filter up to the corporate giants. It'll save them money, reduce environmental impact, free their employees to do work that actually helps the company, etc. Someday... ;-)