Marilyn Paul introduced me to the concept of “getting to ready” in her book, It’s Hard to Make a Difference When you Can’t Find Your Keys. In her book, she describes being organized as:
“a dynamic between a state of readiness for action and taking action. It is the rhythm of taking action, creating the natural disorder that comes with taking action, restoring order with helpful habits and useful systems, and thus returning to readiness for action.”
Per Paul, “The essence of getting to ready is that it prepares you for action.” Interestingly enough, she demonstrates the concept of back to ready with a disorganized desk example, the same example that I’m going to use today.
This photo is of my desk this past Saturday morning. In the previous week I had returned from a four day conference to an extremely busy work week. My desk became a dumping ground and in this photo clearly shows signs of neglect. My disorganized desk typically results from the rhythm of taking action, but in this situation resulted from the rhythm of inaction, as others in my family dropped things on my desk in my absence and I found myself dumping items on my desk and not dealing with them throughout the week.
Come Saturday morning, I really needed to get back to ready so I could use my desk productively. Join me tomorrow to find out what helpful habits and useful systems I used to get back to ready in just a little over an hour.