Clever Geek Handbook
18 January 2026

Judgment in Managerial Decision Making

Recommendation

Consider this scenario: Two groups are playing basketball. One group wears black, the other white. Researchers film each group separately passing a basketball back and forth, and superimpose the two films on a television monitor. They ask research participants to add up the number of passes the players make. Because the separate images of basketballs flying here and there overlap, the counters must pay close attention. Under such circumstances, how many of the observers would fail to see a man dressed as a gorilla stroll through the basketball court while dramatically thumping his chest? Believe it or not, eight out of ten. Scientists call this “inattentional blindness.” Distinguished Harvard professor Max H. Bazerman refers to such tests as he explains the concept of “bounded awareness.” When people fail to notice information, their lack of perception may preclude them from making sound decisions. Bazerman fills his book with learned insights, fascinating research and intriguing tests. He exposes the mental biases, skewed logic, false premises and misleading emotions that interfere with good decision making. BooksInShort recommends this tantalizing book to those who want to understand the nuts-and-bolts of the thinking process, and to enhance their decision-making prowess.

Take-Aways

  • Managers often make biased, illogical, selfish and emotional decisions.
  • Good decision making requires determining your ultimate goal.
  • “System 1” thinking is intuitive and emotional, while “System 2” thinking is rational and methodical.
  • To use System 2 thinking, define the problem, identify and weigh the criteria, list and compare your alternatives, and then decide.
  • People use heuristics – easy rules for thinking – when making decisions.
  • Fairness and social equity often color the decision-making process.
  • Develop your decisions by looking toward the future, not at past choices.
  • Few companies encourage sound executive decisions.
  • Instead, they focus on short-term results. This can reward bad behavior.
  • To make better decisions, eliminate or reduce mental bias, avoid emotional thinking, examine your premises and be logical.

Summary

Decision-Making Bias

When Enron went bankrupt in 2001, U.S. federal courts found its auditors, Arthur Andersen, guilty of obstruction of justice. Shortly thereafter, Andersen closed its doors. Andersen’s auditors probably did not willfully misrepresent Enron’s books. Most likely, they were guilty of failed decision making due to a phenomenon called “self-serving bias,” in which individuals are likely to err when their judgments relate to self-interest. Indeed, numerous “cognitive biases” profoundly color people’s viewpoints. Most people try to make rational decisions – or at least they say they do. If you have to make a major managerial decision, having a clear, distinct goal in mind will help. Ironically, decision making sometimes lacks this vital element. Rational decision making follows a formal process referred to as “System 2” thinking, which works like this:

  • “Define the problem” – Don’t mistake the symptoms for the problem.
  • “Identify the criteria” – Pinpoint what is relevant.
  • “Weight the criteria” – Decipher what is important and what is less so.
  • “Generate alternatives” – Come up with possibilities without wasting time.
  • “Rate each alternative on each criterion” – This is difficult because it involves predicting how things will transpire in the future.
  • “Compute the optimal decision” – Figure out which solution is the best with the lowest possible investment of time, effort, emotion and capital.
“Many good decisions turn out badly, and many bad decisions turn out well.”

People rarely use this step-by-step judgment process. In most instances, they rely on what is known as “System 1 thinking,” which is intuitive, immediate and emotional. Unfortunately, intuition leads to flawed thinking processes. Your intuition can make mistakes. People also use “heuristics” to guide their decisions. These “rules of thumb” are supposedly logical (though often they are not), common sense guidelines for weighing alternatives. Unfortunately, heuristics can also result in flawed thinking and faulty decision making. Common heuristic forms include:

  • “The availability heuristic” – This approach involves matters that occur frequently and are vivid and quickly accessible by memory. For example, a supervisor will most likely be more judgmental of a worker whose office is right next door than of someone in a room down the hall. Managers easily err in many ways, including misjudging suppliers, employees and retail outlets. They may focus more on factors that are apparently important due to locale or publicity, but that have no real relevance. People also draw incorrect conclusions when two things co-occur and they assume that an indelible bond exists between them. For example, some managers may mistakenly think that because a beautiful, blond female clerk cannot file well, then all beautiful, blond female clerks are poor filers. Though clearly illogical, such thinking is common.
  • “The representative heuristic” – This judgment is based on incorrect or incomplete generalizations, such as, “This person will probably be lazy because people from his country often are lazy.” Such statements are wildly misleading and discriminatory. Potential bias often results when people draw conclusions based on small or insufficient samples. For example, if three black-and-white spotted dogs walk past your porch, one every 15 minutes, you could assume that the neighborhood is filled with black-and-white spotted dogs, while an empirical survey might reveal that of the area’s hundreds of dogs, the only black-and-white spotted ones are the three that passed you. Bias may also result from “misconceptions of chance.” For instance, say that you invest in five stocks that immediately tank. You purchase another stock, assuming that your luck will change. This is illogical – the value of the sixth stock will fluctuate based on how people judge that company, not on your prior purchase of five unrelated stocks. Using this heuristic could lead to other “systematic irrationalities” in your decision making.
  • “The affect heuristic” – This includes judgments based on emotions, not logic. Such judgments precede and, in effect, replace cognition. In an opinion like, “I don’t know what it is, but there is just something about that guy that I don’t like,” the potential bias is unlimited. Emotional thinking is almost always misleading.
“It is far easier to identify a bias while you are reading a book about decision making than when you are in the midst of an organizational crisis.”

Numerous other problematic biases which are not specifically based on “availability” or “representative” heuristics can also taint your thinking and decision making. Avoiding flawed heuristics is difficult because such reasoning is almost always intuitive, deeply ingrained and the product of habit. To deal with flawed heuristics, closely examine your premises. Always watch how people frame things, so you don’t base your decisions on irrelevant information. For example, a politician may say: “If you criticize current tax policy, that means you want to raise taxes for everyone.” Such either-or framing does not present bona fide alternatives.

“One of the most important subjective influences on information processing is self-interest.”

Also watch how people word things. Fail to do so and you may end up basing your decisions on information that is not relevant. Factor in human emotions when making decisions. Everyone has multiple personalities (selves) – a “want” self and a “should” self. An overweight man eats an extra slice of cherry pie to satisfy his “want” self. A marathoner trains hard every day to satisfy his “should” self. People have “long-term” and “short-term” selves. One woman might spend every penny of her paycheck to satisfy her “short-term” self, while another might invest $50 weekly in a Christmas club to satisfy her “long-term” self. These multiple selves often come into play when people make decisions. Use your “umpire self” to “negotiate” internally with these individual selves, and thus improve your judgments and actions. Hold yourself accountable for your decisions.

Should You Double Down?

Another decision-making problem, known as the “non-rational escalation of commitment,” refers to a series of co-dependent choices. You hire someone who doesn’t meet expectations. You invest more time and training in this person, who still doesn’t work out. You are inclined to fire this frustrating, failing staffer, but realize that would mean throwing away major investments of time and money. Accountants or economists would say that you are not examining the issue correctly. The time, money and training you invested in the new employee represent unrecoverable “sunk costs” that should not figure into your decision making. Look to the future, not the past.

“Many of the errors we make are the result of motivational and affective influences.”

Divorcing yourself from equity concerns and “social comparisons” is particularly difficult because people are hard-wired to factor fairness and social equity into their decision making. In terms of fairness, most disputes involve status quo issues. If a car’s list price is $20,000, then all subsequent negotiations between buyer and seller will focus on this price, even if the manufacturer has set a totally arbitrary figure. Bottom line: Be aware that fairness and social equity concerns often color decision making. That is simply human nature. When it comes to issues of right and wrong, the mental bias known as “bounded ethicality” often cause people to act unethically while being truly unaware that they are behaving poorly. Minor ethical inconsistencies, which are often steps down a “slippery slope,” can lead to major transgressions.

“Decision makers who commit themselves to a particular course of action have a tendency to make subsequent decisions that continue that commitment beyond the level suggested by rationality.”

In negotiations, your best chance of avoiding cognitive errors and biases is to arm yourself with as much solid information as possible. What viable alternatives does each party have? What are their most important interests? During negotiations, establish trust, ask intelligent questions, disclose information in a strategic manner, present numerous offers and look for “post-settlement settlements.” You cannot achieve your goals through negotiation unless you are well prepared.

“Fairness considerations lead to systematic departures from the predictions of economic models.”

People often display grossly illogical thinking when making decisions regarding investments. For example, the way a stock performed yesterday has little to do with how it will perform tomorrow, and yet the financial investment industry employs thousands of experts to convince you that they can predict how stocks will perform in the future. The best way to invest is to put as much money as you can reasonably afford into a balanced retirement plan. Minimize your risk and protect yourself from taxes. Adopt a long-range approach. Paying financial advisers hefty fees to invest your money in some “can’t lose” stock is a sucker’s game. You probably will do no better than the Standard and Poors 500 value-weighted index.

You Can Make Better Decisions

Executives are not stupid – quite the opposite. However, like everyone, they often make irrational, flawed decisions. Avoid, or at least limit, such highly specific, systematic decision-making errors by following these six strategies:

  1. “Acquiring experience and expertise” – Experience is a valuable teacher. However, it will not necessarily stop you from making bad decisions, which often are more a result of incorrect reasoning, mental bias or emotion than of experience. Nevertheless, over time you can learn what constitutes a good decision as you begin to grasp conceptually what rational decision making is all about, and then proceed accordingly.
  2. “Debiasing judgment” – Eliminating bias from your decision making is difficult but possible. First, “unfreeze” your view of yourself as a decision-maker. Executives customarily assume that they could not have risen through the ranks without being excellent decision makers. However, everyone makes cognitive errors. Avoid assuming a rigid personality, and being afraid to admit problems or deficiencies. Be willing to watch for and eliminate your judgmental biases, thereby improving your thinking and decision making. Routinely examine the heuristics you use to make decisions. Be diligent about the way you decide.
  3. “Analogical reasoning” – When it comes to thinking more precisely and carefully, consciously benefit from the multiple experiences and situations you encounter. As analogous experiences repeat themselves, intuitively abstract lessons from them that you can apply to future circumstances, even contextually different ones. In this way, experience can be a worthwhile teacher of decision making.
  4. “Taking an outsider’s view” – Peoples’ decisions are based on either an “insider” or an “outsider view.” To illustrate, a contractor building his own home tells himself that he will complete the project at or below the projected cost estimate (insider’s view), but his experience indicates that most construction projects exceed the original estimate by 20%-50% (outsider’s view). Nevertheless, he convinces himself (insider’s view) that this time things will be different. Call such reasoning what it is: magical thinking. When deciding which voice to listen to, always pay attention to your outsider view, not your insider view. Ask informed outsiders for their opinions when you are making decisions in which the outsider-insider dynamic is crucial.
  5. “Using linear models and other statistical techniques” – You may want to turn to your computer for help in making a decision. Indeed, studies indicate that computer-based decision making often trumps human decisions, because people are influenced by mood, deadline pressure and other non-rational factors. Automated decision making relies on regression analysis, statistical analysis and linear models.
  6. “Understanding biases in others – As a manager and executive, you are responsible not only for your own decisions, but also for those of the people you supervise. Be aware, therefore, that your direct reports’ biases may result in incorrect decisions that can harm your organization, thwart progress and reflect poorly on you. To avoid this, pay close attention to the context of your staff members’ decisions. Be watchful for any biases in their thinking, and make any adjustments needed in their final conclusions.
“Ours is not a fully rational world, particularly when it comes to our own decision-making processes.”

Organizations can vastly improve their decision making by rewarding employees who make rational, sound business decisions. Unfortunately, current managerial thinking emphasizes results, which may have nothing to do with good decisions and may even be based on bad decisions, such as a focus on short-term profits. Don’t expect to improve your decision-making prowess over night. It takes time, considerable effort and constant monitoring. Everyone’s decision making is subject to cognitive biases, incorrect assumptions, irrelevant emotional factors and faulty logic. Accepting this fact is the vital first step toward making better managerial and personal decisions.

About the Author

Max H. Bazerman is the Straus Professor at the Harvard Business School, and author of Negotiating Rationally and Conflicts of Interest.

Read summary...
Judgment in Managerial Decision Making

Book Judgment in Managerial Decision Making

Wiley,
 


18 January 2026

Trust & Betrayal in the Workplace

Recommendation

Dennis S. Reina and Michelle L. Reina discuss the importance of having a strong sense of trust in the workplace. They advocate avoiding both the major and minor betrayals that undermine trust. Creating an environment that promotes trust contributes to effectiveness in the workplace, especially during times of rapid change. The book discusses the nature and effect of trust. It is enhanced with a variety of exercises that promote workplace dialogues and help people think through the issue of trust. Many of these exercises are especially suited for teams, work groups and divisions. The exercises facilitate discussing and resolving problems in a more trusting atmosphere. This well-written, easy-to-read book is directed to front-line supervisors and unit mangers, although it will also interest top management and company owners. BooksInShort recommends this book to team builders in organizations of all sizes.

Take-Aways

  • We need trust in the workplace more than ever, because people are feeling betrayed.
  • Recent great changes contributed to the feelings of distrust.
  • When people lack trust in their organization, they don’t work as effectively or as productively.
  • Trust is the glue that holds relationships together, and business is based on relationships.
  • Individuals with a good capacity to trust tend to think in more pragmatic, abstract, complex and differentiated ways.
  • There are four key components of trust: the capacity for trust, contractual trust, communication trust and competence trust.
  • We feel betrayed when there is a breach of trust.
  • After betrayal, individuals heal through a process of recognizing what has occurred, working through the pain, getting support, learning to forgive and moving on.
  • Keys to promoting trust at work include sharing information, telling the truth, admitting mistakes, maintaining confidentiality, and giving and receiving constructive feedback.
  • You also promote trust by honoring agreements, clearly stating expectations and respecting people’s knowledge and skills.

Summary

Why We Need Trust

When we trust someone and they betray us, we feel a great sense of pain. Today this sense of betrayal is growing because of all the workplace upheaval caused by change, such as downsizing, mergers, and other transformations. Employees feel betrayed by their leaders and leaders feel betrayed by their employees.

“After years of constant change - years of downsizing, restructuring and reengineering or of upsizing, mergers and growth - trust among people at every level in the organization is at an all-time low.”

People feel their trust is betrayed when they think someone has taken advantage of them, when they have expectations that are not met, or when they are not kept informed about decisions that affect them. These betrayals can come from failures to keep promises or from a person who uses lies to get ahead of others. Whether these are serious, intentional betrayals or minor, inadvertent ones, they cause breeches in relationships that damage the working atmosphere. Business is based on relationships, and trust is a kind of glue that holds these relationships together.

“Betrayal, like a migraine headache, is energy-depleting and can shut down a whole system.”

Ironically, changes in the organizational environment create conditions that undermine trust at a time when trust is most necessary. When uncertainty and anxiety increase, organizations need to be more open and flexible in response. You need to promote trust during times of change so people feel comfortable taking risks and experimenting with new approaches. Organizations are less effective and productive when there is a lack of trust. Leaders and managers are less likely to achieve their goals. People do better work when they trust the people they work for, those they work with, and themselves. They are better able to adapt, be creative, take initiative and perform well. People feel more satisfied working in organizations where there is trust. This healthier working environment improves your bottom-line results.

The Four Key Qualities of Trust

You trust others when there is "mutual confidence" in how they will fulfill expectations, communicate honestly and work competently. By contrast, you feel betrayed if you perceive a breach of trust, intentional or unintentional, actual or not. Trust in the workplace consists of four key components:

  1. Capacity for trust, how ready we are to trust.
  2. Contractual trust, our trust in each other’s character and ability to keep promises.
  3. Communication trust, our trust in being open and disclosing information.
  4. Competence trust, our trust in the capabilities of ourselves and others.

The Importance of Your Capacity for Trust

Your capacity to trust is based on how ready you are to trust others or yourself. It comes from viewing yourself and others as reliable, dependable and capable. The capacity to trust is affected by positive and negative experiences. These affect your ability to trust, a capacity which can change over time.

“Flexibility requires a force of workers that trust their leaders, one another and themselves.”

Trusting yourself is necessary for a sense of self-worth. It contributes to confidence, which helps you present yourself so that others will trust you more. Those who trust themselves are more willing to take risks and express creativity. Employees who trust themselves are more able to trust others and work well with them. This is particularly important when conditions are changing and you want to foster a looser, more flexible work environment.

“Low trust impedes organizational leaders from achieving objectives. Low trust eats away at the bottom line and the overall health of the organization.”

This capacity to trust has four key attributes or criteria: "pragmatism, abstractness, complexity and differentiation." They are measured on four "capacity to trust scales:"

  1. Idealistic-Pragmatic: Being idealistic means being altruistic, being a perfectionist and having blind trust in others. Being pragmatic means having a more practical attitude and taking calculated risks. It is better to be pragmatic, because an overly idealistic person will be too trusting at the wrong times.
  2. Concrete-Abstract: Being concrete means wanting solid, tangible evidence before being willing to trust and, often, being suspicious of others. Being abstract means accepting more ambiguity and uncertainty, and thus being more willing to let go and trust others.
  3. Simple-Complex: Having a simple orientation means seeing the world in black and white terms. Having a complex capacity to trust means being able to see gray areas and to perceive many different facets of someone else.
  4. Undifferentiated-Differentiated: An undifferentiated outlook means being likely to project one’s own feelings onto others or to stereotype others into groups. A differentiated outlook means being able to make finer distinctions between individuals and groups.

Understanding the Destructive Power of Betrayal

Betrayals occur when one experiences a breach of trust, whether major or minor, whether committed intentionally or not. Major intentional betrayals might include revealing company secrets or sabotaging company data. Major unintentional betrays might include layoffs due to a restructuring. For example, it is betrayal when a manager delegates a job but then doesn’t provide the necessary authority for the employee to carry it out. Minor intentional betrayals include gossiping or taking credit for someone else’s work. A minor unintentional betrayal might occur when an employee repeatedly arrives late for work, or doesn’t keep promises to perform a job.

“When people work in fear, they are guarded and calculating in their actions. The best they have to offer is no longer available.”

Commonly, major betrayals occur when people act out of fear or greed. They break commitments or deceive others to gain their own goals. Most betrayals are minor. They may even initially seem "innocent and unimportant," more in the nature of inadvertent mistakes. But over time, these minor betrayals build, turning into major betrayals that poison the workplace. Workplace betrayals are damaging because they undermine your ability to trust. When people experience less trust in others, their ability to work together is undermined. Though major betrayals have a dramatic effect in undermining trust, minor betrayals "eat away at it bit by bit."

“When leaders create trusting working environments, people are safe to challenge the system and perform beyond expectations. Employees feel more freedom to express their creative ideas.”

These betrayals operate on a personal and an organizational level. On the personal level, betrayal undermines self-confidence. Organizationally, betrayal creates a sense of uncertainty and anxiety. This makes people close down and feel resentment, therefore, they cooperate less willingly and are less able to work together. The more you trust, the more you have an opportunity to be betrayed. Conversely, through your own actions, whether inadvertent or intentional, you can lead others to feel betrayed.

Dealing with Betrayal

Because feelings of betrayal are so destructive, it is necessary to learn to how to deal with them. People must heal from betrayals to restore their sense of trust. An individual undergoes seven key steps in healing:

  1. Recognize and acknowledge what has occurred.
  2. Experience any painful feelings.
  3. Get support. Receiving supportive help makes it easier to deal with feelings of powerlessness and to rebuild self-esteem.
  4. Reframe the experience. Think of it as a learning experience.
  5. Take responsibility. Admit any personal contribution to what happened.
  6. Forgive that contribution and forgive the other people involved.
  7. Let go and move on." Think of how to act differently in the future.

Contractual, Communication and Competence Trust

Because betrayals can be so damaging to relationships and to the individual’s capacity to trust, managers should act to promote the other three types of trust: contractual, communication and competence trust.

“Our capacity to trust in others is critical to our work relationships. It is the force that holds a relationship together.”

Contractual trust is based on the understanding that "we will do what we said we will do." This can be any kind of promise or agreement, from delivering a product or service to completing a job. To promote this kind of trust, you need to carry through on committed actions. Specifically, you should take the following actions to foster contractual trust:

  • Manage expectations. Make it clear what you expect.
  • Establish boundaries. Define everybody’s role.
  • Delegate appropriately. Clarify instructions and objectives.
  • Encourage mutual intentions. Employees should support each another.
  • Honor agreements. Keep promises and commitments.
  • Be consistent. Behave in a predictable way.
“Our capacity to trust is not static but dynamic. It expands and contracts as it is updated by our positive and negative experiences.”

Communication trust is based on a willingness to share information openly, be trustful, acknowledge errors, keep confidences, provide helpful feedback and have good intentions in what you say. Let people know what is happening in the business. Keep them informed. This keeps them from jumping to incorrect assumptions or trying to fill information gaps with gossip and rumor. Give them the knowledge they need to work effectively. When you do not know something, say so. Act in the following ways to promote communication trust:

  • Share information. This helps people feel that you trust them.
  • Tell the truth. Employees need to know you are straightforward.
  • Admit mistakes because cover-ups sap time and energy, and hurt morale.
  • Use feedback. Give and receive constructive feedback.
  • Maintain confidentiality. This helps people trust you.
  • Speak with good purpose. Speak "constructively and affirmatively" and "stand up for" others. This helps unify people, in contrast to gossip and criticism which pull relationships apart.
“The more you are able to trust in yourself, the more you are able to trust in people, and the more you are able to deal with the uncertainty of the process.”

Competence trust is based on respecting others’ knowledge, skills, abilities and judgments, and helping them learn additional needed skills. People want to feel that they contribute to the success of the organization. Be willing to let them use their abilities to achieve your goals at work. They will feel more competent and do a better job. As your employees gain even more competence and confidence, they can do a better job. Building this trust helps them exercise their skills more effectively. With trust, employees will feel safe sharing their real feelings and opinions, even if they differ from yours. To promote competence trust, do the following:

  • Respect people’s knowledge, skills and abilities.
  • Respect people’s judgment, so they can make decisions.
  • Involve others and seek their input.
  • Help people learn skills.

Rebuilding Trust in Teams and Organizations

When trust breaks down, whether in work teams or the organization as a whole, you need to take steps to rebuild it. The decline in trust can contribute to even further declines, and the process will snowball if you don’t stop it and reverse it. When contractual, communications or competence trust breaks down in a team, teach employees to use the steps outlined above to rebuild them. As a leader on the organizational level, you can rebuild trust in two ways. First, help others see change in a positive light, since many people may think of change as a loss. Second, help people get over betrayal by helping them express their feelings, giving them your support and using the steps above to help them heal.

About the Authors

Dennis S. Reina and Michelle L. Reina are principals in Chagnon & Reina Associates, a organizational development, research and consulting firm. They are change management consultants, executive coaches and speakers. They each have a Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Systems. The Reinas have worked with and conducted research in more than 65 organizations in private industry, state government, higher education and the non-profit sector.

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Trust & Betrayal in the Workplace

Book Trust & Betrayal in the Workplace

Building Effective Relationships in Your Organizations

Berrett-Koehler,
 


18 January 2026

One Year to an Organized Life

Recommendation

Regina Leeds starts with your mother’s philosophy: There’s a place for everything. She provides all the details you need week-by-week and month-by-month to help you stop searching for keys and remote controls, and quit wondering when your dental appointment is. With her help, you can change from time-wasting time mode to “just do it” mode. The weekly organizational activities on her agenda range from one hour to a full day, though she rarely asks you to tie up an entire day. Leeds knows many people have busy schedules and an overwhelming amount of work to do in organizing their lives. BooksInShort finds that her orderly approach might help you transform your life or, at least, your closet.

Take-Aways

  • You can organize your life by following a one-year plan.
  • To make organizing easier, try not to aim for perfection.
  • Create routines for each season and for each room in your home.
  • Try to form one new positive habit each month.
  • Write every activity in your calendar so you can plan instead of panicking.
  • Do as much work before an event as possible.
  • Manage and maintain an address book.
  • People turn into pack rats when they don’t know how to organize their things.
  • When you are deciding to toss or keep an item, anything that doesn’t merit a clear “keep it” should go.
  • Create a monthly organizational scheme that fits your life and your home. Follow it step by step.

Summary

The One-Year Plan

If you want to organize your home according to a one-year plan, begin with the current month and work through the year. Capture your goals on a collaged dream board, but don’t worry about being artistic. Cut out and paste up magazine pictures that represent how you want your house to look. This visual aid will help you stick with your organizational projects.

“Everyone can get organized.”

Even if you habitually struggle to find your gloves or can’t use your dining table because of the clutter, you can get organized. Every sorting project falls into three steps:

  1. “Eliminate” – Return borrowed items, toss unneeded junk and put things back in their proper locations. The drinking glass in your bedroom belongs in the kitchen.
  2. “Categorize” – As you go through things, start categorizing every item to save time. Put spices together so you know what you need to buy. Create folders for each person in the household covering medical, financial, school and work concerns.
  3. “Organize” – After cleaning and sorting, decide how to keep things in order.
“A calm, well-organized environment will nurture and support everyone present.”

At the end of the day, take a break so you don’t burn out. As you develop positive new patterns, remember that when you do the same thing for 21 days in a row, it becomes a habit. Start by making new goals, such as arriving at events on time. Set realistic, clear objectives. Note the steps you need to follow to reach them. Set up a calendar to make this process part of your schedule. Once you have every activity on your calendar, clarifying your priorities and saying “no” will be easier. Don’t answer invitations on the spot; say you need to check your calendar first. If you’re avoiding a project you’ve already promised to do, take a deep breath and get it done.

January: The Kitchen

Consider how you use your kitchen and how you want to use it. Gain control by tossing duplicated or unnecessary items. (Do you need all those beer steins from your travels?) Try to cure trouble spots, such as cluttered drawers or shelves. List things to buy or re-purpose that can help you organize problem areas. If you don’t know a solution, the clerk at the storage store can help you find something that will work. Group things on your countertops for easy access. For example, the coffee maker could go near the sugar and mugs. If you use an appliance daily, keep it on the counter instead of moving it in and out of the cupboard. By the end of the month, have one new kitchen habit in place.

February: The Bedroom

Pick a new habit that relates to organizing your bedroom, such as putting away your clothes each night. Address habitually disorganized areas. Decide what to donate, move or buy. Does your bedroom have some special-purpose zone, such as an office or exercise area? Separate those spaces by using rugs or by grouping furniture to create lines between zones.

“Getting organized is about clearing away the clutter.”

Go through the closet and dump clothes you have not worn for more than a year. Sift through hanging items, then shelved things. Move anything that doesn’t belong (that bike helmet) to a spot in your home where you’ll use it, or, if you won’t use it again, donate it. Distribute empty hangers to other closets to gain more space. Store hats, scarves and shoes in clear boxes. Sort your clothes by categories: business suits, sports apparel and so on. Arrange each section by color, using the same color order in all sections. Toss wire hangers and plastic covers from the cleaners. If you want to change how the room feels, paint the walls or a few pieces of furniture.

March: Business Life

To begin organizing your papers, contact your tax expert to find out what documents you need to keep and for how long. As you go through your mail this month, develop the habit of tossing all the junk mail.

“Organizing gives you options and should open the world of possibilities.”

Set aside 20 minutes to sort through magazines, statements and other paper clutter. Zoom through everything without categorizing and shred as you go. Use file cabinets with hanging folders to organize your business paperwork, personal bills and expenses. Create subcategories, such as car, medical, home, insurance, travel, entertainment and so on. File current projects where you can gain access to the material quickly. Put it in binders (with a tab for each project) or in a project box. After completing a project, file it with the rest of your documents.

“If you never complete your actions, it’s like having a thousand golden threads scattered about.”

Sometimes, attempts to tackle several projects at once can put you on the road to burnout. But, done right, multitasking can prevent exhaustion. People who have to struggle to say “no” either want to be too nice or have codependency issues. Save “yes” for the requests you value and say “no” to the rest. Make use of idle time, such as when something needs to cook or while you are sitting in the doctor’s waiting room. However, don’t overdo it. Reading e-mails while you’re talking on the phone is counterproductive. Don’t automatically pick up the phone every time it rings; let it go to voice mail when you’re busy. Check the caller ID before you answer.

April: Bathrooms

This month, form the habit of cleaning the counter before you leave the bathroom. To declutter, sift through your cabinets and drawers. See how much you can get done in 15 minutes. Throw away or donate old, unnecessary and duplicate products, and expired cosmetics. Remove items that don’t belong. Toss any extra packaging for things you bought in bulk. Put products into totes or containers for easy storage under the sink. If your bathroom is small, use a shelf or two in the linen closet as additional storage.

May: Attics, Basements, Garages, Laundry Rooms and Guest Rooms

“Bonus,” or extra, small rooms tend to become chaotic storage areas. During May, try to put everything back where it belongs and let those overflow areas function as they should. If you have multiple storage rooms to organize, start small. Pick a manageable room. Carefully prepare items for storage if they will be in a space without temperature control. Extreme heat and cold can ruin photographs and fragile belongings. Use high cabinets or under-bed storage to tuck away things you rarely use. Follow these steps to declutter any space:

  1. Find out how to dispose of bulk items. You may need to get a dumpster.
  2. Sort through your things, and decide what to toss, sell, return or fix.
  3. Plan a garage sale and invite other families to join you.
  4. Post items for sale on eBay, Craigslist and similar Web sites.
  5. Call a charity to schedule a pick-up of your donated goods.
  6. If necessary, buy storage containers for items you’re keeping.
“Sometimes all it takes is a willingness to see things differently.”

After clearing the space, you may want to consult a professional closet or garage designer. Refresh the room by painting, updating the flooring or adding curtains.

June: Travel

During this month, make a point of completing anything you start. Don’t begin a new project until you have finished any ongoing ones. If you’re going to travel, reflect on past trips – what went well and what didn’t? How did you pack? What did you forget? What did you take but never use? Consider these experiences as you create a master list of things to take. Refer to it every time you travel.

“When you let go, a space opens for something else to move into your life.”

When you’re planning a journey, ask your friends and family for advice. Newspaper articles and Web sites may also provide good information about your destination. Keep tabs on the weather so you pack appropriately. Make practical choices about what to bring, such as two pairs of well-worn shoes, and clothing you can mix and match. Put your itinerary and contact information in your luggage, and make sure others know how to reach you.

July: Scrapbooks, Greeting Cards and Address Books

A message from a friend’s new e-mail account, a voice mail about a changed phone number, a postcard with a new mailing address – these reminders pile up. To stay organized, update contact information in your address book right away, or at least by the end of the day. If your cellphone holds your address book, back up the data regularly, because phones can fail or get lost. Store business cards in one place rather than entering all of them into your address book.

“When we feel vulnerable and powerless in our lives, we frequently do one of two things: We gain weight or we weight ourselves down with too much stuff.”

Sort your memorabilia, such as cards, letters, photos and collections. Put the items in two categories for storage: out-of-sight or on display. Decide how attached you are to them and try to keep only the best, most important things. If you display big collections, change the items on a seasonal basis. To tackle the photos you’ve stored, toss duplicates and snapshots that will never make it into albums. Decide quickly, and avoid dwelling on pictures and memories. Sort photos into broad categories, such as events or trips. Store digital photos on an external hard drive and on DVDs. Limit yourself to two copies per digital photo for each media. Print photos only when you need them.

August: Moving

If you are relocating this month, try to ease your workload during your move so you aren’t in a tumult in two different areas of your life. Ask yourself questions to help you feel less panicky about an upcoming move: How much time and money do you have? Is your new place smaller or bigger? Are you taking everything? Don’t sidetrack yourself with other projects. Even without a move, make maintenance your habit of the month.

“Our contribution to the progress of the world must, therefore, consist in setting our own house in order.” – Gandhi

What the movers call a “den” may be your “living room.” Avoid such confusion by posting signs in each room, such as “Label these boxes ‘Joe’s bedroom’.” Any items that you will need immediately at the new location should go into the moving truck last, so they come out first. Keep valuables and medications with you.

September: Back to School

In September, try to replace the negative talk in your head with good thoughts. Build a family routine for waking up, eating, coming home and going to bed. Set rules around homework and chores. Children need to know that their parents set limits and stick to them. Assign two types of chores: those that are expected and those that earn rewards. The tasks should be age-appropriate.

“To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is only the end of life.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Before you take on any volunteer projects, ask about the time commitment and any other expectations. If you accept a project, break it down into manageable tasks and apply the formula “eliminate, categorize and organize.”

October: Family Rooms and Living Rooms

Encourage everyone in your home to put things back after using them. Consider how your family utilizes your living room, which often can turn into a catch-all for things that don’t belong there. Decide how you want to use the room and work toward that goal. Your family room, on the other hand, is where people tend to gather. Give it furniture and flooring that is easy to clean. Move out-of-place items to a more suitable room. Be selective about displayed photos and rotate them.

November: Entertaining

Many people express gratitude this time of the year. Follow this habit year-round. Think about your holiday celebrations from your childhood to the present. What seasonal traditions would you like to revive or drop? If you decide to celebrate differently from the past, let your family know ahead of time. To prepare for the holiday, tidy your home and plan your menus. Consider which rooms you will use to entertain and prioritize your cleaning accordingly. Create a budget, and list what to buy or borrow. Try to cultivate a stress-free atmosphere for you and your guests.

December: Celebrating

Instead of starting a new habit, review the good habits you added this year. Consciously put them to use each day. Focus on your calendar this month: Bring it everywhere and update it when you hear of a new event. Prioritize every project from writing cards to having a party, and save energy by shopping online for gifts. Keep things tidy, including those holiday lights (try wrapping them around an object). As always, don’t expect perfection. Sometimes you just don’t have time to decorate every surface or you have to mail the cards late – if at all. Remember, “It’s only stuff.”

About the Author

Regina Leeds, a professional organizer, is also the author of The Zen of Organizing.

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One Year to an Organized Life

Book One Year to an Organized Life

From Your Closets to Your Finances, the Week-by-Week Guide to Getting Completely Organized For Good

Da Capo Press,
 



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