Little Things: How Disorganization Affects the Details Which Make a Difference

I've been rather disorganized the past few months. I was in the middle of a reorganizing session, hit a bad patch with depression (I guess that is the best way to describe it but basically I got done with an enormous project and was burned out, exhausted, and unhappy), and let things get out of hand. I'm just now getting back out from under the mess.

Here's one lesson I've learned from this disorganization--it leads to lots of small mistakes and problems which make things much worse in the long term.

In the past few weeks I've discovered that:
1. My calendar had a note on a particular evening that I had a "6:30 mtg" but no further information. I noticed this the day before the notation and spent the next 30 hours trying to figure out what meeting I was supposed to go to and never discovering it. I have no idea what thing I was supposed to do that night.

2. I put some wrong info on a flyer for one of my groups. I didn't catch an error in a telephone number until it had already gone out to many people (of course, neither did the three other people in my group who approved the flyer before it went out, but it is ultimately my responsibility). I got the info wrong because I copied it from an old flyer they gave me which had the number wrong--but I was too disorganized to bother to track down the other info they had given me to verify my facts.

3. I couldn't find some supplies when I needed them for a project, which kept me from being able to do something I wanted.

4. I misplaced a bill and didn't find it till the day it was due. I don't want to have late bills!

5. I filled out an EDD form incorrectly and now have to wait for a replacement unemployment check after I caught the error and notified them. This delays money I need to cover my bills.

These are 5 ways that being disorganized made my life more difficult. Luckily things are looking better around here. I still have some stacks of papers to go through and a few areas to clear off, but it is much better.

Each of these problems was small--no life shattering errors--but these little things all caused me problems with extra work, time wasted looking for things, and possibly affecting my credit and reputation. These are not small effects. I've heard the phrase "The Devil is in the details" and "God is in the details." Either way, disorganization often causes these details to be messed up, and then there is hell to pay.