To the Rescue: Simple Organizing Solutions

“Chaos in your environment is a lack of focus, and a lack of focus creates stress,” she says. “Clutter means you can’t make a decision.”

Bryant has been helping businesspeople wade out of their mounds of paper, stacks of files and books, and well, just plain junk since August 2005 through her Branson-based business, Simple Organizing Solutions.

Clients receive a well-organized office, and Bryant also promises to give them back three weeks of productive time a year.

“The average U.S. executive wastes six weeks looking for files and paperwork on a messy desk,” she says. “If you multiply that by the number of your employees, it shows you how much time you can get back.”

Bryant is a certified trainer of the Getting Organized System that teaches her clients how to use their office space efficiently, manage filing systems and paper and take control of their schedules and time.

‘Stacking the stacks’

Being overrun by paper was a specific challenge for one of Bryant’s clients: Shelley Wilson, owner of Piano Craft in Springfield.

“To me, cleaning up was stacking the stacks,” Wilson said. “I didn’t know how to organize.”

Wilson, a musician and music teacher, admitted her office finally got so messy that she kept her door locked so her employees couldn’t see inside. “I couldn’t even type on my computer,” she recalls. “I was embarrassed, and I didn’t know where to start.”

As Bryant does with many of her clients, she took everything out of Wilson’s office and only allowed Wilson to put back in the things she really needed. Wilson said she carried out 10 garbage bags full of accumulated trash.

“It gives a cleansing feeling. You feel in control,” Wilson says. “Now, the only thing on my desk is a legal pad.”

Pull up a chair

Bryant says it is common for her clients to turn their offices into minisupply closets with too many pens, scratch pads, office forms and other supplies. That was the case for client Carrie Parks, a sales representative with Waste Corporation of Missouri in Springfield.

“I had 30 pens when I needed two or three, three calendars on my walls that I didn’t even know about and seven phone books stacked on the floor,” Parks recalls. “I didn’t even have room for someone else. Now there is space for someone to come in and pull up a chair.”

Bryant says she often has her clients donate unneeded office items to local charities and nonprofit organizations. Also, as an unplanned bonus to her clients, Bryant sometimes finds checks and cash. In one home office, $250 in gift shopping cards turned up.

“There hasn’t been an office that I have organized that I haven’t found money,” Bryant says.

Her fees begin at $150 for an individual three-hour session. She also trains entire companies and individuals through her GO System workshops. “The GO System is for the whole department. It gets everyone on the same page,” Bryant says.

She says having an organized system in place also makes training new employees easier and helps other staff members step in when someone is sick or on vacation.

Simple Organizing Solutions

Owner: Kristi Bryant

Founded: August 2005

Address: P.O. Box 676, Branson, MO 65615

Phone: (417) 239-5251

Fax: (417) 334-3140

Web site: www.simpleorganizing.net

Services: Business and home-office organizing, organization consulting, training seminars

Employees: 1

6 Quick Office Organizing Ideas

1. De-clutter your desk. A clutter-free desk erases unnecessary distractions and helps keep your mind on tasks that need immediate attention. Keep only the items on your desk that relate to your current projects.

2. Don’t rely on your memory. You run the risk of letting things fall through the cracks. The best way to never forget an appointment, a deadline, an event or a detail is to write everything down.

3. Give driving directions with ease. Create driving directions to your office, coming from north, south, east and west. Make copies and keep in a file. When someone asks, you can mail them, fax them or read them over the phone.

4. Prepare outgoing mail ahead of time. If you send the same brochures and other materials to prospective clients, prepare your packages ahead of time. Include all necessary materials and store them away until needed. They’ll be all ready to go in a snap.

5. Make phone calls more productive. Say, “I’ve got only five minutes to talk.” Outline your calls. Say, “I’d like to discuss these two possible solutions to problem …”

6. Use one calendar. The biggest mistake people make when using planning calendars is to have one for personal, another for the office and yet another for the family. Keep personal, professional and family items on one calendar. It will help to eliminate scheduling conflicts. Remember, “the man who wears two watches, never knows the correct time.”

Source: Simple Organizing Solutions

About the Organizer

Kristi Bryant holds a business degree and is a former military wife who has moved 15 times, including a move back to her hometown of Branson in 1997. In December 1999, she lost her parents, Judy and Marvin Oetting, who were killed along with four others in a small plane crash flying back to the College of the Ozarks.

“After the accident, my priorities became really clear. I began shedding everything that was holding me back,” she recalls.

As a single mother with teenagers, Bryant says Simple Organizing Solutions has given her flexibility to work around her family and a chance to follow in her parents’ footsteps, who were educators in Branson. “I guess I’m going to end up being a teacher after all,” she says.

GO System Workshop

When: 9–11:30 a.m. Nov. 9

Where: First National Bank, 1455 W. Battlefield St., Springfield

Cost: $159 if received by Nov. 2 and $179 after

Registration: Call (417) 239-5251 or e-mail kristi@simpleorganizing.net.