Systematic failures

I've been thinking recently about the systems we put in place, and how they affect daily life, both at home and at work. This is partly inspired by Rhonda's post on organisation and turning over a new leaf, but also by developments at work.

I am a rather disorganised person. I occasionally have a whirlwind tidy and clean, which leaves everything immaculate and tucked away. (My boyfriend refers to these as my 'Monica moments'.) The rest of the time, I let things pile up. I have generally just beaten myself up for not being 'good' enough at maintaining the space I live in (both physically and mentally) but recently I have been wondering whether it might be more to do with the systems I have in place to deal with problems that arise. More specifically, the fact that I don't have any systems, or any routine.

I see the effects of poorly-designed operating systems daily at work, where essentials are never where they need to be, and teams replacing one another on a shift system are never fully staffed, fully trained, fully equipped or fully up to speed with the current situation. Even small things like not being able to find a working pen can set us back a considerable amount of time, and increase stress levels.

So, learning from my work, I would like to introduce one positive behaviour change at a time to introduce some more structure into my reactions to developments in my professional and personal life. Please feel free to come forward with suggestions.