Study: No Time to Get Organized

By George Anderson

A new study conducted by Harris Interactive for American Demographics
says 44 percent of Americans do not have enough time to get organized.

A report in the April 2003 issue of the magazine says the average American
spends almost four minutes searching for car keys, remote control, etc. every
time one of these commonly misplaced items goes missing. If a person misplaces
something once a week, they will spend 3.5 hours each year on searching alone.

Not surprisingly, more organized people lose items less frequently and spend
less time hunting them down when they are misplaced. “Extremely organized” individuals
spend one minute and eighteen seconds looking for a misplaced item compared
to 8.5 minutes for the “not at all organized” group.

Moderator’s Comment: Does the lack of organization
in Americans’ personal lives follow them to the workplace? What are the implications?
Solutions?

Nearly 90 percent of “Americans say they could use help
tidying up some corner of their life.” More than half of adults say they have
or are willing to purchase products such as containers to help them get better
organized. Six percent are willing to pay someone else to do their organizing
for them. [George
Anderson – Moderator]

Source: American Demographics, Get It Together, April
2003