Christian Albarracin- Audit Associate

One of my all time favorite holiday activities is taking in many of the great college football games that coincide with the Holidays. Usually this is just a great time for relaxing, and not one for making observations that prove to be beneficial in my everyday working life. However, this year was different. Don’t get me wrong, I am pretty good at developing creative reasons to justify increasing the amount of sports I watch, but I am not saying that watching college football will always prove to be the best use of time. But it did bring me at least one good realization this year, and that was the importance of organization.

That’s right organization, and I’m really thinking about it more from the perspective of the head football coach. Sometimes, we allow ourselves to wonder why these college coaches get paid so much money when they really only have to work on twelve to fourteen gamedays a year. But then when you start to think about all of the tasks they are responsible for: recruiting, conducting practices, watching film, reviewing training room report updates, speaking at alumni functions, conducting weekly press conferences and media briefings, ensuring that over a hundred 18 - 22 year old kids are doing the do’s (i.e. going to classes, study halls, tutors, etc.) and not doing the don’ts (you can probably think of a few), being a husband, being a father, and so on, it is hard to imagine how so many of them are able to get all of these things done efficiently. More than likely these men have surrounded themselves with excellent, trustworthy, hardworking people and have become master delegators—but I can’t help but think that they must be incredibly well organized in order to balance so many different aspects of their lives. I have no idea how they do it, but it did get me thinking the things that I can do to stay organized to help me meet my everyday responsibilities as we head into the busiest time of year in the accounting profession.

In today’s technologically advanced world, email programs such as Outlook, Lotus Notes, etc. offer great tools to help you stay organized electronically. Using Calendar, Tasks, and Notes functions allow you to easily record events, “to-do” items, and other miscellaneous information related to both your work and personal life to help you try and maintain that all important work-life balance. Nowadays, it is even common to be able to sync this information to your cell phone or pda, so that you can have it with you wherever you go. Take it from me, you might find inputting this information to be frustrating at first, but as you become well practiced in doing so, you begin to easily see the benefits. More than likely your employer will have these resources available to you, so it might not be a bad idea to begin practicing some good organizational habits now. Obviously this may not be the organizational method that bests suits your personality, but the main thing is that you find some method of preventing the madness that an unorganized life can bring. I have heard rumors that there are people out there that have absolutely no desire to be organized; however, I have found that these folks are very few and far between in our profession.

The duties of a college student can often times seem overwhelming, but this is a great time to develop or improve upon your organizational habits, so that you are better prepared to handle the increasing amount of responsibilities that come your way as you transition from college life to the “real world.”