Contributed by Cindi Pearce, Catalogs.com Info Guru

Do not scoff at the concept of organization. Oh, sure, you may be a free spirit, determined to wing it and that might work, but the odds are your free-wheeling, disorganized ways are going to catch up with you.

It probably takes more effort to be disorganized than to be organized because disorganization can lead to terrible ramifications. You know, getting fired because you are chronically late to work because you can never find your car keys or your car. Alternatively, getting dumped because you forgot you were supposed to show up at the altar.

Here are the top ten get-it-together organization tips:

10. Don’t drink and organize

You know the old saying, and a wise one at that: Don’t drink and drive. Well don’t drink and try to be organized. That’s an oxymoron. It is within the scope of reason that some people are organized drunks, but it is not likely and not recommended. The odds are not on your side.

9. Gender limitations

Do not multi task if you are a man. Women have the monopoly on this. Men get tangled up in their own detritus. Do one thing at a time and, at that, do it slowly and do not try to watch a basketball game while you are doing it.

8. Tackle manageable pieces

You don’t have to organize your entire life in one fell swoop. Decide which area is the most disorganized and needy and start there. For example, write down names and addresses and phone numbers in your address book. This will save you vast amounts of time in the future when you are addressing Christmas cards or wedding invitations or when you need the phone number of your long lost second cousin twice removed.

7. Give up

Forget altogether about being organized and throw caution to the wind. Never be on time. Don’t buy groceries for your hungry brood. Never wash clothing or pay your bills. Wear mismatched socks and shoes. Forget deadlines and don’t put fuel in your gas tank and be sure to blow off the IRS on April 15. How well did THAT go?

6. Get help

Hire a personal secretary who is exceedingly committed to the cause: You! She or he does your thinking for you. She picks out your clothing; combs your hair, brushes your teeth, shoves you in the right direction at the right time; who tells you what to say and do and transports and picks you up, just like when you were five years old. Well, it’s a thought.

5. Nix procrastination

Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today. Oh, you know you’ve heard this one before. Procrastination can turn around and bite you in the butt. If you burst into action in the 11th hour, which may be your style, that’s okay but what IF in the next hour catastrophe occurs, and you cannot, no way, no how, accomplish what you were on deadline to do. See … if you’d done it yesterday, no problem-o.

4. Set reminders

Write notes to yourself. Make lists and lists of lists. Post them everywhere, even on your forehead if necessary. Send yourself email reminders. (Hint…before you start on this route, make sure you stock up on sticky notes or writing paper. Finding your reminders among the pictures on the funny pages or on the back of your parking ticket will probably defeat the purpose!)

3. Share info

Hang a white board or blackboard or a huge family organization wall calendar in a conspicuous place in your home so that everyone has access to it. Tell your spouse and children to write their activities and the date and time on the board. You can communicate via the board. Your family can leave you messages, and you can respond by writing your answers on the board. Everyone is required to check the board a couple of times a day and to keep it updated. That way everyone is more or less on the same page and no one gets stranded or misses an important appointment.

2. Leverage technology

Of course, if you are one of those techno whizzes, which everyone under the age of thirty seems to be, you probably already know every high-tech organizational gadgets to keep yourself on track. Cell phones double as alarm clocks as do computers. Blackberries, blueberries (oh, just joking), iPods this and iPods that, things that keep you on track and tell you which way to turn and how to take the short as opposed to the long way home. Mobile hands free devices keep you connected even when you not, if you know what I mean. If you’re savvy enough to figure out and program all of this stuff then you’re way ahead of this writer. If it works and keeps you organized that’s what counts.

1. Plan. Plan. Plan.

Use a day planner. Don’t just buy a planner, USE it. Shop for accessories. Fill it up with pages and tabs and tools. This planner is your planning bible. Stuff the Daytimer in your purse or briefcase, guarding it with your life. It tells you where you need to go and when and who needs picked up and who needs deposited. Our lives are complicated. The less complicated you make it by jotting down notes, reminders and important dates the less stressed you are going to be.