This is part 2 of a 2 part series, be sure to read part 1, The forest versus the trees, round 1.

Wednesday we spoke about the symptoms and causes of losing control of your environment, and the impact this lack can have on attaining a health work-life balance.

So now we know how to recognize that we may have lost control, and what can cause it. Knowing this is the first step, but how do we fix the problem or prevent it from happening in the first place?

If you’ve already lost control, there are several ways you can remedy the problem. The first thing to do is just step back and take a breath. Much of the reason we lose control is that we get sucked into the runway-level actions without having a clear picture of the higher level goals and responsibilities, and why we have them. This step back allows you to step out of the trees and see the forest for what it is. In some cases, this also allows you to see where the fires are burning hottest and you can regain control from here.

Other times you might still be a little lost. Maybe you’re buried under a mountain of paperwork that was dropped in your lap, or things have slowly built up to a point where you’re not sure where to start or what to do next. In order to get a clear(er) view of the big picture, you need to take some time to clear this. Whether this be a GTD-style review or just reading through your email to see what you’re dealing with, knowledge of your actions is the first step towards actually getting them done.

Once you have an up-to-date picture of where you’re at, you can then start to regain control. But before you just dive back into the work, take a few minutes to think strategically, and decide where you need to be in this big picture, and the route you’d like to take to get there. You need to decide what is really important, and equally, what is not as important. By knowing what isn’t as important, you recognize the places where you can safely gain some breathing room. Don’t stress yourself out about that option project two months from now, when you’re trying to deal with the month-end financial reports that are due tomorrow. An added bonus of knowing what you’re not doing is that you can get rid of that nagging feeling that you’re missing something. Because you’ve made the conscious decision to defer a certain action, your mind isn’t trying to tell you that it has to be done now. If you neglect to take this time to think strategically, you force yourself back into a reactive mode, not a proactive one. When you are constantly reacting to external factors, then you aren’t in control, the external factors are.

So we’ve talked about some ways to regain control once its gone, but as we’ve all heard, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. (Is that a gram of prevention and a kilogram of cure for those of us in metric?) Then the question is what can we do to maintain control in the first place? This is where being organized can help. Maybe it’s through a system like Getting Things Done, or Zen To Done, or whatever works for you. Having the knowledge of what you are and aren’t doing at any given time is the easiest way to maintain control, and being organized gives you this power. Then even if you are in a situation where you need to react, you can approach things differently. You know what is being delayed, you can work to renegotiate whatever might be impacted, and you can then devote your full attention to this new problem, allowing you to get it cleared, quickly, efficiently, and effectively, and then pick up where you left off.

Being organized also gives you a much better early-warning system for when you might be in danger of losing control. If you’re noticing that your committments are growing and could reach a point where control becomes difficult, you now have several options. These are perfect times to ask for help, renegotiate your other commitments, or say no. You’ll find that if you are organized and know what you’re doing and what your commitments are, saying no suddenly becomes much easier to justify, not just to whoever is asking, but to yourself as well.

These are a few methods you can use to keep yourself on track, or get yourself back on if you’ve derailed. I know these have helped me in the past, and I hope they can do the same for you. If there’s anything else that you’ve found helps you out as well, please post it in the comments to share!