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Working a lot of hours or you’re working a job that is very demanding; Being organized doesn’t seem like a very negative thing to ask because you want to minimize distractions and declutter your mind, and you want to make sure that you have your priorities straight.
It’s not always realistic to apply every tip that you read about organization at the same time, but you can give it a fair go and make a point of doing what you can to be proactive in your organization in the workplace. From reading 11 Expert Tips for Handling Scheduling Conflicts to learning how to monitor and manage multiple to-do lists, you need to get on track. Being organized means knowing what’s coming, knowing what you’re doing, and knowing what you should have done already.
Let’s take a look at some top tips to help you to stay organized in the workplace.
#1 Lean on to do lists where you can. It’s a no brainer. You can predict your work pattern when you have a to-do list to guide you. You can either go with sticky notes and the traditional route of to do lists, or you can download one of the very many online productivity apps out there that can help you to stay organized on your phone. Writing down all of your tasks gives you something to visualize and prioritize. You can get the most important things done first.
#2 Perform priority triage. Triaging your priorities is one of the best things that you can do because it assesses the urgency of each priority on your list. You can then look at the most important things first so that you can start with the things that have the most attention needed. You can then work down the list and organize your priorities in the right way. This way you can stay on top of the essential tasks that you have to do and keep the tasks that you need to do is secondary and put them in the right priority order if you want to assign them traffic lights, that’s also a great way to do things, with red being the most urgent and green being something that’s on the list to do but it’s not as urgent as everything else.
#3 Make a plan. If you want to achieve your goals, then you need to know what they are and plan them out. Whether your goal is for today, this week, or this month, have different lists to map out your plans properly. You can then fit those objectives into your schedule just like you would a doctor’s appointment, and that helps you to stick to it. Breaking down your long term goals helps them to feel more bite sized which makes them feel much easier to achieve.
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#4 Delegate where you can.Not everybody can do what you do in the way that you do it, so you need to prioritize the things that you have to tend to personally before you hand anything out. If you want to maximize your efficiency and avoid burnout, then you need to consider delegating the jobs that don’t require the same level of expertise to those others around you. This way you can rest assured that work is getting done the way that it should, but it’s not taking up too much of your time.
#5 Try not to multitask. It’s easier said than done, but you don’t want to do things that stop you from working on the important things. When work is piling up, it’s easy to want to cross two or more things off the list at the same time. But doing this is never going to be a good idea, and you’re going to find yourself spinning plates that are very easy to drop.This is why we advocate for lists.
#6 Schedule regular breaks. Running between meetings without a break gives you the illusion that you’re taking things off of your list, but it’s counterproductive. You need to be doing things for a certain time frame, taking a break away from your computer and stretching your legs and then going back to it. It may feel like a waste of time to keep stopping and starting like this, but your brain needs to be rejuvenated and breaks help.
#7 Have a routine in place. A daily routine in the office is going to help you to convert those daily tasks into habits. If you check your emails every day at the same time, it becomes much more of a habit, and it’s much harder to procrastinate on that habit. You can also create reusable templates that automate replies and help you with those repetitive work tasks that can really get under your skin.
#8 Have a clean workspace. It’s much easier to be motivated and focused in a clean environment and not a chaotic one. Research shows that too much clutter can hack productivity, so make a point of scheduling in a desktop tidy session.
#9 Celebrate every win. As you hit every single target on your list, you need to celebrate those wins. Not only will it make you feel good, but it keeps your productivity up and it shows you what you’ve accomplished in the short space of time. It can also remind you of how far you have come and what you have left to do.
#10 Set yourself deadlines. Even if your tasks don’t have deadlines attached to them, set them anyway. This way you can feel like you have something to work towards and that you are on track to do it. Imagine that your company wants to take a second look at its mission statement, for example. Developing that mission statement takes time, so give yourself a deadline for that.
Commission is much easier to achieve when you put your mind to it. Don’t be afraid to put the right plans in place to help it work.
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