Being organized at work is important, but it’s an ongoing struggle for many people. Believe it or not, staying organized is not as daunting as it may seem. Here’s a list of 6 ways to stay organized daily at work or at home (if you work remotely).
- Monitor Your Daily Activities
Spend a couple of days keeping record of your daily activities. This will help you see exactly which activity is a time waster and which might actually further your goals. This exercise gives you a bigger picture of your productivity and organizational gaps.
- Know Your Productivity Time
Research has it that the brain is most effective between 10am to 2pm during the day. Some people work best in the morning while some cringe at the idea of morning work. Whether you prefer evenings, mornings, lunchtime, or right before or after workday rush hours, determine your productive hours and take advantage of them to maximize your productivity.
- Task Priority
Like Director of Google Nigeria, Juliet Ehimuan would say, time management is priority management. Learn to properly prioritize your daily tasks as some tasks are more important than the other. Develop a ranking system by highlighting important tasks and pay more attention to the top priority items on your list. You might also prioritize responding to clients, bosses, or anyone else who pays the bills.
- Avoid Multitasking
Multitasking is not efficient and can actually hurt your organizational effectiveness. Instead, devote your full attention to one task at a time, handle it, and move on to the next item on your list.
- Limit Interruptions
Interruptions during work can be disorganizing. Interruptions can slow you down, break up your work rhythm, and make you lose your train of thought. Not all times you have to be glued to your inbox, as many messages aren’t actually as time sensitive as we may think. If you work in a job that doesn’t require immediate email follow-up, check your email at scheduled times only about three to four times per day.
- Avoid Postponing Activities, Just Do It!
Procrastination is the thief of time and achievement. Postponing activities is pilling up more work to attend to later. Ask yourself if postponing is absolutely necessary or if this urge is just an example of procrastination. However, in cases when postponing all or part of an activity is unavoidable, be sure to make note of where you left off, and reschedule with concrete plans. Alternatively, you might come up with a contingency plan.
Written by Agbaje Omoniyi