I am a firm believer that success is a result of planning and daily action. Good organisation skills help you gain control of your time so you can plan and complete the tasks needed to achieve your goals. As Benjamin Franklin said, “For every minute spent organising, an hour is earned”.
Being organised not only helps you save time but also reduces unwanted stress that you may go through in order to make things happen every day. It also makes room for more productivity and peace in your life. The good news is that it is a skill that can be learnt whenever you want. Therefore, even if you think you are a disorganised person, you can learn to be organised if you put your mind to it. This can start from you organising your room, your bag, your day to your thoughts. From planning things, jotting things down, to ditching the unnecessary and prioritising things that matter, you will become an organised person as long as you are willing to learn and practice it every day and make it a part of your lifestyle. Here are some ways that will help you organise yourself:
- List out the tasks to be completed.
- Make daily, weekly and monthly to-do lists of important tasks.
- Review your daily priorities at the beginning of each day.
- Evaluate what you have achieved at the end of the day.
- Make time management a mantra of your life: Organised people don’t waste time. They understand that keeping things organised goes hand-in-hand with staying productive.
- Make schedules for the day and week. Do not just make deadlines and set goals, but most importantly, stick to them.
- Understand your body clock and schedule your tasks accordingly. The most challenging tasks may be reserved for the time when your energy levels are the highest, keeping the less demanding tasks for other times.
- Also schedule a suitable time at work, when you are less likely to be disturbed, to accomplish tasks that need extra concentration.
- Use commute time to plan your day’s activities.
- Make optimal use of calendars, planners, digital devices
- Check your work calendar daily to review your activities.
- Write down all commitments rather than relying only on your memory. This not only includes important dates like meetings and appointments, but also birthdays, shopping lists for groceries etc. You may use the classic notebook or the modern-day digital notepads on your mobile, they all work, as long as you write it down!
- Practice delegation: A really organised life is not necessarily filled with responsibilities, meetings and deadlines. In fact, it has less because things that create stress have slowly made their way out. Go through your list of tasks and projects and find one task that you can delegate to someone else.
- Simply your life: Simplifying is the key. Simplify everything around you. Your possessions, your process of working, arranging things etc. do not burden yourself by complicating things.
- Reduce clutter and declutter regularly
- Organise your workspace by keeping only the most critical items and information you need daily on the top of your desk
- Archive resource materials you rarely use
- Get rid of obsolete or duplicate information
- Keeping your things in their proper places, so you don’t waste your time and energy looking for them
- Find time each week to organise
- Avoid Procrastination: The longer you wait to do something, the more difficult it will be to get it done as you run out of options. So, organise as soon as you can. Putting in the effort to get things done as soon as possible will lift the weight off you. So, do it NOW!!!
If you found these tips useful and want to explore coaching to see how you can be more organised in not just your day but also in your thoughts, write to me on coaching@priyankamadan.com or message me on LinkedIn to book your first FREE coaching session with me.
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