Tips on How to be More Organized
When our lives are unorganized, we are constantly shuffling to find what we are looking for. This is wasted time, and it causes people a tremendous amount of stress. This is not a good way to be at work, either. If your managers see you constantly wasting time by looking for your misplaced items, you are not going to get very far with your company. Here are some ways to improve your organization.
Take Back Control of Your Life
When you take on organizing your space, you will regain control of your life. You won’t be a slave to constantly searching for items or fumbling through papers within your desk. When you have control of your life, you reduce your stress as a result.
Get Your Important Tasks Completed
While this may not seem like an organizational tip per se, if you have important tasks that you need to complete constantly weighing on you, it’s going to be hard to concentrate on anything else. It will stress and consume you. By getting your important tasks completed first, you can free yourself up towards tasks related to the organization.
Have a System and Stick with It
Take some time to learn about what organization systems could work for you. Plenty of these exist on the web, and it’s simply a matter of trying it out and seeing what works. However, you have to give it a fair chance. You can’t just try something for a couple of days and then throw in the towel. Give it a month and work the system. Also, find colleagues and friends who are organized and ask how they do it.
Tidy Up Once Per Week
Whether at work or home or both, dedicate an hour or two each week towards finding a home for all of your belongings. This prevents building up clutter to the point where it’s completely unmanageable. By keeping to a weekly schedule, you will find that the clutter will not pile up that much.
Declutter Your Email
If you are getting hundreds of emails per day, it’s time to do something about this. Unless you plan on spending all of your time on emails, you’ll never get through them. Even if you had the luxury of only spending time on going through your emails, you still wouldn’t get through hundreds of them. Take some time to evaluate the senders and what they are sending. Determine what is worth keeping and ask to be removed from any email lists that you don’t interact with. You can always sign up again later if you miss it.
Consider Hiring Professional Organizers
A professional can help you come up with the right system based on your needs. They will ask questions about how you use your items and come up with an appropriate plan for you to keep organized. Only do this if you are going to keep on top of your organization. Otherwise, you will spend money for nothing.
3 Actionable Steps in Organizing
Create a Backup
Back up all important documents and files. This includes both digital and hard copies. Try to find a place where you can keep a set of backups in case of emergencies. Those backups do you no good if they are destroyed. Consider using a service that will store your backups offsite. It cost some money but will be well worth it.
Take a course or attend a seminar on the organization.
Some companies are requiring their employees to do this as they know it increases productivity. This is great for the employees as they won’t have to pay for it themselves. If your company does not do this, try to convince them about the benefits of doing so. Increased productivity is always good for the bottom line. This is always something managers understand.
Pick up a copy of the book The Life-Changing Art of Tidying Up.
This single book will change the way you look at your surroundings.
