How to Be More Organized - From MindTools.

com 25/06/2021, 20:10

How to Be More Organized

Declutter, Take Control, and Achieve More at Work

Are you in control of everything you need for your job? Is the right
information always at your fingertips? Do you have a clear plan of action
every day?

Or maybe your desk looks like it's been hit by a bomb and you're drowning
in emails. You're in danger of missing a deadline, your important files are
never where you thought they were, and it's a lottery whether you'll even
have clean clothes to wear for work in the morning!

Your ability to organize yourself has a major impact on your success, and
it can have a knock-on effect on your team members and co-workers,
too.

In this article, and the accompanying video, we'll explore strategies for
reaping the rewards of a calm, controlled, decluttered approach – in your
professional life, and in everything else you do. Order and calm create a
platform for productivity and provide a defense against stress.

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How to Be More Organized

Use these strategies to replace the mayhem and chaos in your life
with a sense of calm.

The Benefits of Being More Organized

You can lose a great deal of time to disorganization. A minute here to find
your keys, another there to track down an email… Those minutes quickly
mount up to hours of lost productivity. And even if you do manage to get
everything done, you likely won't have produced your best work.

The core benefits of being organized and operating in a generally clutter-

free environment are increased productivity and improved performance.
And with those comes a greater sense of control, which is a vital part of
stress management, resilience, and overall well-being.

Good organization can also lead to better thinking. Decision making and
problem solving rely on a clear head, plus ready access to the right
information and tools. An uncluttered approach improves
concentration and your ability to learn, and it puts you on the right track
toward the state of deep focus known as "flow."
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Success at work also has a lot to do with how you're seen by others. If
you're regularly late for meetings, careless with your responsibilities, and
seem out of control in your role, your reputation – and your chances of
career progression – are at risk.

However, if you show yourself to be someone who manages their

workload well, and can be relied on to help to make your organization or
team run more smoothly, your competence and value will be clear for
everyone to see.

Organize Your Workspace

To become more organized, a good place to start is at your desk – or
wherever you do the majority of your work.

Be honest: does your workspace currently help you to be organized, or is

it the source of many of your problems? You may work best with a little
clutter – in which case, keep it there. But, if the state of your desk is
spoiling your performance, it's time to make some changes.

What do you actually need to keep close by? If you spot anything that's no
longer useful, or is just getting in the way, either store it carefully
someplace else, or get rid of it.

Try having an "action area" on your desk, where you keep the things you
need for your current project or activity. This will help you to get started
quickly, to avoid distractions, and to stay focused on the task at hand.
When one project's done, clear everything away to make room for the
next.

And, when your workspace is in good shape, keep it that way! At the end
of every day, decide what needs to stay where it is, and make everything
else disappear.

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Organize Your Time

An uncluttered approach to your work won't just save you time, it will also
help you to use your time more effectively. Good organizational habits are
crucial for successful time management.

With easy access to everything you need, you'll be confident about the
amount of time each task should take. You'll also have a clear idea of
when to do it – to fit in with the rest of your work, and to suit other people.

Most importantly, with a calm and controlled approach to each day, you'll
be able to make good use of all the time-management tools on offer.

Start every day as you mean to go on. Give yourself the first 15 minutes to
get organized. If you have an Action Program, go straight to your "Next
Actions" list.

Alternatively, make a To-Do List, with the day's priorities at the top. This
will help you to see the best way to shape your day. You'll know which
tasks need to be done first, and which can be left until the afternoon.
You'll also be able to match your most significant – or most challenging –
work to the times of day when you're at your best. Find out more about
this by reading our article, Is This a Morning Task?

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Tip:

Stay flexible. Even the best-laid plans can come to nothing if the
unexpected occurs, and it's important to respond to whatever happens

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during the day. Make sure that your schedule gives you a little room for
maneuver if you have to produce a last-minute report or there's a crisis at
home.

However, the more organized you are, the easier it will be to see how to
tackle new situations. You'll know which tasks can be shifted to make way.
You'll also likely be calmer and more controlled as you plan your response.

Organizational Tools
There are plenty of tools at your disposal to help you to get organized.
Use the ideas below to consider how a combination of traditional tools
and technology might work for you.

Traditional Tools

For some people, a paper notebook is still the best way to stay in control
of information, ideas, lists, and plans. You can personalize it, carry it
everywhere you go, and it never needs recharging!

It's a good idea to start a new, dated page each day, so that you can easily
go back and find the information you need.

You can use your notebook to record the key points from conversations
and meetings. If an idea occurs to you while you're busy with a task, jot it
down for later, so that you don't lose your flow. Write To-Do Lists and
reminders that will help you to stay in control of your working day. You can
also add notes about your activities away from work, to make your whole
day run more smoothly.

Other traditional tools can help, too:

Wall or desk calendars are great for keeping your schedule in front of
you, and they're easy to update.

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Paper diaries give you a clear picture of your day, week, or even a
whole year, and help you to coordinate your work with everything else
that's going on in your life.
Sticky notes allow you to leave yourself quick reminders – in useful
places – as well as to mark key sections in books, separate out piles
of documents, or help others to understand your systems.

Note:

Being organized is a personal responsibility, but it also benefits your team

members and co-workers.

Following a file-naming convention, for example, saves you time and

stress, and it also makes the system effective for everyone else. Getting to
appointments on time boosts your reputation, and makes meetings more
productive.

Even getting simple "housekeeping" responsibilities right, like keeping the

printer paper topped up, for example, can have a major impact on the
mood – and the performance – of your whole team. For more on the
positive impact of an organized and conscientious workplace approach,
see our articles on Good Manners in the Office, and Health and Hygiene at
Work.

Technology

Whatever system you use to communicate online, it will likely have many
organizational features.

For example, explore the different options for labeling or filing emails. See
if it helps to color-code your online calendar (maybe red for urgent, green
for extended deadlines, and blue for low-priority tasks). Check that you
know how to set yourself electronic reminders.

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On your laptop or office computer, spreadsheets can be useful for

keeping track of your progress. You can design them to give you the
clearest possible view of all your responsibilities and deadlines. With a
little know-how, you can even use conditional formatting to alert you when
key dates are approaching. (However, there are also plenty of
spreadsheet-style scheduling programs which will do all of that for you,
and more – such as Monday.com and Wrike.)

Your cell phone also has plenty of useful tools built in. As well as making
the most of the clock, alarm, calendar, and reminder functions, you can
use the voice recorder to capture your ideas. At other times, a simple
photograph may be the best way to gather the information you need.

There are some great task management apps, like Asana and Trello, which
work for individuals as well as whole teams or companies. These update
everyone connnected with a task or project on its progress in real time,
and issue deadline reminders to improve efficiency.

And there are many apps geared to boosting your personal organization
skills. RescueTime, for example, monitors all your digital activity, and
provides detailed reports about how you're spending your time. Things
lets you organize large projects into smaller, prioritized lists. And 30/30
helps you to break your day into manageable, 30-minute chunks.

Five Habits of Organized People

The more you can live and work in an organized way – even if it doesn't
come naturally at first – the sooner you'll change your habits for the
better. Here are five everyday strategies worth trying:

1. Celebrate small wins. For example, if you complete three things on

your To-Do List, treat yourself to a cup of coffee, or allow yourself 10
minutes of free time to check some of your favorite websites.

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2. Use one calendar. If you record some things on your desk planner, and
others on your email calendar, it's going to be hard to coordinate
everything. Instead, start putting it all in one place. If you do it digitally,
you'll find that the technology can pull everything together for you.

3. Schedule small tasks. If a task or project requires action beforehand

(like picking up bagels and coffee for the staff meeting), make sure that
you schedule those into your day, too. Missing small jobs can have big
knock-on effects on everything else.

4. Get organized at home. Don't just restrict your organized approach to

work – because a chaotic home life will bring its own problems. Declutter
where you live to make mornings easier. Plan your whole day carefully.
And talk to the people you live with, so that they know how they can help.

5. Put a high value on your time. Whether you're prioritizing your

professional tasks for the week, or mapping out your family commitments,
think about how to make every second count. In the words of the
American inventor Thomas Edison, time is "… really the only capital any
human being has, and the one thing he can't afford to waste."

Tip:

If you're finding it hard to break a particular habit, could you be

sabotaging yourself? Perhaps you keep losing your car keys when it's time
for work. It could be a coincidence, but maybe there's something deeper
involved. And if there is – possibly a part of you that's trying to get out of
going into the office – you'll need to address that before any new
organizational approach will work.

Note:

Tidying and decluttering are very much "on trend" right now. For some,
they promise answers to many of life's problems. However, it's possible to

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take organizing behaviors to an unhealthy extreme. So, guard against

perfectionism, and don't try to control everything.

If it turns out that you're actually increasing your stress, annoying others,
and putting more into the process than you're getting out, think again.

Aim for a balanced approach, where your organizational strategies are

useful and manageable, for yourself and others.

Key Points

Becoming more organized brings many benefits, including greater

productivity, better performance, and improved ability to handle stress.

Your reputation relies on how organized you're seen to be. And your
punctuality, reliability and conscientiousness can all affect the people you
work with, for good or bad.

Take steps to organize your working environment, so that you can start
quickly, find everything you need, and focus effectively to complete all
your tasks.

An uncluttered approach to work helps you to manage your time, in turn

making you more efficient and effective.

Find the tools – traditional, or more high-tech – that will help you to feel
organized and in control, both at work and in your life beyond.

This site teaches you the skills you need for a happy and successful
career; and this is just one of many tools and resources that you'll find
here at Mind Tools. Subscribe to our free newsletter, or join the Mind Tools
Club and really supercharge your career!

8 MIN READ

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In Flow
Have you noticed how easily children can become absorbed in what
they’re doing? They get so caught up in an activity that the rest of the
world might as well not exist!

This ability to focus totally on one thing comes naturally to young children
in particular. For the rest of us, however, it can be something of a
challenge, and we fail to get the best out of the task at hand.

But some people can focus intently on what they're doing, and perform
exceptionally well as a result. Psychologists refer to this state of absolute
absorption and engagement as being "in flow."

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who first described the concept, suggests that

this state of being able to achieve total focus applies to almost every field
of activity. According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow involves "being completely
involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies.
Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous
one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your
skills to the utmost." So how do we enter this "ecstatic" state?

5 Ways to Stay in Flow

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Click here to view a transcript of this video.

Creating the Right Environment

Flow is easiest to achieve when:...

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