Think back to grade school when you had to clean out your desk at the end of each quarter. Each student in your classroom would open up their flip-top desk and start rummaging through the contents of their desks. This is when you would get a sense of who was neat and organized, and an indication of perhaps why certain students were missing homework. Oftentimes, the students who had the neat desks were the ones at the top of the class, whereas the ones who cited hungry dogs as the culprit for missing homework were always playing catch-up. Could you use a little spring cleaning in certain areas of your life? Here are a few ways to get organized inside and outside the office:
1. Plan for tomorrow at the end of your day
Take 15 minutes at the end of your workday and determine how to layout tomorrow. Figure out what you need to get accomplished, and attack your day with purpose. This eliminates the need to waste time thinking about what you should do next. Use the technology you have at your fingertips to schedule work life and home life. Taking this time will also allow you to think through logistics of the next day, preparing directions to get to meetings and providing an overall sense of “having it together” for the day ahead. In addition, if you see any potential pitfalls of your schedule or workload, you can be proactive in solving them instead of feeling like you’re constantly behind schedule all day.
2. Figure out how to take time for you
If you can take an hour each day when you wake up to fit in some exercise, meditation or a block of time dedicated to clearing your head, you’ll feel ready to run your day and not let your day run you. Taking time for you also means taking time away from the office. Put it in your calendar and don’t let things encroach on your time off. No matter how dedicated you are to your job and how much you love it, if you step away when you have blocked off time, you’ll return more dedicated than ever. This also does not mean that weekends are just for chores. Try to spend time pursuing your hobbies and interests in addition to getting things done around your living quarters.
3. Delegate
If you’re in a leadership role, there are usually two main reasons you delegate something to your team. Reason one: You need the help, your team has done this task a million times, you can trust it will get done. Being able to delegate in this manner is the goal of every leader. You give your team a task, check in along the way, guide when necessary and the task is completed. Reason two: Professional growth and development of your team. This form of delegation is necessary, but not always convenient. If you’re going to engage in this kind of delegation, you’ll need to put a plan in place for it to be successful. Make sure your schedule allows for this, otherwise this will leave both you and your employee frustrated.
4. Clean up your desk and vehicle you drive to work
If you were the kid constantly missing your homework, you’re probably the adult who struggles to keep their desk in order. Think of your desk as a library. It has everything you need to be successful at your job, as long as you can find it. If you notice it evolving into a state where you’re spending more time looking for things than successfully finding them, block off some time to get things “re-filed and back on to shelves.” Another area of your habitat that can get messy without taking time to re-organize is the vehicle you drive to work. Think about the vehicle you drive to work as being the stage that sets up your day. If you’re digging through your backseat to find the pair of shoes you couldn’t find in your front closet, or rummaging through your trunk to find a business card, it’s time to spend some time tidying up.
5. Don’t check email constantly
Set up blocks of your day dedicated to checking and responding to email. Don’t respond to each message as it comes in and risk breaking your concentration to deal with the contents. If email is a major part of your job and it’s generally too time sensitive to relegate to certain parts of the day, allocate a chunk of every hour toward handling it.
Use these five suggestions to start getting organized inside and outside the office. Not only will you likely find more time in each day to allocate toward things you want and need to get done, you’ll feel like you’re in charge of your day, not like your day is in charge of you.