Seven Simple Techniques To Staying Organized
Do you mislay stuff once in a while? Do you sometimes fail to remember things? Then you're like most of the population.
In high school we learned that there isn't any such thing as "cold"; that the condition we call "cold" is just a lack of heat. Well... disorganization is just a lack of organization. Organization takes time.
I enjoy my job. Making accounting websites for a living is like playing video games all day long. I don't want to have to spend my time neatening up my desk every night before I go home any more than you do, but in the end It saves me a lot more time than it uses.
Hiring an assistant is, I suppose, the standard solution. If your business is like most, however, hiring someone just to keep you organized is a waste of money. All you need to do is adopt a few simple work habits.
1. For everything that you own, designate a place for it. You can label those places, so it's easier for you to remember. This will make it easier to remember where stuff goes when you're done with it. Down the road you'll grow accustomed to it, and soon you won't need the labels anymore.
2. Don't let your stuff out pace your available storage. If you don't have enough storage space organization becomes impossible. Once you run out of shelf space there's not much you can do except pile stuff up on your desk and (gulp) floor. Take some time to buy the stuff you need, and while you're at it, get a place for temporary storage. Usually people have a tray or a hanger near their front door of their home, which they hang all their things there when entering, so when leaving they know where their belongings are. You can do the same thing in your office. If you're going to have a meeting or important task that day go ahead and pull the stuff you'll need and put it on this desk!
3. Don't try to organize everything at once. Your job will be much easier if you tackle one thing at a time. Fix it. Then all you need to do is maintain it as you move on to the next thing.
4. Remember when your mom used to tell you to wash the dishes as you use them? Apply this discipline to your office, too. Don't let things pile up. Put them away when you're done and you'll have a much easier time getting out of the office at the end of the day.
5. Don't waste time constantly resetting passwords and login information. This stuff is way too easy to forget. Keep your password and login information in a single text document, a wiki, some other type of system.
6. Use a good, old-fashioned inbox. If you make it a point not to leave for the weekend until it's empty you'll never miss a task suffer a loose piece of paper again. Use the inbox for different things, one for your home papers and one for your office papers, for example.
7. Missing or being late for appointments can REALLY hurt your professional relationships. Use a calendar to keep track of events. I use the Google Calendar Application, but there a a score of online or desktop calendar apps that do the same things. It provides many features and anyone you allow can view it, it keeps track of personal events, and it reminds you of upcoming events by email and with on-screen pop-ups. This keeps all your scheduling in one place and makes it much easier to keep your tasks straight.
There are scores of techniques that you can practice to get organized. Applying these simple tricks will go far. If you are going to force me to select a central rule that ties them all together I'd have to say it's, "Listen to your mother." Put your things away when your done playing with them!