If you’re struggling to be productive, it
could be a lack of organization that is at the root cause of the problem. For some people organization comes naturally,
but for most people it requires some energy to learn organization skills and
even more energy and time to put those skills into practical application. However, once we put that “label” of being
organized on the subject it now becomes a “task” that must be
accomplished. And with most tasks in our
lives we procrastinate until the last possible minute and then things appear to
become impossible to get accomplished.
The question really becomes “Are we going to take the time to indoctrinate
the principles of organizing our lives and other activities within ourselves so
we become more productive within the amount of time we have available to us or not? And even if you’re not inherently an organized
person, there are many things you can do to improve your organization skills, one
step at a time. Here I have listed a few
for your consideration.
Clean
Your Work Area. Be it at work or
at home, if your work area looks like it was the victim of a recent natural
disaster, your productivity will suffer.
The first step toward better organization is cleaning your work area.
This means getting rid of trash,
organizing papers into file folders or binders, designating storage spaces for
office supplies, and throwing away materials that are duplicates or that you no
longer need. I can guarantee you, if you
have a paper, article, letter, or some other item that has been laying on your
desk or work area for several weeks, and you have not looked at it, you can
probably throw that item into the trash and forget it! DON’T get into that mentality
that “I may need it one day” and hang on to it --- just in case! Throw it away! You’ll find it much easier to locate the
things you want and do it when you want if your work area is more organized.
Organize
Your Computer and Email. If your
computer desktop has fifty icons on it and your email list has hundreds of
emails, it’s time to clean those areas.
Make sure that all important documents are stored in logical folders and
remove any unused icons from your desktop.
Those icons on your desktop are merely shortcuts to the documents that
you have on your computer. You can review
your documents as to the last date you opened them (or did any work on
them). If it has been six months, a
year, or longer that you have even opened the document, the chances are you can
remove the icon (shortcut) from your desktop.
It might even be possible to delete the entire document, but you have to
make that decision.
The same can be said for your email
folder. Spend a day organizing emails so
that unimportant emails are deleted and important emails are organized into
folders so you can refer to them when you need them. If you have unread mail, read it. Remember that any emails that may have been
necessary to keep for awhile may now be ‘out-of-date” and no longer relevant to
your current situation. Periodically
review your email folders and see if anything can be deleted.
Use
a Planner. Productive people
plan each day with purpose. Using a
daily planner – either on paper or electronically – can help you to stay on
track and become more productive. Those
old “to-do” lists were not as crazy as you might have thought them to be! It’s best to plan the next day’s work at the
end of your work day so that you can begin fresh the next day and know what
needs to be done first. Just keep in
mind that your planner is a “guide” of the days’ activities and not a
concrete, regimented schedule to follow.
When I was secularly employed full-time my schedule used to be to
account for about six hours of my eight-hour day. Inevitably something would come up that
required attention that had not been planned for in my schedule and I would
have time to handle it. I always thought
that if I were able to get my scheduled six-hour workload accomplished during
the day I had been successful! You may
consider something like this also. Don’t
try to account for every single minute in the day. If you do, you will no doubt come up short
and you will feel like you have failed!
Focus
Your Efforts. Instead of
worrying about trying to do everything at once, learn to focus instead of
multi-tasking. Set a designated time or
times each day to read emails, respond to voicemails, and work on social media
accounts. The rest of your day should be
spent on the more important tasks. And
don’t get the subjects confused as to what are the more important things that
need your attention. This applies to
your home schedule as well. I can only
speak to you husbands for a moment, but being one myself for over fifty years, I’ve
learned when your wife is trying to tell you something --- THAT’s one of
the more important things that will need your undivided attention!
Don’t
Procrastinate. Sometimes it’s
tempting to put off tasks that are less desirable. But all this does is get you behind schedule
and you’re only putting off the inevitable.
When you need to do something, just use self-discipline to complete the
task and then move on. You’ll save time
and energy in the long run. I’ve
actually learned that those tasks that you find the least desirous of doing ---
do the first thing in your day, when you’re fresh and ambitious. Then they are done and you can move on to
those things that you find more enjoyable doing.
Stick
to a Routine. It’s easier to be
productive when you stick to a consistent schedule instead of doing things
differently each day. This may sound
boring, but over time you’ll find you actually like the regularity of a routine
and you’ll get more done in less time.
Now, this doesn’t mean that your entire day is ‘set in stone” as the
saying goes, but having a measure of normal expectancy within your daily work
routine will provide you a means to better divide your time into those
activities that will require more of your attention.
These have been some suggestions for you
to consider in getting (and keeping) your work or home routine into a more
organized condition. You’ll need to find
what works best for you and continually develop those habits into your life
routine. However, with any activities of
improvement comes those times when you will fall short in your
expectations. Don’t let these momentary
set-backs stop you in developing well-organized skills that will be of great
benefits to you in your future. Also don’t
forget that the reason this will happen on occasion is the fact that we’re
only human!
QUOTE TO CONSIDER
"Just plan your work
and work your plan."
No comments:
Post a Comment