{"id":10102,"date":"2021-02-25T05:27:28","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T10:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/professional-organizer.com\/WordPress\/?p=10102"},"modified":"2021-02-10T21:18:53","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T02:18:53","slug":"learn-skills-to-get-organized-for-a-more-productive-work-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/professional-organizer.com\/WordPress\/learn-skills-to-get-organized-for-a-more-productive-work-day\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Organizing Skills for a More Productive Work Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Office workers\u00a0waste an average of 40% of their workday<\/strong>.\u00a0 Not because they aren’t smart, but because they were never taught organizing skills to cope with the increasing workloads and demands according to the Wall Street Journal Report<\/em><\/p>\n

Does your workday evaporate and suddenly it’s the end of the day? Do you think you lack skills to manage quickly multiplying projects? Does your day feel chaotic rather than organized? It all comes down to learning skills for prioritizing, organizing and planning to help you manage your work and your work load.<\/p>\n

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Prioritizing: learning the skill of knowing what to do<\/h3>\n

There are many good ideas for your work. Not every idea has equal benefit. Some times these ideas can be linear in implementation and some times these depend on preliminary successes. Start by gathering all these ideas together in a list.<\/p>\n

This is strategic planning time where you create a big picture of what will move your business forward. This planning can be accomplished annually or monthly with an overview of goals for the year and specific actions assigned to a month. Without this planning, you may be working on tasks that keep you from bigger accomplishments and increased revenue. With this planning you are prepared for the weeks, months and quarters ahead that yield the results you want to see.<\/p>\n

On your planner, schedule this time on a mid-month morning for a monthly overview. You can use a dashboard with data to drive your assessment of successes and next steps for planning. This dashboard can be consolidated data from customer information, income and expenses and marketing information. By assessing your successes, you are celebrating and setting plans for next steps.<\/p>\n

Intuitively you may know the priorities and may be ready to list these. However, an additional professional tip is that you may need to talk through your priorities to set these.\u00a0 Having a list may not be enough to help you strategize. Partner up with a trusted colleague or advisor to help you sort through and sequence your list.<\/p>\n

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Organizing: learning the skill of when to do<\/h3>\n

Drill down to the specific tactics to gain traction on your plan.\u00a0 Week by week specific tasks will accomplish this.\u00a0 Set aside weekly planning time<\/a> to be prepared for the weeks, months and quarters ahead. That weekly planning time should occur at the same time every week. Use time blocking<\/a> during your weekly planning time to schedule these tasks.<\/p>\n

With the best plan, limiting distractions is key.\u00a0 Set a time in your day to check email and update information received by text or other communication. These distractions take time and energy away from your actual work.\u00a0 If you find yourself low in energy, drink water or take a short walk outside or around the office.\u00a0 At times a “warm up” is needed to move into a work flow.\u00a0 Add time at the end of a work session to leave yourself notes on where you ended to jump start your next session.<\/p>\n

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Organizing: learning the skill of how to access and categorize resources<\/h3>\n

This is the most frequent flaw for work.\u00a0 With multiple projects, you want to have outstanding organizing to find what you need when you are ready to work. This organizing pertains to how to access and categorize your resources and materials to work.\u00a0 You will have to organize your resources and documents digitally and on paper. Set up your resources by the name of the projects and the name of the client. Create digital files for the documents that parallel paper files. These can be on your device desktop digitally and should later move to document files. Paper files can be easily accessed in a file cart or a physical desk top sorter.<\/p>\n

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Planning: learning the skill of tracking<\/h3>\n

Next, keep this plan easy to see and accomplish. There are many ways to organize this information.\u00a0 Digital planners and apps such as Asana and Trello help you schedule your work, consolidate the information and keep you accountable with reminders.\u00a0 Paper planners such as Planner Pad, Bullet Journal or Blue Sky week at a glance planners offer you visual support for your plan.\u00a0 Write in and record as much as you can to keep you on track on your work. A professional tip is to color code your projects.\u00a0 Color coding is instant recognition of a project. Use post it notes in colors that coordinate with each project or dry erase colored markers on a white board to keep your work easy to see.<\/p>\n

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Planning: learning how to manage multiple priorities and work as a team<\/h3>\n

Workloads are increasing exponentially. How we do keep going with more and more to do?<\/p>\n