Building Change Resilience - Be Organised

Be Organised

Imagine walking into your office in the morning and on your desk are piles of documents, lists and notes. When you switch on your computer, you are hit with 50 emails before you have even started your day. Your telephone shows 8 messages and your cell phone is ringing. For many managers and executives this may sound very familiar.

When you start your day disorganised, it probably makes you feel like you are carrying a sack of potatoes that only gets heavier as the day goes on.  During the day you probably add a few more potatoes to the sack, leaving you drained and tired by the time you finish work.

When you are organised however, it is more than likely that you will arrive at work rearing to go and also leave work full of energy to do all the stuff you love when you get home... I can already hear the “Yeah right! easier said than done!” Well guess what? It’s not as hard as you might think when you break it down into baby steps. Here are a few suggestions:

Schedule time to email and make calls

Part of being organised is also factoring in the things that we don’t normally think of scheduling for i.e

• Reading and responding to emails at set times during the day
• Making and responding to phone calls
• Commuting to and from meetings

All the above take up large chunks of our time and prevent us from getting on with our ‘real work’ so if we make time by scheduling, we are more organised and more resilient to any unexpected change.

Decluttering

Do you find that when you hoard things on your desk or in your drawers that you end up duplicating the documents because you cannot find the thing you are looking for? “Decluttering” your workspace has the same effect as spring cleaning in your home. I find the 4D’s method contained within the Working Smart package by “Priority Management” really effective;

• Do it now! Don’t procrastinate! We tend to always leave the little tasks until they become a big problem
• Delegate – remember, you don’t always have to do the work yourself and when you delegate, you are empowering someone to achieve their own goal 
• Distribute – forward information as required and move it to the appropriate folders and files
• Delete – don’t be a hoarder. Are you really going to need it later? Delete anything that you no longer need

To do list

It’s great to see those completion ticks at the end of the day.

Remember to update your “To do” list and priorities before you leave work at the end of the day and first thing in the morning.

Checking your list 3 times a day is enough to keep you on track with your daily objectives, so you leave your stress at work and you are fully available for friends and family at home.

Need to know more about getting more organised? 

Tell us how do YOU get organised?

Share with us your hints and tips for keeping organised by leaving your comments below