Buzz
Work, family, friends, recreational activities, and various other factors can make your life feel complicated and disorganized. The lack of organization makes it harder to reach your goals. Organizational skills are crucial for managing your responsibilities effectively, but mastering this skill is not always easy. However, if successful, you will complete tasks more efficiently, become more competitive, and ultimately enjoy a happier and more sustainable life.
Steps
Organize Your Thoughts
Make a to-do list. Write down the tasks you need to complete today, and strike them off as you finish each one. By creating a to-do list, you eliminate the stress of having to remember everything. Striking off completed items makes you feel more productive. Note down completed activities to cross them off.
- Prioritize your tasks. Assess the urgency and importance of each task to help you prioritize effectively. Ask yourself, “If I only accomplish one thing today, what would it be?” That is your top priority.
- If possible, create a list for the next day and review it before going to bed. When you wake up in the morning, you will already have a plan in mind.
Create a continuous task list. If you want to read a book or try a new restaurant, it’s beneficial to maintain an ongoing list that you carry with you. If you wish to watch a movie, there’s no need to add it to your daily list unless it’s something you plan to do today. A continuous list serves as a reminder for additional tasks that need to be completed.
- You can keep this list in a notebook that you carry with you or use an online app like Dropbox for easy access anytime, anywhere.
Take notes during conversations. Record the details of your discussions with others. This is especially important in work-related talks but can also be useful when chatting with friends and family. Taking notes helps you retain important information shared by others, an unexpected task to be done, or simply acts as a reminder of enjoyable moments with loved ones.
- You don’t always need to have a notebook with you and meticulously jot down everything the other person says. Just take a few minutes to write down the essential points from the conversation.
Use a planner. A yearly planner is incredibly helpful for organizing your thoughts. You can use it to record appointments, trips, and other important events. Review it daily and list upcoming activities for the long-term. For example, if you plan to schedule a phone meeting in the next six months, you can note it down in your planner now to remind yourself later.
Clear your mind. Just like clearing away unnecessary items at the office or at home, you must also remove unneeded thoughts from your mind. Try practicing meditation to eliminate negative thoughts like anxiety and stress from your thoughts.
Organize your home
Get rid of unnecessary items. Decluttering is the first step in organizing your home. Clean out your drawers and dispose of things you no longer use, throw away expired food, clean or donate clothes and shoes that you haven’t worn in over a year, dispose of expired medications, replace or dispose of cleaning supplies, and remove all items you truly don’t need.
Kathi Burns, CPO®
Professional Organizer
Professional Organizer
Place a donation box in your garage. Whenever you come across something you no longer need, put it in the box to later donate to others. If a piece of clothing no longer fits, drop it in the donation box. This gives you an easy way to let go of things that are no longer necessary.
Create file covers for important aspects of your life. Prepare labeled folders such as “Car Insurance,” “Travel,” “Bills,” “Budget,” and any other key areas or events in your life.
- Assign colors to each file. Blue for Bills (gas, food, clothing), Red for Insurance (car, home, life), etc...
- Store your files neatly on shelves.
Install hooks and shelves on the walls. Utilize unused horizontal space in your home. Install hooks to hang bikes in your garage and shelves to store and display items.
Invest in storage cabinets. Just like when organizing your office, it's essential to purchase cabinets and baskets to store your items. Group similar items together in one cabinet and arrange the space for your storage units. Buy cabinets and baskets in various sizes to organize household items such as kitchenware, makeup, plush toys, food, shoes, and jewelry.
Organize your office
Purchase storage cabinets. Visit an office supply store and buy at least ten cabinets of various sizes to store pens, paper, and larger items.
- Get cabinets, baskets, file drawers, and other organizational tools to store your belongings.
Buy a label maker. If you’re organizing items in cabinets but don’t know what’s inside them, does it really matter how organized everything is? A label maker should be used to label each storage unit. For example, you can label a cabinet “Pens” for ballpoint pens, pencils, and markers, or label a cabinet “Tools” for scissors, staplers, stapling tools, and hole punchers.
- Label everything, including files, drawers, and cabinets.
Prepare files based on 'how you will use them later'. Instead of filing documents based on where they came from, you can organize them based on their future use. For example, if you have a file for a hotel in Hanoi for a business trip, you can file it under “Hanoi” rather than “Hotel.”
- Create subfolders. Prepare a “Hotel” file, but divide it into several “Cities” for each frequent business location.
Create a draft or 'index' for your office. You need to organize your belongings, but it’s hard to remember where each item is. Write down a list for each box or cabinet and note what’s inside for quick retrieval.
- This list will also help you return items to their original places after using them.
Organize the 'to-do' and 'completed' spaces on your desk. Separate your desk into two areas: one for tasks that need to be done (signing papers, reading reports, etc.) and one for completed tasks. By doing this, you will avoid the confusion of not knowing which paperwork has been finished and which still needs attention.
Get rid of unnecessary items. When organizing items into boxes and cabinets, it’s important to discard things you no longer need. Clear out things that haven’t been touched or opened in a year, broken items, and return unused office supplies.
- You can shred old documents and ask colleagues if they need any materials you plan to throw away.
- If you can’t discard them, consider donating the items.
Organize your computer. While you can organize physical items around you, if your computer is disorganized, it will still limit your productivity and leave you feeling cluttered. Create new folders and group related files in one location, organize your computer to easily find needed files, delete duplicate files, use detailed titles for documents, and remove unnecessary software and documents.
Maintain tidiness
Dedicate ten minutes every day for a quick tidying session. You've already spent a considerable amount of time organizing your belongings, so it's essential to keep that order. Each evening, set an alarm for ten minutes to return items to their rightful places and tidy up your drawers and baskets.
If you're buying new items, make sure to discard the old ones. Before purchasing new books, take a moment to go through your bookshelf and remove the ones you haven't read. Donate or throw them away to make room for new ones.
- Go the extra step and clear out two or three old items to make space for something new.
Always keep a 'Donate' box ready. It's a good idea to have an empty box available for things you no longer need. When you come across an item you don’t use anymore, place it in the donation box right away.
- If you can't donate an item but still don’t need it, toss it in the trash immediately.
When you spot an open drawer, close it. There's no need to wait for cleaning time to start organizing. Whenever you see things out of place, put them back in their proper spots. If the trash is full, take it out right away. If papers are scattered, pick them up and tidy them. Developing this habit will improve both your work and personal life.
- Don’t waste too much time on small tasks. Don’t leave your desk just to close a drawer. If you’re heading to a meeting and notice an open drawer, simply close it as you pass by. Stopping your work just to close a drawer can reduce your overall efficiency by 25%!
Take advantage of technology to help you stay organized. Today, there are thousands of apps available to help you maintain your tidiness. You can use list-making apps like Evernote, reminder apps like Beep Me, travel apps like TripIT, and task prioritization apps like Last Time.
- Choose apps that sync with your devices so you can access them anytime, anywhere.
