Five Habits of Organized People
The more you can live and work in an organized way – even if it doesn’t come naturally at first – the sooner you’ll change your habits for the better. Here are five everyday strategies worth trying:
Celebrate small wins. For example, if you complete three things on your To-Do List, treat yourself to a cup of coffee, or allow yourself 10 minutes of free time to check some of your favorite websites.
Use one calendar. If you record some things on your desk planner, and others on your email calendar, it’s going to be hard to coordinate everything. Instead, start putting it all in one place. If you do it digitally, you’ll find that the technology can pull everything together for you.
Schedule small tasks. If a task or project requires action beforehand (like picking up bagels and coffee for the staff meeting), make sure that you schedule those into your day, too. Missing small jobs can have big knock-on effects on everything else.
Get organized at home. Don’t just restrict your organized approach to work – because a chaotic home life will bring its own problems. Declutter where you live to make mornings easier. Plan your whole day carefully. And talk to the people you live with, so that they know how they can help.
Put a high value on your time. Whether you’re prioritizing your professional tasks for the week, or mapping out your family commitments, think about how to make every second count. In the words of the American inventor Thomas Edison, time is “… really the only capital any human being has, and the one thing he can’t afford to waste.”
Tidying and decluttering are very much “on trend” right now. For some, they promise answers to many of life’s problems. However, it’s possible to take organizing behaviors to an unhealthy extreme. So, guard against perfectionism, and don’t try to control everything.
If it turns out that you’re actually increasing your stress, annoying others, and putting more into the process than you’re getting out, think again.
Aim for a balanced approach, where your organizational strategies are useful and manageable, for yourself and others.
Becoming more organized brings many benefits, including greater productivity, better performance, and improved ability to handle stress.
Your reputation relies on how organized you’re seen to be. And your punctuality, reliability and conscientiousness can all affect the people you work with, for good or bad.
Take steps to organize your working environment, so that you can start quickly, find everything you need, and focus effectively to complete all your tasks.
An uncluttered approach to work helps you to manage your time, in turn making you more efficient and effective.
Find the tools – traditional, or more high-tech – that will help you to feel organized and in control, both at work and in your life beyond.