It is our 5th Anniversary!
We are celebrating our 5th anniversary this month! Woo-hoo!! In the spirit of our 5th birthday, I am sharing my top 5 quick office organizing tips which have the biggest time saving pay-off. My clients see huge increases in their productivity by implementing just one or two of these actions.
Top 5 Quick Office Organizing Tips
- Collect – all of your action items on one to-do list. Write down all of your “to-do” items. This includes grocery lists, errands, action items, phone calls, projects, etc. You can collect all of this in It an electronic or a paper to do list. Pick the format that works for you, but you should have only one and it should be portable. Once all of your tasks are in one place it is easier to set priorities. You will also free up your brain power to get to the higher level thinking we need in order to obtain our goals.
David Allen is the author of the best-selling, time management book, Getting Things Done. His time management techniques are based on this principle. He writes, “Between the time you woke up today and now, did you think of anything you needed to do that you still haven’t done? Have you had that thought more than once? Why? It’s a waste of time and energy to keep thinking about something that you make no progress on. And it only adds to your anxieties about what you should be doing and aren’t.” Our brain will continue to hold the things we need to do, should do, etc., until it knows we have it in a place that we will go back to. It is awesome our brain holds the information, but it zaps our energy and brain processing power. If you write it down, your brain can let go of it and use that processing power on more strategic and creative ideas.
- End your biggest frustration with an app – What causes you the most frustration, and feels like it is constantly wasting your time? Is it looking for passwords or searching through business cards? There is an app for that! Do you have a hard time finding the notes from your last meeting? There is an app for that too! There are apps that solve all kinds of productivity challenges. The key is finding the source of your frustration, and getting an app to help you end the stress. Our document on Top Productivity Apps can be a helpful resource.
- Use the 2-Minute Rule – If it takes less than 2 minutes, do it now. This also comes from David Allen’s bestseller, Getting Things Done. Whether it is a quick phone call, taking out the trash, or filing that paper, if you realize it needs to be done, do it now. It will save you time, because you will not have to come back to it later, and you will be more productive.
- Clean up the stack of papers in the corner, in your mailbox or on the floor. In some cases, it may be that collection of electronic files on your computer. In most cases, this is not really a “quick” office organizing task, but if you spend 10-15 minutes on it a day for a few days it will save you time in the future.
- Create files for paper documents and use tags for your electronic ones. Both tags and files will save you searching time in the future. Keep file folders and supplies on hand to make this easy and efficient. Create tags for electronic files that are consistent for similar type documents. You can start this with new documents, and tackle the old ones later as you refer to them.
I want to thank our readers, clients, vendors, partners, friends and family for your continued support of Configuration Connection, LLC. I hope these quick office organizing tips will help you with your office organization, and help you work more efficiently.
Sara Genrich is an Organization and Productivity Consultant, an Evernote Certified Consultant, and the creator of the Organizing @ Work for Success Workshop series.