It’s the most important meeting of your life and you don’t want to lose this chance or opportunity of doing your best which could lead you to a brighter future. But, a few minutes before the meeting, you can`t find the file or paper containing the most important details about your work. Just because you didn’t document the papers properly or how will you feel, if you had saved the document or the excel sheet in the document folder of your laptop not in the designated folder of that project.
Literally, you will end up stressed and confused in the meeting. If you are organized, it will increase your efficiency hence making you more productive. Whereas, if your workplace is cluttered or messy, you will spend more than the required time to work as you will have to spend more time searching for things that could otherwise be readily available to you if you were organized. Being organized is not that difficult, you have to train your mind to stop cluttering things and start organizing. Follow our below tips to be organized easily and avoid job stress and burnout;
1. Prioritize your Tasks: Considering the nature of jobs and the competition in the market, our desks are always loaded with the work and us being overloaded. It is a fact that taking time out of our busy schedule is difficult due to the small job tasks that we get to do every day. To be organized, it is crucial for us to prioritize our tasks and focus on what’s important, what are our long-term goals and which tasks are adding value. Prioritizing tasks will help you avoid multitasking.
2. Make TO DO lists: One of the effective ways is to make a to-do list. When you have listed all your tasks, you will be able to easily differentiate between important and routine work. It will not only make you organized but will help you in managing your tasks efficiently. Through this strategy, you won’t get engaged in multitasking and it will save both your time and energy. Dale Carnegie in his book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” quoted
“Think of your life as an hourglass. You know there are thousands of grains of sand in the top of the hourglass; and they all pass slowly and evenly through the narrow neck in the middle. Nothing you or I could do would make more than one grain of sand pass through this narrow neck without impairing the hourglass. You and I and everyone else are like this hourglass…if we do not take (TASK) one at a time and let them pass…slowly and evenly, then we are bound to break our own…structure.”
Our life is like a hourglass and time is passing, if we don`t perform one task at a time like one grain of sand is passed at a time, we will keep on struggling in our career. Hence, making lists and performing one task at a time will make us productive, efficient, and achiever as well. With that, do review your to-do lists daily at the of beginning the day so your set goals stay in your mind.
3. Track your Progress: Manage your time well at the workplace by finding out when your productivity is 100%. At what time of your office hours, you can work with full concentration without losing your focus and distraction. Track your progress at different times during your stay at the workplace.
Tracking progress, on one hand, will help you in completing the task in the allocated time whereas on the other hand will identify the timeslot in which you are most productive.
4. Limit Distractions: By simply limiting the distractions, you can easily achieve your goal in the allocated timeline. The common workplace distractions are the Internet, Gossiping with colleagues, Meetings, using a cellphone, Social media, etc. Put your mobile phones on silent so you don’t get distracted every other minute because of a popup on your phone. Avoid gossiping with your colleagues so your day can be managed and your tasks can be achieved in an allocated timeline.
5. Don’t Forget to take Breaks: By avoiding distractions, doesn’t mean at all that you shouldn’t be taking breaks. During your official break time, get up form your workstations, go grab lunch and take a walk. It will reset your focus completely and with a fresh mind, you will be able to concentrate more on your work.
6. Proper Documentation/Filing of the Documents: If your data is in the laptop or piled up on your desk, all you have to do is the sorting and accurate labeling of your data. If your data is in the laptop, organize your files in different folders and name the folders accordingly.
Whereas, If it is in the hard form, piling up on your desk, get yourself, folders, separators and labels so documents can be filed and labelled accordingly. If you have put the papers/documents in the labelled files, they will be conveniently available for you when required.
7. Keep Your Work Station Clean: Try to keep your workstation clean by filling the documents properly and putting the files in the cabinet. Don’t make a pile of files on your workstation. Keep it tidy and clean, put inspirational or positive quotes and pictures of your family. Get yourself a proper table set so your stationary could also be organized properly.
8. Use Calendars: Use calendars for jotting down your daily, weekly, or monthly tasks. Write down all your tasks on the planners or calendars to avoid missing the deadlines, stop procrastinating the work and being stressed out or overloaded with the work on the deadlines.
If you follow the above tips, it can save you from all the hassle, job stress, and workplace burnout. Do let us know in the comment box if the above tips were useful or not.
