05/ 22/ 2007
by Marcia Passos Duffy
Many business owners equate getting organized with having a clean desk, a vacuumed floor, lined up pencils and neat files. But what does getting organized really mean?
The truth is, there are people who may have offices that are little rough around the edges, but they operate in an environment that is organized. So what does this mean? It's actually two simple things:
- Everything has a place.
- Work gets done on time.
Are you organized? Do you know the status of your work projects at all times? Can you find a file or e-mail correspondence at a moment's notice? Do you know where you put your client's correspondence? Do you know where your stapler is? Do you know what you will be working on tomorrow? Or the next day?
Getting to a point when you can answer "yes" to these questions can mean the difference between your business floundering or succeeding because disorganization costs time, money and ultimately confidence in yourself and your business.
Where do you start? There are a few ways to begin the process of organizing your work life. Remember, that these suggestions will initially take time away from your work, but it will be time well-spent:
Know where everything is.
While a little bit of disorganization in your office is understandable if you are working on a big project, a chronically cluttered desk and office usually means that you don't know where things are—and you are wasting time looking for them. A messy office can result in things getting lost or misplaced and in deadlines being missed.
If need be, schedule a weekend to totally clean up your office space. To start, get things off your floor, off your desk and off your chairs. Throw papers away you haven't looked at in months (or years), delegate or distribute everything in your inbox and use filing cabinets for the purpose they were created for: to file your important papers. Be ruthless and either throw away things that are not needed or file them. Keep unnecessary stuff out of sight so you have a clean desk and a clean floor (no, you don't need to line up your pencils!)
Once you have a clean office, try to keep it neat by taming the paper tiger. When papers (or e-mails) come in, sort it immediately into your filing system or read it and recycle it if it's junk mail. Do anything that can be delegated right away. Remember the time management rule to touch a piece of paper only once, then deal with it (file it, throw it away or delegate it).
And, at the end of the day, make sure your desk it tidy.
Get your work done on time.
Having a physically organized space helps you get your hands on things that you need without wasting time. Organizing your time will help you get your work done on or before deadlines.
To take control of your time, try to schedule "in office" days (when you are in the office all day) and "out of office" days (when you have meetings back to back). Make sure on your "in" days you are really working (not just checking e-mail and surfing the Web).
Speaking of e-mail, try to set aside time in the morning and at the end of the day to check it instead of compulsively checking it every hour. The same goes for your voicemail. The reality is that returning correspondence (or phone calls) should be done in a block of time so that it does not eat away at your productivity.
Get a calendar that works for you that show months, weeks or days. A master calendar for both work and personal life usually works best for many, since one for each usually creates confusion and missed personal or work appointments. Create some "block scheduling" for uninterrupted writing/meeting/client time every week—and stick to it. For many workers, it's the endless distractions of little things that eats away at time and does not allow projects to get completed.
Lastly, create a master plan of the work projects that need to get done on a monthly or quarterly basis and put that in full view of your desk. This is your road map to getting your work done. Without it you can easily get sidetracked into endless rabbit holes and never accomplish the work you need to do. Review this plan every day to see if projects are getting completed. And, when projects are done, cross them off with flourish because you're well on your way to becoming organized.
