How To Stay Organised In The Office

When you’re running a business the sheer number of tasks in the day ahead can be daunting and it’s easy to put off critical jobs for the one that’s just landed on your desk. Why not structure your time and create an efficient running order for your day?

Make A Realistic To-Do-List

List the three main tasks for the day, rather than jotting down every single thing you want to achieve. This will help you to focus and prioritise tasks. At the end of the day make another list of three for the next day. (If you are addicted to long lists, make a plan for the week and distribute jobs that way.)
Schedule important tasks for the morning.
Spend the first hour at work dealing with major projects. You will come at them fresh, and with a sense of purpose. Time management experts suggest that this puts you, rather than external demands, in the driving seat. Don’t be distracted by telephone calls or email.

Use Your Diary And Your Online Calendar

Your diary is your ally in reminding you of appointments and meetings. If you’re on the road, use an online calendar that syncs across your laptop and phone. If you are setting the agenda, remember to fix an end time to meetings and try to keep them short. Stick to this as much as you can and you will find the team will follow suit to make meetings more productive.

Catch Up With Colleagues

Keep in touch with your team to review progress. It doesn’t have to be an intensive daily catch-up, but simply to keep abreast of the main developments. Good communication can act as an early warning system, and colleagues will feel more confident in themselves and in you.

Take Regular Breaks

That may be a little walk around the office or doing a few stretches (if you have the privacy). Break up what is essentially a sedentary day with little bursts of activity. You will give your eyes a screen break, your circulation a boost and return refreshed to your desk.

Assign One Day For Each Routine Task

Instead of trying to tackle every kind of office task, whether it’s budgeting or chasing invoices, every single day, earmark one day of the week for each. That way you will have a more thorough view of what you need to do. And if there are contingencies, you will be more organised to deal with them.

Cluster Your Telephone Calls

Resist the temptation to pick up the phone every time you need to contact someone outside your business. Unless you have great self-control, phone calls do tend to meander and gobble up precious time. You’ll achieve more by allotting a specific slot to making multiple calls in one go.

Be Selective With Your Email

Make email work for you by using all its features. Set up email filters, for example, or use red flags. Apply the two-minute rule to dealing with email: if you can reply to a message within two minutes, do so. Otherwise, schedule a time later in the day for replies that demand an in-depth response. Archive regularly (and clear out as well).

Be Timely With Filing

It is tempting to let documents sit in a pile, but papers can go walkabout in a busy office. Try to file each day’s papers towards the end of the day. You may even find it therapeutic to wind down by simply putting papers away tidily. Sift as you go along and scan documents that can be archived.

Record The Success And Not-So-Successful

Every day make notes on what worked well for the business and how some things could have been handled in another way – whether that’s dealing with a client or supplier or simply organising a particular office process. These notes will be a practical guide for when you next face a problem or a bottleneck.