We all want to be able to organize our schedules and have the commitment to maintain them on a day-to-day basis, but how? Creating a workable schedule is typically time-consuming and often results in a frustrating battle with your calendar.
Organization is beneficial for everyone and can be easily adapted to suit individual needs. And believe it or not, being organized in your everyday life actually saves you time and money. Here are a few of the reasons why.
How many times have you started the day and it takes you a good 30 minutes to organize everything and figure out what you need to start working on? Exactly.
I have worked for years allowing my environment, email and other people to control my schedule. A study conducted by the University of California Irvine showed that it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds on average to get back on task after a distraction. So if you add all the text messages, email checking, social media, phone calls, you could see how that can all add up.
Having a clear and concise plan for each day, each week, and each project allows you to effectively move throughout your day with purpose and ease. I have often loaded up myself with so many tasks throughout the day that leads to overwhelm. Adopting a "Top 3" method and blocking out work time in my day allows me to be more effective at the task at hand and I am not worried about jamming so many things within a day that can result in not completing what you need to get done.
Imagine if you are saving time and you are more effective during your workday how this can result in more money. It’s important to allocate a dollar value to your hourly worth no matter what type of business you are in.
The more you can achieve by being organized, the more revenue-generating tasks you can accomplish.
Also with organization you can also recognize which tasks can be delegated so you can work on tasks that create the most revenue.
Wonderinghow to get started?
There are a few ways that I start each new year, with organization!
Are you in the 0 inbox club or the 3256 inbox club? I admit I am the latter at times.
Creating some type of organization in your inbox is a must, especially as your business grows. Depending on what type of service you use, folders are a must for organizing clients. I also created a TO DO folder which allows me to move emails that need to be addressed.
I have also recently found a couple of apps that assist with cleaning your spam. One is unroll.me, this service is free and it allows you to unsubscribe from emails you no longer want to receive. Another app I am totally in love with is called Chuck. It pulls your email organizes it by the sender and allows you to delete entire lists. You know all those annoying notifications from Facebook or ads from the companies you signed up to receive promotions, but don’t necessarily want to unsubscribe. Yup delete all in the click of a button.
Nothing is more refreshing than seeing a 0 inbox, you feel all shiny and new.
As business owners and entrepreneurs we want to cram as much as we can into one day but it isn’t always feasible or healthy. Setting work hours, using different work methods such as time blocking or batching liked tasks, and setting a reasonable amount of tasks for yourself throughout the day is important for your success and also your health.
I personally use the time blocking method and recently implemented a "Top 3" list which identifies the top 3 items that I must complete each day. If I complete those then I can move along to additional tasks. This allows me to move throughout my day without overwhelm and a never-ending task list. If you can do more than 3 items, then add what feels comfortable to you.
I also start my day with intention which includes bible study, gratitude journaling, and meditation. This allows me to start each day with gratitude and a calm and focused mindset.
It’s the beginning of a new year, heck a new decade. Are you still holding on to those project files you did 5, 6, maybe even 10 years ago? Create a backup file on an external drive or a cloud drive and create an archive of old files so if you need to access them you can do so easily, but now they won’t be taking up room on your current drive and eating up precious space on your hard drive.
Do you use other programs like Canva or Google Drive? Take this time to go through and clean up old files, organize templates into folders and make things easily accessible, so you know where everything is.
If you are like me, for some reason I tend to use a million sticky notes, notebooks while I talk to people on the phone. So then when I have to go back and find those notes about something important I wrote down I have to sift through sticky notes that I hope I didn’t throw away, or pages of a notebook.
Talk about a time waster.
I’ve started utilizing Google Drive to take notes during phone calls or when I have ideas about something. This way I have access to my note from any device and my workspace stays clean. Also, some other tools you can use are to leave audio notes on your phone or record your video calls with clients so you can circle back to pick up anything you may have missed.
So these are just some of the things my team and I have been implementing to help stay organized in our business to be more effective and save time and money.
We would love to hear about any helpful tips you may have to expand upon this subject. Feel free to leave them in the comments below!
Xo - Carey
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