Following on from my last article about being organised in your work, here are 11 more tips for you.
To get the complete message make sure you have read the other article as well.
In that article I wrote about the need to plan your work based on importance rather than urgency.
I also covered some points on working your plan, blocking off uninterrupted times and learning to recognize obstacles that prevents you from getting organised.
- Schedule meetings to times when you are less alert. That will be in the afternoons for most people but not straight after lunch. This also applies to tasks such as filing, answering emails, and any others that require less mental work like thinking.
- Tackle the hard tasks first and at times when you are most alert. This will be in the morning for most people. Do these tasks in blocks of time you have blocked off or when you are less likely to be interrupted.
- Block off a few hours per day when you are not to be interrupted and communicate these times to your colleagues. A good idea is to have a flag up on your desk so colleagues know when you are not to be interrupted. If you are sharing calendars then block off those times on your calendar and mark them as busy.
- Handle all pieces of paper and emails only once. When you are finished with it, you either file it away, throw it away or delete it. If the task is not yet completed, leave it in your incoming tray for further scheduling.
- Answer your emails in batches. For example, read them only at 10AM and 2PM every day. Decide how much time you are going to spend and stick to the time allocated. Any emails you didn’t get to, will have to wait for the next day. It might be a good idea if you are dealing with different departments to setup an auto reply rule so people know when you are likely to reply back. If not, try and answer your emails within 24 or 48 hours. There are other good ideas on how to handle your emails as this is probably the worst culprit for time wasting.
- Get a proper filing system so you can efficiently handle your filing and clear out any completed work from your desk. At the end of each month plan to do an hour or two of filing. See my article on a manual filing system if you haven’t got one yet.
- Get yourself 2 file trays – one for incoming work and one for outgoing.
- Decide if you are the best person to deal with the request and either forward it on, tell the recipient you are not doing it and for them to look elsewhere, or delegate it to one of your staff or colleagues.
- Learn to say No more often especially to requests that are not making the best use of your time. Be professional and do give the sender a proper explanation as to why you have declined the request.
- Learn to use the right medium for communication. We tend to have our preferences about the medium we use. Recognise the appropriate medium to use and don’t just do something that you are naturally inclined to do. For example, go and talk to your colleague who is sitting a few feet away instead of emailing. Email communication is full of traps if you don’t know how to use it. Besides, you will gain other benefits from talking to people face to face.
- Learn to communicate clearly and concisely. Badly written and unclear messages often results in emails going back and forth before everyone is clear on what is expected. Huge time waster. Doesn’t help your organisation skills.
These are just some of the tips that I have used at one time or another.
If you have other methods you may like to add to these, feel free to email them to me.
Author: Lyon Deans
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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