***Reposted from a 2016 blog post I wrote***
Have you ever found yourself overhearing any of these following conversations at your workplace?
- “We are still trying to figure out the budget for this year (In May of said year)”
- “We need this project finished next month, the estimate if for 16 effort months and here is your one resource!”
- “We almost have this year’s road map hammered out (In June of said year).”
Do you ever have a day at work where you absolutely feel like you are chasing your tail from the time you walk in the door? Do you always feel behind on your daily tasks? These feelings are often a result of poor planning in the workplace. When poor planning has occurred, the end result is that you will find yourself in a reactive state of work. Rather than being proactive and floating easily with a planned stream of water, you are being reactive, flailing in a rapid trying to get upstream.
I have often said when I have found myself observing a coworker in the reactive state of mind is, “A few minutes of planning could have saved us hours of this heartache.” Here are 3 suggestions that you may take into consideration when attempting to become more organized in your work life.
- Make a list – Being the visual person I am, it often makes my life easier if I write my tasks which I need to conquer onto a list. Having a list reduces the chances that I will forget something that I need to take care of during my work day. A list also helps the user with having a sense of accomplishment as they mark each item off when working through the day.
- Simplify your surroundings – Are you a pack rat? Do you still have that sales report from 10 years ago sitting in that pile to your left? Maybe it is time that you chisel out a couple of hours to determine what all is important still sitting on your desk and what can be sent to the recycling bin. You will find that after you have organized your work space you will have less hesitation and see that thoughts come more smoothly than usual.
- Prioritize your workload – Take all of the items that you have on your list from above and break them down into smaller parts. This is basic agile project management where you make things more manageable. Often tackling a full-sized elephant at one sitting can be overwhelming but spreading out the meal over a longer time frame will lessen your load. Categorize each task in high/medium/low so you know what is most important and will be most critical to be accomplished in your day.
I hope these three suggestions will start you on a path to having a more organized life and will allow you time for better planning techniques in the future.
