Have You Used All Eight Of These Tips As You Plan And Organize For Success?

Developing and maintaining good habits in the area of planning and organization will play a role in your overall success. Without them, you will waste both time and money, become frustrated, miss opportunities, impact other people, and perhaps even become so overwhelmed that you just give up and quit. So let’s look at a few ways to improve our planning and organizational skills:

Approach each day with a systemic plan and identify goals for that day – at the start of the day decide what you wish to accomplish for the day and how you will attend to these tasks. Putting this information on paper greatly aids your ability to stay on track. At the end of the day, identify your accomplishments. You will be able to know where to direct your focus during the day, and in the evening you will have the satisfaction of identifying completed tasks. If you feel strongly about leftover tasks, these can be left to start tomorrow’s list.

Control or limit your distractions – understand there will be times when an unplanned event will require your attention. Know yourself well enough to understand what easily sidetracks your focus and attention. To the greatest extent possible, avoid these distractions. Sometimes you are unable to avoid the distraction, but work to position yourself for a graceful exit from the situation. At times you may need to let your phone ring or the emails go unanswered as both have the ability to take focus off the tasks to be completed.

Plan your route – whether it is running errands or making business stops, plan your route before you start. If necessary put it down on paper. If you have an appointment at a given time, allow some flexibility with some of your other stops to arrive on time, yet minimize time waiting or backtracking.

Touch it once, no more than twice – especially if it comes in the mail! Avoid the urge to toss items in a pile to look at later when you have “more” time. If something will require additional attention or does not need to be handled at this time, then place it in an appropriate folder with similar items. You may wish to write a date on the envelope one week in advance of the required action. Then on a scheduled basis, go through the folder handling the necessary items. Once you have completed or finished with something, file it if it needs to be kept - if not, shred, recycle or toss based upon the item itself.

Create a calendar – we all have our preference here, but ensure all appointments and meetings are placed into the same system you use for this type of information. Have a small version you can carry with you if your means of recording this information is not portable, but remember you are doing double work recording it twice. The opportunity for error also exists to a greater extent.

Organize your work area - allow for adequate space for the items you frequently access. Keep unnecessary items off your desk. If you use some type of reference materials, find an appropriate shelf or file in which they may be kept handy to your reach. When you use something, return it to its designated place when you are finished with it. If you have catalogs, periodicals or other dated material, your choice is to not leave them sit on the shelf, but to file it an a less used location for a designated period of time or to toss it. Removing the clutter will aid in productivity and decrease your level of frustration trying to find something.

Understand when you are the most productive during the day - work to complete your toughest tasks during this time. Another train of thought is to always work your tasks hardest to easiest. Some people will work easy or quick tasks first in order to feel good about their accomplishments, yet you run the risk of not having the time or mental capacity to complete the more difficult tasks.

Throw it away or give it away - most of us have some pack rat in our DNA. If you haven’t used it in 3 months, 6 months, or a year (you’ll have to identify your own thresholds) then it’s time for it to find a new home. For those of you who think “I’ll put it on the garage sale”, is it really worth holding onto for another 6 months to receive $.50 – if it sells at all?

Completion of our goals and dreams leading to our desired success requires a creative side and a planning and organizational side. Most people tend to be much stronger in one area than the other. Yet with developing some good habits and a bit of discipline, we all can improve our planning and organizational skills.