How to Be More Organized at Work

Adriana Girdler

Drowning in clutter? Follow these practical tips to be more organized at work! Do you waste precious work time sifting through clutter? Are you going …

Drowning in clutter? Follow these practical tips to be more organized at work!

Do you waste precious work time sifting through clutter?

Are you going through every workday flying by the seat of your pants?

Feel like you could be more productive if you worked on your organization skills a little?

Organization is such an asset when it comes to having a successful career. No matter what your role is or what tasks you do day-to-day, being organized is non-negotiable.

But for some people, it’s easier said than done. That’s why I’m going to give you some practical and useful tips that you can implement to become more organized (and therefore productive) at work.

And let’s face it… Even if you’re a relatively organized person already, we could all improve a little bit. So, these tips are a good reminder for everyone.

1 – Stop multitasking

I know this doesn’t exactly seem like an organization tip, but it’s actually probably the most important one for you to do before anything else.

If you’re going to be organized, you need to put the highest quality work out there in every aspect of your role. Some people equate multitasking with organization and productivity, but these things don’t go together at all. When you multitask, you take away from the quality of the work that you’re doing!

If you drop multitasking and instead do one thing at a time, you’re setting yourself up for success when it comes to your organizational skills. Your organizational skills will skyrocket.

2 – Organize your brain

A cluttered mind leads to stress and nothing less!

There are a few things I recommend when it comes to organizing your brain. Firstly, declutter your mind through meditation and mindfulness. There is proof that this works.

Secondly, make sure you sleep enough! It’s important to get the right amount of sleep that works for you. And it’s important to note that this is different for everyone. One person might be fine on 6 hours of sleep while another person needs 9. Figure out how much sleep you need to function at your best and strive to get that amount of sleep every night.

Also, take breaks to clear your mind. Even a 5 minute break every hour allows you enough time to ground yourself and get refocused.

When you have an organized and stress-free mind, it translates to everything else.

3 – Organize your workspace

Of course, this is a given. But you may not have considered the techniques you can use to do this that you haven’t tried yet.

One of my all-time favourite organization strategies is the 360 method. This is the idea that everything you need should be within a 360 circle of where you are physically at your desk.

If you must constantly get up out of your desk to go get stuff, that’s disorganization. You want to have all your essentials at your fingertips.

Of course, you don’t want to have clutter, but strategize based on the items you use the most and ensure you have all those things within reach.

Another point that goes with this is to clear off your desk at the end of the day. There’s something really powerful about having a clear desk when you stop working and a clear desk when you start in the morning!

How to organize your technology and your schedule

Two more fundamental aspects of your career are the technology you use and the time you spend at work. These are two more aspects that need to be well organized.

I want to be able to give you the best tips in detail so that you can achieve career success through organizational skills. So, I’ve created a video where I go more in-depth on all these tips and provide you with a couple additional tips on organizing your technology and your schedule.

Head over to YouTube with me so that we can finish this discussion! Can’t wait to see you there and finish getting you on track with your organizational skills!

-Adriana

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Adriana Girdler is a project manager, productivity specialist, entrepreneur, professional speaker, facilitator, visioning wizard, and author. As President of CornerStone Dynamics, Adriana is one of Canada’s prominent business productivity and project management specialists—helping both individuals and businesses do what they do, only better. She is a certified master black belt lean six sigma with over 20 years’ experience improving how companies work.

She also holds both PMP (project management professional) and CET (certified engineering technologist) designations. She’s a Tedx speaker, as well as a HuffPost and Thrive Global contributor. She has been interviewed on Global, CBC, CTV, CHCH, 680News Radio, Newstalk 1010, Sirius XM and published in the Globe and Mail and numerous industry magazines. WANT ADRIANA'S FREE ONLINE TRAINING? In 45 min, learn Adriana's 5 project management secrets she use on EVERY project. Sign up for the Free Webinar here: THE FAB FIVE FUNDAMENTALS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

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