Find yourself sitting down every Monday morning and immediately feeling overwhelmed with the mile-long to-do list and having no clue where to start? It seems that, regardless of how hard you try, your work takes all day and there’s never enough time to get everything done and meet all your deadlines. Work just piles up and every week you head back to the office with even more on your plate than the last time. If getting organized and staying consistent with being organized sounds like a full-time job to you then you’re not alone.
- Getting organized can be difficult, especially at work
- Although it isn’t easy, once you work to get organized it’s easier to stay consistent with being organized and getting tasks completed
- A thorough list of ways that you can get organized at work and ultimately be more productive with work
Many people struggle with knowing where to start when they’re trying to get organized and stay consistent with always keeping on track. If this is you then read on because although getting organized may sound overwhelming, it is possible and worth it once you’re finished. In this article, we’ll go over a start to finish of how you can get organized!
1. Make A List Of What Needs To Be Done
This is the first and most important part of getting your work organized. At the start of the day, you have to make a list of what needs to be done so that you know where to start. Once you have every task for your day written down, next you need to make a plan of how you’ll accomplish each one.
With this list, you can rank each task by its importance. Those that are the highest priority should go at the top so that you’ll know they’re what needs to be done first while the lower priority on the list is at the bottom. It’s important with your list that you not only have a plan but also a deadline when they have to be completed. Make sure that they’re all listed by the most important so that the urgent ones are the ones that you have to complete first.
2. Break It Down
Most people don’t really know how long their projects will take, which is why it’s important that you go through every task and break it down further into steps. The larger the task, the more time it’ll take and the more resources will be needed. When you sit down to tackle a task, it can be overwhelming and frustrating when you don’t have what you need for it or it’s taking longer than expected.
This is where you need to break down tasks. Once you have your list, go through each task and see which ones are larger tasks that are going to need more. Once you have this you can break the larger tasks up into smaller tasks that can be completed. This will make it so that you don’t feel as overwhelmed and you can work through smaller tasks faster. Make sure that you put deadlines on the smaller tasks so that you get them all done in a reasonable time.
3. Create A Less Urgent List
Now you have your list of tasks and you know how you’ll work through them by breaking the larger tasks into smaller ones. What you want to do now is make a second list that you put all the less urgent tasks. These are tasks that need to be done at some point, but it’s okay if they don’t get done that day. These are tasks that you can do if you have extra time on your hands or if you get done with the higher priority tasks sooner. Stick this somewhere where you’ll see it often so that you can do small tasks if you have a chance.
4. Utilize Sticky Notes
Sticky notes are amazing for staying organized and keeping everything down on paper where you’ll see it. Although you may have your big list, sometimes it’s easier to jot down smaller items on sticky notes and stick them to your desktop monitor or the wall behind your desk. You can even put the highest priority items on sticky notes so that they’ll be at the front of your mind and the sticky note will be a reminder that it’s critical. Whatever way you decide to use them, sticky notes can be a lifesaver for getting organized.
5. Create Timelines and Deadlines
Two of the most important areas to remember with all of your tasks is that you need timelines and you need deadlines for them. Setting up a timeline for how long each task will take and at what point in the day they’ll get done is critical if you want to make sure that you accomplish everything by the end of the day. Make sure that you put time limits on each task so that you stick to a consistent schedule. You need strict deadlines for every project or else you’ll find things running late or that you’re getting tasks cluttered. It’s important to meet every deadline with your task to stay on schedule.
