The Power of Organization
I have always taken the time to try to organize myself, my thoughts, and my tasks. My day to day, like many, is filled with far more tasks than can be completed leading to stress, anxiety, struggle to prioritize and lastly the cosmic opportunity for important tasks to fall through the cracks. How someone organizes their day is an extremely specific and personal approach set to fit their job needs, goals, and life, however, I know that an organization game plan must constantly adapt. Here we are going to talk about how to identify that need for adaptation and some tools to help.
Our world and business change quickly and drastically leading an intentional approach to making sure we are finding efficiencies in our days. How can we find this intentional approach?
Shifts in roles & responsibilities through job change, promotions, or new workflows: In my last large role change, it became apparent quickly that I needed a new approach. Moving into a team wide leadership role came with a primary focus on project work vs a manager of individual contributors that was more a controller of chaos handling issues and tasks as they come. The former coming with a need for more strategic approaches, often stall periods waiting on other stakeholders, and an ability to put things to the side for future focus. This same realization I believe has hit us all. Anytime there is a big change to your day to day [both professionally and personally] is worth an evaluation. We will talk about steps to take in a bit.
Quarterly Evaluation: Nearing the end of every quarter, time blocking an hour is key to assessing what is working and what isn’t. Additionally, with this regular cadence you can look forward to potential special projects and out of the ordinary needs to prepare for.
End of Year Reset: The end of the year can be both a time of chaos, but also a wonderful time to set yourself up for the next year. I have heard it referred to as your “Prep Month” which is extremely fitting.
So what do these stop downs consist of? I get this question often. Before we dive into what you can do it is a great time point out that there is NO one size fits all. These are actions that work for me and you should absolutely lean on peers and leaders to see their successful approaches and create your own puzzle.
Make a list of things you feel are helpful: In this stop down, I am looking at what I know has helped me keep to tasks while simultaneously being a core system for many uses. For example, as I moved into more project work, I leaned heavily into Microsoft Planner. This is the hub of my tasks and projects. Strategic use of labels and buckets allows me to also use this as agenda lists for key meetings, 1v1s and partner transparency.
Ask your peers: To keep on the example of moving into more project work, one of the first things I did was reach out to a new peer who was more seasoned in this type of role. I specifically asked him to show me how he organized his day, shared what I was struggling with and how he handles that, and from there I took what fit into my systems.
Daily Success Sessions: I urge my team and myself to set the first 30 minutes of each day to focus on intentional entry to their day. This is a key time to clear clutter of notifications, updating projects and checking in on key daily tasks allowing them to enter the day with a plan and a “clean” desk.
Weekly Planning Sessions: This is a somewhat recent addition. My calendar is often changing and honestly WAY to full. I spend the first hour of my week auditing my calendar, categorizing meetings, and shifting what needs shifted. More details on this in future.
Meeting organization: Not to pile on a subject, but calendar organization is a big struggle for many. Understanding what is needed each week as a meeting vs a email or a-sync video is key to helping all work efficiently. As a part of a Daily Success Session is to look at that days meeting along with the next day or two to work through [and share] agendas, prep work for the attendees, or recapping previous meetings.
What to learn more about: This is a long tail concept but as you are accessing your organization, now is the time to understand what you want to learn or growth proficiency in. I keep a running OneNote on things I want to learn to look back on frequently.
Give these a try to see if you can clear your clutter a bit easier. I know this is a constant focus for me, while I am very organized I will be trying to pull down the pulls on my time to make this more effective for me. If you have ideas, send them my way!