Organisational Skills
This week’s guest blog is from Helen Winder, Managing Director of Transire Ltd.
Being organised can help you achieve highly in your professional and personal lives, reward you and your staff with feelings of relief and control and save you time and money.
To be a successful leader, do your job effectively, manage family life with work life and reap rewards, the key is to be organised. But do you have what it takes to be organised?
While some of us are born with natural organisational skills, others may need to be trained!
Steps you can take to be more organised today
Eradicate unnecessary clutter
It’s easier to keep things than throw them out, so now is the time to organise your working space. Take a look around you and go through your computer to purge what you don’t need anymore. Information which you have collected over time may no longer be of use to you in your current job or task. Look for ways to centralise all your files in a neat and tidy place. Scan necessary documents and store them in organised files on your computer. By keeping suitably labelled folders, you will know where to find information when you need it. This will help you work faster and more effectively.
Write things down
Keeping notes and to-do lists will help you stick to your plan, drive you towards your goals and keep you focused. Write down what you need to do each day prioritising in order of importance. Outline your responsibilities and the role you will play in each project and have a clear plan of what tasks need to be carried out to achieve results.
Use your time wisely
Managing your time and using it productively (see my blog on Productivity here – insert link) go hand in hand with being organised. Allocate timeframes to tasks on your list and most importantly protect that time for those tasks/meetings, etc. Be organised with your diary management, and communicate your priorities and time restraints to others to condition them to your way of working. Your employees will soon understand that Friday morning is your time for responding to customer emails, for example. Make sure that no matter how busy you are, you take breaks to relax and get a fresh perspective.
Keep track of your expenses
If you run a business or work in account management you will need to keep track of your expenses. Get financial and accounts organisation in place. Allocate time to compile and record your financial progress to stay on top of incomings and outgoings. Know where the money is going and measure if it is being spent wisely.
Get outside help
If you are struggling to formulate a plan to get organised or need help with your time management, consider an external business mentor, consultant or virtual office support person who can assist. Perhaps you just need someone to answer your phone calls, run your diary management, manage your accounts or respond to emails from clients. This can be outsourced to Transire Ltd. Virtual office support is very popular, with more and more businesses turning to external companies who can help take care of everything from call handling to administration, public relations and running your business while you go on holiday. Get organised now so you can focus on what matters most to you in your personal and professional development for the future.
How do you stay organised?
Do let us know!
p.s We can help you learn how to organise your computer files and your email. Give us a call on 0208 203 1774 for more information.