Organization, The Key to Time
Management
If you are better organized you have a
better chance of managing
your time effectively. So what is this
art of getting organized?
There have been enough and more books
written about the art of
getting organized.
Instead of working on somebody else’s
definition let me
ask you, how organized do you want to
be? When we talk about
getting organized people generally get
an impression of a spic and
span home and an office with nothing out of
place. My experience has
taught me that a neat room is not
necessarily a very
organized room. If you throw away
every single piece of paper that
comes to your office, certainly your
office will be neat but not
organized. I believe that organizing is
a relative term. It is all a
matter of convenience.
Speaking of
the work place:
In an organized office there will be a
place for every thing and everything
will
be in its place. At the same time
you
should be able to lay your hands on the
object you need the moment you need it.
In this respect a little bit of
clutter is
ok.
It is not enough that you know
where every thing is, somebody else
should know it too. In case you are not
able to come in person and get
something, somebody else should be
able to do the job for you. It is here
that
labels and tags can prove to be vital.
Every single file should have a name tag
and every thing should be filed
properly.
It is not enough that you name things
according to your convenience. The
names should be intelligible to others
as
well.
Often we tend to use codes like ARCS,
CRBER,WHOSH
which might make sense to us but may
sound like gobbleygook to
every- one else.
Let’s now move on to getting yourself
organized.
The best way to get organized is to find
out the loopholes
where we usually end up in a mess and
see whether we can get
around them.
For every working man or woman, the
following are often
pitfalls:
- Forgetting Appointments
- Forgetting Deadlines
- Being Unable to meet deadlines
- Being late for meetings and
Appointments
- Forgetting Names
- Forgetting Telephone Numbers
- Misplacing Objects
Tips to become a more organized
person:
- Accept the fact that we cannot rely
too much on our memories. The human mind is exposed to a hurricane
of information every day. As a result the mind does a very
nice filtering process and very little of what we see and hear is
retained in our minds. So instead of depending on our very
selective memory why not depend on a piece of paper.
- Carry a tiny note pad, a calendar and a pen
with you all the time or an
electronic pocket organizer. The moment you
set an appointment or are
asked to attend a meeting, jot it down in the
note
pad. Do not bother about others laughing at you. You will have
the last laugh in the end.
- It is a good idea to write it down
in your book. Each time you tell somebody to do
something or when somebody like your boss asks you to do something, write it down in your book along with
the date and the time.
- If you have an personal data organizer be sure to use it. Each time someone gives you his or her
telephone number, immediately enter it into your pocket
organizer, along with the person’s name of course.
- Use the backside of business cards to
help your memory. Usually we get a lot of business cards
as we go about our daily business of life. The business card of
course contains the name of the person, his or her telephone number
and probably the name of the firm for which the person works. But
the problem is, the next time we meet the person, the face may
seem familiar but we won’t have the foggiest idea as to where we
met the person. The best thing to do would be to jot down a few
points about the person and probably the reason for meeting him or
her and the place as well. This will certainly lessen the load on
your memory. Wait until you have left
the person before doing this.
- Prepare a to-do list everyday. I cannot overemphasize the importance
of to-do lists in getting yourself organized. It is probably the
most sensible thing that a busy
person should do.
- Plan what you have to do well in
advance. It is a good idea to have daily, weekly
and monthly plans. No this is not about expanding your business and
things like that. I am not referring to a strategy plan that
involves takeovers and mergers. I was referring to having plans about the daily, weekly and
monthly activities of your business and yourself as well.
- Have a fixed timetable. It may seem kind of mechanical but it
would be wonderful if you could have a fixed time for everything
and try to stick religiously to the time table. Believe me it really
helps because in that way you will have time for everything and
everything can be done in the time for it.
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Learn to set priorities. |
