Want a few tips on organizing your workspace? You can watch a short video on YouTube that gives some tips on keeping your space efficient.
For instance, put the things you need most closest to you. Only keep today’s “to do” items on your desk. Get rid of the ten notebooks you have strewn around and write everything down in one place. And clear your desk every day. Watch the video, from AsktheDecorator.com:
Tags: clear your desk, tips, Videos
Most advice you’ll see tells you to plan your week on Monday morning. And there’s some merit there, of course. First day of the week, you should plan how you’ll work on projects, making sure you set aside time to get things done.
But if you work a M-F schedule (and while few entrepreneurs really do, your clients probably do, right?) then Mondays are hectic, aren’t they? Do you really feel like you have time to plan your week first thing Monday morning?
You usually have to hit the ground running. So you already need to have your plan before you start Monday morning. When you have time to think. To plan. To look ahead.
There are a couple of times that could be better, depending on your personality and preferences.
Tags: , looking forward, planning your weekReader Karen asked a great question. And since I was starting to type a book in the comments in response, I decided to write a quick post. Maybe it will help someone else, too. Karen states:
… I think the solution is not to keep so much paper “just in case.” I never get asked to review things again, so after a week or two of the project’s completion, I should throw away most of the paper and move on to the next thing. (Any other ideas?)
If you feel you absolutely MUST keep some documentation, Karen, think about keeping the last iteration of your edits and a few notes. With content writing, I rarely had to worry about the various revisions - I was more interested in referring back to the original content.
You could also have a temporary file, where you keep things for a few days, a few weeks, or something like that. If you don’t refer back to it after a specified time, get rid of it.
It’s like the solution to figure out which clothes you no longer wear - you turn all of your hangers backwards. As you wear the clothes and hang them back up, put the hangers forward. After 3 months, see how many hangers are still backwards. Get rid of those clothes. It’s the same way with your files. The ones you don’t touch for 3 weeks, 3 months, whatever, can go. Unless it’s something that you’re required by law to keep, of course.
And take advantage of your filing space. Don’t just leave piles of papers on your desk, thinking you’ll need to get back to them. File or toss them. If you file, set a calendar reminder to go back through them every 3 months. And then do it. Purge what you don’t need. Leaving piles on your desk just makes it harder to find the things you do need.
But you don’t have to get rid of everything off of your desk. Some files are okay as long as things are in order and you can find what you need. It doesn’t have to be pristine or sterile to be organized.
If you’re interested in ways to not only declutter your office, but other areas as well, there are many books and sites to read. Sometimes you just need the basics to help you get started.
Try reading a brief ebook from the site Organize IT. The book is called Clutter 101: The Definitive Guide to De-cluttering Your Life.
While I don’t think that any one book is going to be able to tell you everything, there are some basics that can help you start planning how you’ll purge clutter - and then getting started.
I’m working to rearrange my work space, pare down, and get rid of all the extra stuff I don’t need. It’s time to simplify and concentrate on what’s important to me and my business. As I tackle clutter, you’ll probably see more posts about that topic. But I’ll also make sure we talk about your other hot buttons as well. Just let us know what areas you are struggling with.
Do you consider yourself a creative person? If you’re a small business owner, you are. You had to come up with a business concept and sell it. You need to find solutions to all kinds of problems to make sure your customers get your product. And you routinely think of new ways to save money or grow your business.
That’s creativity at work. But it’s easy to get bogged down in all of the mundane things. The day-to-day business of running your company. The endless mail. Paperwork. Phone calls. Clutter. Oh, the clutter. It could be paper. Or products. Things. Even mind clutter can bring you down.
So you need to find ways to reduce that clutter. Capture your ideas on paper so you can decide if they’re worth pursuing. Get things in order so you can find “stuff” when you need it.
Because when you don’t, your ability to problem solve creatively can suffer. You can miss a great new idea or awesome solution to a jam when you’re distracted by physical or mental clutter. Let’s start today, get back on track, and let the ideas start flowing again. Don’t let clutter bring you down.
How is clutter interrupting your work right now? What are you doing to tame it?
Tags: creativity, reducing clutter
Do you make long “to do” lists and never get everything done? And maybe you even schedule those tasks on your calendar, but still don’t manage to finish them. Sometimes it’s way too easy to put things off, isn’t it?
I struggle with the same things you do. Putting off a few things that I know I need to do. With a little one at home, it can be easy to get sidetracked. Or busy.
But there’s one thing you can try to help you manage your procrastination. Rescheduling.
What? You reschedule those tasks all the time, but they still don’t get done, right? Try a different time of the day. Maybe you’re trying to do things at the wrong time.
When do you feel most energetic? Morning? Afternoon? So why not schedule those nagging tasks when you are at your best. When you are high energy, motivated, and ready to run, it’ll be easier to jump in and just get things done.
Don’t wait until the end of the day to do the tasks you’re fighting. Being tired, ready to end the day, and unmotivated won’t help you. Unless the end of the day is your high-energy time, try not to schedule things that need a lot of your attention or energy or super-high focus. Choose something that’s a little easier, less likely to stress you out.
We can’t always choose when we want to do a task. But see if you can use your natural rhythms to help you accomplish things. Use your momentum to power through the tasks you’ve been avoiding.
And then report back so we can see if changing things up a little has helped you!
Tags: natural rhythms, procrastination, rescheduling, Time ManagementThe b5media Sports Channel is holding a contest over at Thoroughbred Fever, in celebration of the Breeder’s Cup.
What do you have to do to win? Leave comments on 5 of the blogs in the Sports Channel to be entered to win. And who couldn’t use a $200 certificate to Amazon?
(See the rules at Thoroughbred Fever.)
What do you see when you walk into your office space? Do you immediately see what you haven’t finished? The incomplete projects, the paper or book clutter, the filing just waiting for you?
It’s tough to see what you’ve already accomplished, isn’t it? We focus a lot on what isn’t done instead of what already is. And that can lead to frustration. Impatience. Because you’re so busy thinking about what you didn’t do yet, you berate yourself for not getting enough done.
Get out of that mindset. Don’t forget to stop and congratulate yourself for what you’ve already accomplished. And then find a couple of small things that you can do quickly to improve your outlook.
One of the first things you can do is take 10 minutes to clear out some mail. Or organize the top of your desk. Or clear any other flat surfaces. What do you see when you first walk in? What bugs you the most? Tackle that. If you can even create one small clear space that you can look at every time you enter your office, it will help. Read More
Tags: accomplishment, improvements, positive thinking, quick fixesI thought it’d be nice to go back in time a bit and look for some helpful items in the archive. Here are a couple worth re-reading:
3 Organizing Assumptions Debunked
We all have cycles of productivity - know them and work with them, not against.How to clean off your desk in 15 minutes or less
Quick ways to make your desk more presentable in just a few minutes.
As time progresses, I’ll delve back into our archives for more gems. Do you have a favorite article in the archive that you love to refer back to? Let us know!
Tags: archive, favorites, reviewAnd the winner is…
Commenter #1 Jessica!
Congratulations, Jessica. I’ll be contacting you shortly about the details of your prize.
Thanks to everyone who entered. We appreciate you stopping by. We have more contests coming up soon, so stay tuned!
Tags: contests, Giveaways, winner
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