How Getting Organized will Boost Your Career

Do you consider yourself an organized person?

Over the years, I’ve taught numerous time management & workplace productivity classes and most focus on a key component: organization.

The overall idea is that if you’re organized, you’re able to be more efficient and effective, which creates higher productivity, which creates bigger professional impact which creates increased job satisfaction & more professional success.

Now, there’s no one size fits all for organization, but there are tools and approaches that you can customize to fit your needs. My professional and personal organizational systems have shifted over the years - and pre-COVID things were completely different from where we are now.

That said, these 4 tips will leave you with a system that allows you to work smarter, not harder, while boosting your career:

1) Ditch the “to do" list: To-do lists are like a graveyard for tasks. Instead, consider a brain dump to get everything out of your head. Then turn that into a prioritized list of actions (à la Eat That Frog) or a “Today list” where you pull 3-5 essential items to accomplish each day.

2) Corral into a consistent platform/place: Whether it’s digital or paper, keeping all of your tasks & appointments in a specific place will help you avoid sudden urgent tasks because something slipped through the cracks until the last minute. Many paper planners also include space for notes/to do lists. Personally, I like a digital version. I’ve tried Trello, Asana, and now ClickUp. Trello reminds me of a bunch of post-it notes, which I loved at the time. People swear by Asana, but it just wasn’t for me. ClickUp is amazing because it’s customizable and user friendly so I can use it for everything from planning my social media or a new course to reminders to review my financials.

3) Schedule your priorities: Once you know your priorities, add them to your calendar. Make blocks of time to work on the important things. How often have you left a meeting with action items and then wondered when in the world you’re going to accomplish those things?! Big meeting coming up? Set aside time on your schedule to work on the action items after the meeting.

4) Curate ideas that will help out down the road: David Allen’s Getting Things Done talks about the “someday/maybe” folder. This is a place for ideas or tasks that may be right, but they aren’t for right now. For example: enhancements for new hire website that doesn’t yet exist, ideas for next fall’s marketing launch, a trip you want to take next year, etc. These ideas take up valuable real estate in your mind so putting them down on paper/into your system frees up your brain to focus on your immediate priorities. Set a reminder to regularly review your someday/maybe folder so you can implement & build on good ideas or throw out the ones that aren’t relevant anymore.

By getting organized, you’ll be able to focus on the needle moving tasks and activities. When you show up in this way, you’re setting yourself up to exceed expectations and make an impact at work.