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The Coca-Cola Company

Tulsa City-County Library 

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District IV Manager - Member Relations
Best Western International, Inc

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What  tips can you share for being more organized?

Myra's answer to What  tips can you share for being more organized?

If you’re like most workers, 20% of your average workday is spent on "crucial" and "important" thin g s, while 80% of your workday is spent on thin g s that have "little value" or "no value". Perhaps the biggest roadblock to accomplishing the important tasks of our workday is disorganized.  Because you have a business to run – and you simply cannot afford to spend 80% of your time on tasks of little value-

• Use one calendar.  First of all, I should say USE a calendar. Thou g h Post It® Notes are convenient, they cannot be a substitute for a calendar. Find a system that works for you. For me, it’s a PDA that synchronizes with my desktop. I can input engagements, tasks, etc. on either my desktop or handheld and then synchronize the schedules once a day. Do not confuse yourself trying to use a Day Timer and Outlook or a wall calendar and a pocket calendar. Find one system and use it exclusively.

• Dedicate one hour per week to planning and preparation. Time Management experts often quote this startling fact: One hour of planning will save 10 hours of doing. Take time at the beginning of your week to carefully plan your schedule and to-do lists and you will gain hours of time for more productive tasks.

• Touch paper only once. The average worker touches one piece of paper 4 – 6 times before taking any action. For example, I mi g ht open a letter but decide to read it later, so it goes in my in basket. Later when I’m looking for a lost document, I handle the unread letter again (as I shuffle papers in my in basket), I pick up the letter at some point to read it, but I’m interrupted, so it goes on my desk. As I’m shuffling papers on my desk, I touch the letter again…and again and again.  Don’t waste time like this. There are only 4 thin g s you can do with paper: dump it, dele g ate it, do it, or designate follow-up. Do one of these thin g s each time you have a piece of paper in your hand. If it’s trash, throw it away now. If you need to review it 2 weeks from today, file it. Don’t simply stack paper that you’ll have to g o through again and again.  

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• Hold meetings at odd times. Do you lose several minutes each day waiting for co-workers and employees to show up at meetings? Here’s a sure-fire tactic to g et everyone there on time. Instead of beginning at 10:00 am, start the meeting at 10:03 or 9:57. People tend to remember the odd times and get there on time.

• Work with a clean desk. This tip comes from www.balancetime.com. Studies have shown that a person working with a messy desk will spend, on average, one and a half hours per day either being distracted by thin g s in their view or looking for thin g s. That's seven and a half hours per week.

• Check your email hourly. While we often feel compelled to check our inbox each time a tiny envelope pops up on the screen, I urge you not to do that. Many people are interrupted by incoming emails dozens of times a day. Email tends creates its own sense of urgency, but most of the communications are not all that urgent. Consider checking your email once each hour, or even less frequently if that is feasible. Of course, if your job is to respond to customer emails, this tip should not be taken.

Implement just one of these easy tips and you will be amazed at how much more productive you can be!

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