TOP 7 TIPS TO STAY ORGANISED EVERYDAY

There’s a lot that goes on in our minds at all times. Many of us are faced with piles of work to get through every day. Sometimes we get so overwhelmed by this workload that we either procrastinate or end up wasting precious time. At the end of the day, we discover we have achieved very little or even nothing at all.

Being productive and getting things done is all about being effective and efficient. To get a hold on our lives, we need to be able to make conscious, deliberate decisions to organize our tasks. This will help set us in place for stress-free productivity and even leave us happier with our life.

Here are 7 tips that will help you develop an organization system that perfectly works:

1. Schedule: For me, this means writing everything down. Use a bullet journal, Notion, sticky notes, your phone’s note app or just a piece of paper. It doesn’t matter.

Make sure it is an actual (written or digital) list so you can keep things out of your head. That way, you’re less likely to forget important stuff and can better keep track of your tasks.

2. Create Time for Planning: Set apart about 10-15 minutes daily for planning. Draw out your schedule for the next day the night before. It will help you waste less time during the actual execution and get you mentally prepared.

You could also set out a time each week for planning (weekends maybe). This dedicated time will be directed towards reorganizing your life, reassessing your goals and evaluating your progress.

3. Prioritize your tasks: It’s easy to get overwhelmed after making a list of several things you want to achieve. However, it’s also important that you learn to focus on the tasks that are truly important and impactful and do them first.

You can write out “THE BIG THREE” tasks for the day and work hard to accomplish them. That way, you are being reasonable and realistic with your goals and you are more fulfilled at the end of the day.

4. Hold yourself accountable: You can find yourself feeling utterly unmotivated especially for duties without specific deadlines. Because there are no fatal consequences at the moment, this kind of (often important but not urgent) work keeps getting postponed and eventually falls out of place.

You can bring someone in, a friend for example, who will constantly monitor your progress. They can help mete out punishment when you fall through or offer a reward when you do your work.

5. Clean your environment: I find it extremely difficult to work in a messy area. One way or the other, a disorganised workspace will subconsciously mess with your mind flow as you try to get your work done.

So don’t work in chaos. Put everything in its place. That way, you’ll be able to think clearly and work more effectively.

6. Batch similar tasks together: Many of us are used to disrupting our workflow by switching between totally unrelated tasks. But this principle is simply saying, “Avoid context switching.”

That is, perform all related tasks together. This means doing all planning, making all calls, attending to social media, completing all house chores at specific times in specific groups like that.

7. Use the Eisenhower Decision Matrix: The matrix is a time-management tool that helps you decide on and prioritise your tasks based on urgency and importance. It helps you categorise tasks and know which ones to do, schedule, delegate or eliminate.

With this, you can exercise conscious control of time spent on certain activities and hence, optimise your productivity.

Finally, be sure to remind yourself that “done” is better than “perfect”. Perfectionism can ultimately ruin your productivity and creativity. So, don’t focus too much on one thing that you forget the bigger picture and miss out on enjoying life.

What are your biggest challenges with staying organised? Which of these tips do you already practice?

Let me know in the comments!