miércoles, 7 de diciembre de 2011

Organizational Strategies


What You Need To Know
"In addition to the likes of Microsoft Outlook, there are a number of free web-based tools available to help you with your organizational strategies."
There are numerous organizational strategies and concepts for the young professional to learn and follow, but many of them are overlooked. This is unfortunate because developing and implementing organizational strategies that are efficient and thoughtful will save you a tremendous amount of time and make a great impression on your boss. They also beget the kinds of productive and successful habits that will serve you well throughout your entire career.

Let’s take a look at some organizational strategies you can start implementing today.


Anticipation And Assessment
At the start of every workweek, reserve an hour or two and devote that time to a careful assessment of the week ahead. Examine the feasibility of your schedule, upcoming deadlines and projects in development with an eye toward ascertaining what can and can not be accomplished. Also, try to spot any pitfalls or problems before they arise.

Time Control And Management
Productivity is the end result of great organizational strategies, but not even the most efficient person can manage to evade every distraction that slows down our day. There are some ways, however, to reduce them.
If possible, consider making some minor adjustments to your seating arrangement. See to it that there’s virtually no chance that you can make eye contact with the many people who pass your cubicle or work station every hour. Ideally, you shouldn’t even be able to see them in your periphery or off a reflection in front of you. The point isn’t to appear rude or antisocial -- it’s one of those organizational strategies designed to prevent the start of casual conversations. Five- to 10-minute chats are fine, but don’t let others pull you into one. Avoiding eye contact sends a subtle message that you’re busy. This way you can decide when to take a short break, not someone else.
Handle your phone calls and emails in this manner as well. Instead of reading every e-mail as it arrives or answering each call (you can use caller ID to decide which ones need to be answered), turn off any sound indicators and schedule to check your e-mail and voice mail accounts every half hour. Similar to adjusting your seating, take control of your e-mails and phone calls and tackle those issues when you’re ready -- not when others decide they need you.

Computer Applications And Web-Based Tools
In addition to the likes of Microsoft Outlook, there are a number of free web-based tools available to help you with your organizational strategies, and they typically allow you some freedom to develop a system in accordance with your personality and preferences. Signing up allows you to manage your tasks, receive telephone, e-mail or IM reminders, connect and share with contacts and colleagues, export to web-enabled PDAs, HTML, spreadsheets, and more. A few you might want to look into include RememberTheMilk.com, Swift To-Do List lite (dextronet.com/swift-to-do-list-lite.php, which is the free version) and any number of tools that work with Outlook, such as DeskLook (xemico.com/desklook).
Some more old-school organizational strategies…

Hard Copies And Old-Fashioned Practices
Using a computer to manage your tasks and keep you fully organized and operational is not always the wisest or most effective decision, since you may not always be at your desk or have access to your computer. Phones and smartphones can help, but some of us still rely on organizational strategies that involve a pen, paper and an agenda -- all of which are especially prudent if you’re someone who forgets things if they’re not written down.
No matter how many computer folders and files you will open in the course of your professional life, it’s possible that none will prove as useful as the hard plastic binders you should consider using on a regular basis. Organizing your tasks or projects in binders allows you to bring them to meetings and have on-hand documents, reports or other important information that most people can only access on their computers at their desks or on their smartphones' little screen. Furthermore, comprehensive binders can be of tremendous service to your colleagues on days when you’re not in the office; they know right where to look and don’t need to waste time trying to navigate someone else’s confusing organizational system.

Read Literature
There’s a lot of literature out there to help you with your organizational strategies, but one of our favorite books is David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. This book has received widespread reader approval in part because of its aim is to liberate us from all the mental clutter that surrounds us, allowing us to achieve bigger and more profound things. Additionally, there are applications, such as Tracks, that work in conjunction with Allen’s book.
If the thought of plodding through a self-help book about organizational strategy just doesn’t do it for you, at least take note of David’s “two-minute rule”: If there is some duty, task or responsibility that you are obligated to perform, and you have every reason to believe that you can completely dispense it in two minutes, you’ll save an amazing amount of time and energy down the road if you perform that task right now, at this very moment.

Additional Tactics
Invest in a filing cabinet -- this world is not yet totally paperless and it probably never will be.
Keep your workspace uncluttered, if for no other reason than to give the appearance of organization.
Finally, set aside the last 20 to 30 minutes of each workday preparing a to-do list for the morning. This habit prevents your morning from dragging any more than necessary and can help you get out of there on time.

Get In Step
If you have any doubts about the value of applying a well-ordered and organized approach to your work ethic, simply take a look around you. Unorganized people are generally under more duress and they play a lot of catch-up because they’re prone to making the same mistakes again and again -- mistakes that can be mitigated or eliminated entirely by operating in accordance with some basic organizational strategies.

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