Tips of the Trade: Some Help Getting Organized in the New Year!

Tips of the Trade: Some Help Getting Organized in the New Year!

By: Tamara Braunstein

’Tis the season for resolutions: for making them, and for breaking them. There are plenty of ideas out there for what you might strive to improve in your life this year, and even advice and encouragement on sticking to those goals – set realistic goals, write them down, reward yourself, etc.

But all too often life happens. Work happens. Priorities are reshuffled and New Year goals are bumped down instead of scratched off the to-do list. This mini-series offers some helpful hints at how to manage your time to get the most out of every day – especially at work – leaving you more energy and time to focus on those recycled resolutions. 

Get organized

List tasks and goals

Set broad and specific goals relating to your day, to specific projects and to your personal fulfillment. List the individual tasks that need to be completed for those goals to be achieved.

Keep a daily calendar, planner or to-do list to help you visualize everything you have to do.

Collaborate with others when applicable to decide/divide next steps

Relying on others for help can be stressful for some people, but more often it can lead to a lessened workload for all involved. In work groups especially, utilizing each person’s unique skills can expedite an effective completion process toward achieving quality results.

Schedule reminders for meetings and events

Avoid beating yourself over the head for forgetting a task by setting alerts for yourself and/or colleagues of deadlines and meetings.

In addition to network-based services like Outlook, free online tools like Memo to Me and Freminder are great ways to set reminders for yourself and share them with others.

Document your time as you progress

Evaluate how much time you spend on various tasks to set realistic completion goals.

This process is especially vital if you’re planning on billing clients for time spent on specific tasks or projects. If this isn’t something that comes as second-nature to you, check out Life Hacker’s Five Best Time-Tracking Applications for some (free) online tools to help in this area too.


***NOTE*** - Tamara will continue to bring you Tips of the Trade this week, specifically focusing on improving organizational skills. Expect daily posts on this subject through the rest of this week and into next!