How to be organized at work

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Are you overwhelmed at work, missing important deadlines, and feeling chaos? Well, you need to get organized at work. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. I am sharing here how you can get organized at work, these are tried and tested tips and practices that have allowed me to be organized and productive at work for more than 10 years and maintain my sanity.

In this post, I’m going to explain 

• How to organize your mind at work

• How to organize your workspace

• How to organize workflow

Let’s look at how it’s done …

How to get organized at work?

To be organized at work sustainability you should not just organize your work desk but should collectively organize all the things that contribute to your productivity and efficiency at work. You cannot stay organized at work if your mind feels cluttered and you don’t know the way ahead. Hence I have divided this post on being organized at work into 3 subcategories these include organizing mind, organizing space at work, and organizing workflow. 

Let’s dive deep into the tips

Tips to get organized at work

Here are tips to get you organized at work

Organize your mind for work

You cannot be organized at work until your mind is organized, you may have the best organization system for your files and good productivity tools but a messy mind will not give you the desired results.

Here are some ways to organize the mind at work

Tip 1: Don’t multitask

• Multi-tasking may seem to be more productive but it actually gives you an illusion of getting more done. When you multitask you spend more time and it reduces your efficiency and focus. Moreover, it makes you feel drained and create chaos in your mind.
• So avoid multi-tasking to organize.

Tip 2: Perform brain dump

• At times there are many thoughts, and ideas related to projects that keep our minds busy. Also, remembering many tasks that you need to perform keeps bothering your brain and makes them unorganized.
• Performing brain dump brings all the chaos of the mind on paper and helps you organize your mind.

Tip 3: Take breaks during work

• Take a break while working throughout the day to ease your mind. When you don’t take breaks it can lead to burnout and does not let your mind stay organized.
• Always schedule a few minutes of break in your daily schedule.
• Also, build a system to help you unwind after work to take your mind off work and have a work-life balance. This 5 step system to help you relax and unwind after a busy day will make it easier for you.

Tip 4: Meditate for a few minutes

• Try meditation it is a great way to declutter your mind and let your mind stay organized.
• You need not be an expert in meditation or spend hours of time for meditation but just spend 5 minutes of deep breathing, away from devices, to calm yourself and keep on track with your plan.
• I suggest you meditate at the time that you feel most stressed.
• Most commonly we meditate in the morning but I find that I need it in the evening as the hustle of the day makes me stressed and distracted. Meditating for a few minutes help my mind to be organized back again.

Tip 5: Organize your life

You will not be able to do well at work and stay organized if your life outside work is a mess. We think of work and life as separate entities but the fact is they impact each other.

If you have troubles in life you will not be effective at work. Similarly, if you face trouble at work it is difficult to avoid thinking about work at home. So to keep your mind organized at work, keep your life organized too. Keep things simple and easy.

Organize your physical and virtual space at work

The next aspect of being organized at work is to keep your workspace organized. This includes not only your work desk, and physical files but also your virtual workspace.

Tip 6: Organize your workspace

• Make sure all the things that you need frequently are within your reach. Leaving the workspace to look for things is a waste of time and breaks your focus from work.
• A good rule to follow is the 360 rule which implies that the most frequent and essential items for your work are available within 360-degree reach of your workspace without you having to leave your work desk.
• Keep bare minimum items on your work desk to avoid distractions and let the space be less cluttered.
• You may wish to have some quirky things to make your workspace feel motivated and lively but they should not distract your daily work action at the work desk.

Tip 7: Clean your desk at the end of the day

• Make a habit of cleaning your work desk at the end of the day. Keep the files, documents, and other things used throughout the day at their respective place to maintain things organized.
• Weekly you can get your work desk cleaned and wiped down.
• Getting in the habit of coming to a clean work desk each day lets you start fresh and keep things organized.
• A cluttered desk negatively affects your performance at work and adds to the stress.

Tip 8: Organize your Emails

• We spend a lot of work hours over email. They also play a key role in our work life since much information related to projects, communication, and meetings are captured through emails and it will be unwise to spend time searching over things in email.
• Moreover, if emails are not organized well you can miss important communication or revert to an important email.
• Hence keeping email organized is very essential to be organized at work.
• You may find these related posts useful.

How to declutter email quickly

Best tips to improve email productivity

Tip 9: Organize your files and documents

• Make a filing system and keep all your documents organized in a systematic way such that it is easy to follow the sorting and filing activity at the same it is easier for you to retrieve the documents with ease.
• Also, ensure your digital files are also well organized and stored in systematic folders and subfolders.
• Make sure to follow a consistent system of storing files. To avoid spending a long time searching for them.

Tip 10: Use Google Drive and app

• Store all your important documents on Google Drive or similar devices to keep a backup. It also lets you access them from any place when required.
• There are many apps and tools like Trello, Notion to help you organize your documents and notes. You can choose the one that suits your need.
• You can also choose to stick to using a paper planner and excels lists if that makes things easier for you.
• If your workplace uses Google Workspace, make sure to exploit the complete benefits of using the same. It can let you organize and share documents with others, maintain a task list, and plan your schedule too.

Tip 11: Declutter frequently

• Maintaining an organized system at the workplace does not end with building a system for the organization you will need to actively keep things organized to sustain.
• Clutter makes it difficult to make an organization sustainable. At the workplace, we may end up with clutter such as print of a draft version of the document, or notes of a completed project.
• Keep a habit of decluttering frequently it may be monthly or quarterly depending on your need to maintain organization.

Organize workflow

The next aspect of being organized at work is organizing the workflow. Here are tips to organize workflow at work.

Tip 12: Develop a workflow for routine work

• Having a process to do things makes it easier to get the work done consistently and reduces errors. Every job has different types of tasks and responsibilities that are critical to the role.
• Try identifying these critical works for you and build a workflow for it. The workflow should basically include the different steps in the process, accountability for the action, timelines, and the resources you need to complete it.
• Building a workflow will make you very organized and result-oriented and also make it easier for your team too.

Tip 13: Use the calendar to be organized at work

• Never rely on your memory to remember important things, always put them on the calendar. With your everyday things in life and unexpected event, it is common to forget tasks.
• Put all your meetings, deadlines for projects, and follow-up on your calendar. You can also set up reminders on your calendar.
• Make a habit to look at your calendar first thing in the morning, to make sure you don’t miss important things.

Tip 14: Prioritize work

• There will be many tasks at work and your To-Do list will be never-ending. So to be productive and organized at work you should identify tasks that are important to you and are associated with big consequences.
• Always prioritize tasks, all tasks of high importance and consequences should be your priority. The low importance and consequences tasks can be delegated.
• To be organized at work you should learn the art of prioritizing work.
• You should read How to prioritize work tasks to know more about it.

Tip 15: Timeboxing to organize your work

• Timeboxing is a time management technique that is very effective in keeping workflow organized.
• Based on the priority of work identify your critical tasks for the day and timebox the most productive time, to work on it with focus.
• Timeboxing your schedule lets you organize your day and work effectively.
• You may like to read: Timeboxing at work: An effective way to get the most done.

Tip 16: Make a weekly plan for work

• To be organized at work plan your week at the end of each week, for the coming week.
• This will help you plan work strategically, improve your productivity, and let you track progress well.
• Weekly planning at work helps you to be organized with all the tasks at work and allows you to plan well.
• To start with weekly planning read Weekly planning secrets for work-life balance.

Tip 17: Prepare for the next day

• At the end of each day have a habit of reflecting back on the day for the accomplishments and things that were missed. This makes you intentional with the way you spend your time.
• Following reflection on the day, you must plan for the next day. This planning should include any meetings that you have to attend and a maximum of 3 key tasks that you would do.
• Planning your day will help you organize your mind and time well and make you better organized at work.

Tip 18: Make a to-do list

• One of the most common things observed at the workplace is forgetting about tasks or missing the deadline. With many things to do it is very easy for you to forget hence, always keep a habit of maintaining a running To-Do list and refer to it when planning your week and day.
• Always note down even the simplest tasks on the To-Do list to avoid missing them.
• Having a running To-Do list is key to being organized at work. Many times we do not maintain the To-Do list the right way.
• If you are looking for tips on an effective To-Do list, read:10 Ways To Make An Effective To-Do List.

For all these I love to use this Digital work planner, you can see it below

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Conclusion

• These were ways for you to be organized at work. So, next time you don’t have to feel overwhelmed and in chaos at work. The things shared in this post will help you be organized at work sustainably by letting you organize your mind,  your workspace, and your workflow.
• The things shared in this post are those that I have tried myself at work and have helped me. And I can’t think of a reason it will not benefit you.
• So make sure to follow these and get organized at work.

Here are some related posts you may find useful:

10 habits to be successful at work

10 Things You Must Do To Be Successful At Work

Steps to reset your work-life after busy times

How to manage your busy life effectively