Productivity Planner

Are you organizationally challenged? Do you have papers scattered all over your desk, and waste precious time searching for elusive slips of paper?

Heres an idea that helped one organizationally challenged person. One day a colleague offered to help him get organized. She piled all the papers on his desk into a box and left it beside his desk. A month later she asked if her co-worked had opened the box. To his surprise, he hadnt. He realized that a lot of the paper scattered on his desk was not important.

Here are some tips for managing the papers on your desk so you become more productive.

Most people file papers by asking themselves where they should put something. Instead, ask: Where would I look for this?

Touch each paper only once and make a decision about it. To sensitize yourself, tear off a corner of the paper each time you read it. When the paper is almost in shreds, youll realize how many times you read things without acting on them.

Use a Bring-Forward file, dated 1 to 31. Put a request from your manager for information about your key clients, needed for November 25, in the slot for November 24. Book time in your planner to work on that request beforehand.

Write Discard By on the top of papers you need for a limited time. Get rid of them when the date has passed.

Dont keep slips of paper. Write all the information you need in one place, such as a daily planner, either in paper or electronic form. Then throw out the paper.

In your planner, whenever you think of information you need to give someone, or questions that need to be addressed, record them as well.

Keep all the details related to an event or customer in the same place for easy reference. When you visit a client, youll have the information you need at your fingertips. Include personal information as well, so youll be reminded to congratulate a receptionist who got engaged, or ask about a clients recent vacation.

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Tags: , , Leadership, Inspiration, Management, Organizational Culture //