As a business owner, you’ve probably already been faced with one of the biggest challenges – staying organized and productive.
Realizing that you need to make time to get yourself organized is one of the biggest steps to getting organized. It isn’t enough to simply say, “I’ll file that stuff later.” Later never comes. When was the last time you had a bunch of free time to get organized? Yeah, me neither.
The first step you can take to getting organized is to schedule some time once a week to work on your office. Make it a small amount of time, like 30 minutes or an hour. Keep it manageable, with an end time in mind. Don’t take a whole day off of work to get organized – it will seem too overwhelming and it won’t get done. By focusing on a little at a time, you will get more done and have a sense of accomplishment.
So how do you get started?
Start with the number one thing that bothers you every day. For example, I get a ton of email and before I know it, my inbox is over 200. So one of my organizing goals is
going through my email inbox and going through each email and deciding what to do with it. Some of the emails will be deleted, others will be filed, and some I need to reply to. What is it that bothers you most each day? Start working on getting that organized and under control, and then move on to the other parts of your business life that could be better organized.
Action Steps for this Week
- Schedule some time on your calendar to get organized – make an appointment with yourself!
- Make a list of your top 3 organizational challenges
- Start with your #1 organizational challenge and make a plan to work on it. For example, if you want to clean out your email inbox, your goal should be to reduce it by 25% each time you work on it until it gets to xx (this number is the number of emails you feel are manageable). Everyone’s goal is different — some people want zero emails in their inbox, some feel comfortable with 50. Make a goal that’s right for you!
Guest Writer – Josh Zerkel
Joshua Zerkel, CPOR is the founder of Custom Living Solutions, a San Francisco-based productivity and organizing consulting firm. Joshua specializes in helping busy entrepreneurs save time, be more productive and make more money by getting organized at home and at work. www.customlivingsolutions.com for your FREE copy of “The Top 12 Mistakes to Avoid when Getting Organized”.