Getting Organized For Success

I recently volunteered to lead an informal discussion group on a favourite topic of mine: “Getting Organized For Success”. The purpose of the group was to share ideas and pick up some new ones. The participants were small business owners from a wide range of businesses, both male and female. Although the group was so diverse, when it comes to organization, their challenges were very much the same!

It was interesting to learn that the most pressing organizational issues most small business owners have to deal with are: Clutter, Email Overwhelm and Time Management

Here are some of the ideas I shared with the group to deal with the above along with some of the solutions the group had to offer:

Clutter: the physical clutter i.e. stacks of paperwork, receipts; the home office becomes a dumping ground and papers for both business and household pile up. Over time the paperwork accumulates into unmanageable piles.

• The best way to avoid clutter is to have a system to manage the paperwork before it gets out of control.

• If you prefer to have everything neat yet close at hand, try a literature organizer. The cardboard models are sturdy and inexpensive. With 8, 24 or more letter size compartments labeled by category, each piece of paper that crosses your desk can be placed in its respective slot immediately.

• If you prefer your paperwork out of sight, use a filing cabinet with labeled hanging folders.

• Use an ‘in’ tray only for the items that need your attention right away.

Email Overwhelm: need I say more? Business owners cannot possibly respond to emails at the rate in which they come pouring in and managing email is too time consuming.

• Avoid attempting to respond each time you receive a new email. Schedule one or two times throughout your day that work best to dedicate to email management.

• Sort incoming mail by “From” or “Subject”. This will group emails alphabetically by sender or subject and is a great way to skim through emails quickly to identify what needs your attention now, what can be deleted right away and what can wait until later.

• Be proactive about managing your email. Take the time to set up ‘rules’ (Outlook has this feature). You can automate what should be done when an email comes in from a particular person i.e. move to ‘x’ folder. You can get very specific with this and assign sounds to alert you when you get an email containing certain key words or other rules you specify.

Time Management: juggling multiple calendars and multiple devices i.e. Blackberry, Outlook and Day-Timer; balancing personal and business commitments.

• To Do Lists do the trick for most of us. One member of our discussion group writes his lists for the next day at the end of every day and enjoys crossing tasks off his list. He even admitted to adding unscheduled tasks that he had just completed in order to get the satisfaction of crossing them off!

• I plan for my week ahead every Friday by blocking off chunks of time dedicated to various tasks.

• Remember to always schedule time to work on your business too. Allocate time for record keeping, managing emails, scheduling and creating your newsletter.

• I have all my business and personal appointments in one calendar and differentiate by using pen for business and pencil for personal.

• Remember if you use multiple calendars like your iPhone and Outlook, to keep them in sync.

Getting and staying organized is a continuous process but doesn’t have to be a burden. When you get to the point where you can maintain the systems you implement, you can better handle the day-to-day challenges and demands of operating a business while balancing other commitments such as family. Use these tips and suggestions to make your business the best it can be. Enjoy the journey to a successful business and life.

Out With The Old, In With The New

Professional Organizers recommend that for every new item you bring into your home or office, you remove an old item. This makes complete sense and I recommend that you adopt this rule. You avoid collecting clutter with this process.

For those of you that have already accumulated clutter, there’s no time like the present to purge and organize and gain greater control over your workday. If you tackle a pile a day or one drawer a day during time dedicated to this task alone, you’ll be back on track in no time. Taking it on in small bites makes it a manageable task and easy to maintain. For example if you set aside an hour a day or every other day, you will be making progress and still have time for your revenue generating tasks.

This ‘Out With The Old, In With The New’ rule is also relevant to our ways of doing things in our businesses. Consider your approach this past year. Did the methods you used help you to achieve your goals? If not, it’s time to ditch your old methods and try something new.

Here are a few points to ponder as you prepare for the new year and contemplate your goals:

• If you were always trying to do too much in a flurry of activity, try doing less and doing it better. The time you spend will be more focused and count for more.
• If you had a lot of goals and didn’t achieve them all, only have one achievable but challenging goal at a time this year. One main focus increases your chances of achieving the goal.
• Are you a Jack or Jill of all trades, master of none? If you had many new skills you tried to learn but only skimmed the surface of a few of them, try picking the one most essential new skill to your business and learn it well before moving on to the next. It is not possible to be proficient at everything but it is to your advantage to have a couple of key areas of expertise. Surround yourself with those that are specialists in other areas and work with each other.

In those areas of your business that didn’t quite go as planned, try doing things a little differently this year for better results.

“Success is not for the chosen few; success is for the few that choose it.” -Gary Keller