How to Get Organised

Many people admit to feeling overwhelmed by the number of jobs on their to-do list and often put off tasks until the last possible minute, which only adds to stress levels. Here are my tips on how to get on top of your admin:

15-minute Productivity Blast

If you are anything like me, you will have a long to-do list of various tasks, which can be daunting and impractical to manage.

Rather than letting the list build up until it seems impossible to complete, try having a 15-minute productivity blast. This is about dedicating 15 minutes at the same time every day to focus on accomplishing one of your tasks, or as many as you can manage in that time, to slowly bring the list down. 15 minutes a day is a manageable amount of time and it helps you keep on top of your tasks.

Tracking Progress

To be as productive as possible try clearly documenting all of your tasks somewhere easily accessible to track exactly what you need to do.

This works well for three main reasons:

1. Writing down a task helps clarify exactly what you have to do to complete it.
2. It will help with the ‘productivity blast’ as all the things you need to do  are clearly listed, meaning you can go straight into actioning them.
3. Tracking your progress can give you a sense of satisfaction, by showing what you have achieved and that you are making progress.

If you use an app to manage your to-do list, such as Asana, you can also add items while you are out and about so you’ll never forget anything. You can also set deadlines and notifications for when a task is due so that nothing slips through. Plus the act of archiving a completed task can be very rewarding!

Prioritisation 

In order to prioritise your tasks more effectively, it’s helpful to split them into four categories:

1. Those you must do today (urgent)
2. Simple quick wins (easy)
3. Complex and important tasks (difficult)
4. Longer term tasks (not urgent)

By splitting the tasks into these four categories, you ensure that you focus on all the categories, rather than just the quick and easy ones. If you decide to use an app to manage your to-do list, open it each morning and reprioritise all tasks, which will help you keep on top of what you need to and by when. 

Simplification

It’s very easy to make tasks more complicated than they need to be. This can be for two main reasons:

1. Your mindset
2. Missing opportunities to simplify

Your Mindset

You can overthink a task and build it up to be a lot more complicated than it really is. The longer you put off something, the more complex you can make it seem and the more stressful it becomes. If this is the case, break it down into smaller, and more manageable steps.

Missed Opportunities

Choose to invest time in simplifying tasks, for example:

• Schedule regular payments by direct debit, rather than making manual payments each time
• Have online shopping delivered to your door
• Set up automated reminders for regular tasks
• Use online solutions wherever possible (for example try Trello for task lists and Xero for accounting)
• Think about which tasks you might be able to outsource – such as admin tasks for your business 

If you find yourself struggling with day to day admin, or your to-do list regularly becomes unmanageable, just follow my simple tips and manage your workload in bite-size chunks with the help of online tools! In no time at all, you will be winning.