Getting Organized - tips from Mary'n Hallock

Last week, I went to another of Mary'n's workshops titled "Get Organized!" It was the perfect follow up to her "Putting Off Procrastination" session. This is what I learned and will be applying:

1) The value of tickler files to keep projects on track (I have one but fell out of practice using it. I'm getting back into the groove. Basically it's having monthly files and dated 1-31 files so that it's easy to plug in project notes, invitations, etc. by month. And when you move into a new month, you sort the inserts from the month file into the appropriate date files. It sounds more complicated than it is. For someone visually oriented like me, I need to have these files right in sight. They don't take up much room so they are in a vertical holder on my desk.)

2) The biggest time waster in organizations is...meetings. (Most meetings don't NEED to happen and there are other ways to share the information. Many happen out of habit, include more people than is necessary for the relevance of what is being discussed or are poorly run. I thought about this as I was planning our facilitators meeting for later in the week. The goal of our quarterly meetings has been to get everyone on the same page with updates and announcements, gather input for future direction, answer questions and help the facilitators get to know each other so they can provide cross-support. Upon reflection, not all of the meetings accomplish this. If someone misses the meeting, the information still needs to be shared so it's not necessarily a timesaver. We noticed that our best meetings have been when there was work that we were doing together or strategizing. In other words, a sense of urgency and a clear idea of "what's in it for them." So I'll keep this in mind as to whether/how we continue our quarterly meetings.)

3) E-mail keeps you from getting organized. If you check e-mail first thing in the morning and then throughout the day, it keeps you from getting a handle of what needs to get done and the priority of each of your tasks. E-mails feel urgent even when they are not. They can wait an hour or two while you organize your day and set upon the most important tasks. (This is a hard habit for me to break but having this awareness has gotten me to check it less.)

I hope Mary'n's tips are helpful for you. For more of her tips, check out her website at Painless Paper Cut.