The global pandemic led to major changes in our lives. It may have shifted our working time and setting but it does not take away the fact that we are still going to continue on with our lives – that we still need to get up and make sure that things are getting done in our work. Regardless of the differences in our working setup, several issues always arise among us, workers: the need to get life organized and how to exhibit productivity.
Every day, we can feel like our tasks just keep on increasing. We tend to feel like time is simply slipping away from our hands. We feel this urge of wanting to learn new habits and tips to be successful in organizing our work. But mind you, we cannot immediately be productive and organized by the next day. It takes time to really get used to these work habits and you are a brave one for wanting to change your established routine by choosing to traverse the path of productivity.
5 Tips On How To Organize Your Life
Let us start by organizing ourselves before we continue with our working lives. Just like the famous adage, it starts within yourself. Once you think that you are really ready to get into your work-life days, these five simple ways to get organized at work will surely help you as you go along in your working journey.
- Creating a routine – As you start working again, make sure to establish a routine that you think can benefit you as you do your workload. This will help you keep track of your progress and where you should focus more on as regards your work routine. Asking people around you, especially your co-workers, what advice they can give is essential in getting into the mood of working.
- Using a phone or email calendar – Activating the notifications and actually utilizing the phone or email calendar do wonders in the lives of workers. Having lots of meetings, deadlines, and tasks can be nerve-wracking especially if you are a forgetful one! Worry not, because with your existing email account, like Gmail, you can already set up your Google Calendar by syncing it to your phone calendar. This feature also involves notifications so you won’t miss your important reminders out. If you have not done this yet, you should try it out and it will really be beneficial in the long run.
- Having a central to-do list – Organizing your to-do list varies depending on how you want to see your pending tasks. You may want to write them down on a clean sheet of paper or use websites that have the checklist features. Seeing your pending tasks as many times as you want by having a central to-do list will be much easier if you want to stay organized. Once you start crossing off your list, you will also feel a sense of accomplishment which is a good way to remind yourself that you are doing a great job.
- Not getting worked up with tons of emails – Every day is another day to check work emails. It is important to take time to review these emails and not to feel overwhelmed at the numerous emails waiting for you to read them. Try cleaning your inbox and know which one is the most urgent or important by organizing your emails into categories.
- Setting a workable workspace – Work-from-home (WFH) is a common setup nowadays. Although some homes are not conducive for WFH setup, it is better to find a way on how to have a workplace within your home. It is a must to feel comfortable in your workspace, as the place for everything you need. Wherever you may be working, be sure to create a workable workspace.
Make sure to avoid these counterproductive activities
After learning some tips on how to get organized in life and in the workplace, the next thing that we should focus on is how to avoid these counterproductive activities. We might have some personal routines that we think are helpful for our productivity but after careful scrutiny, it turns out that it just causes more anxiety and pressure on our part.
Here, what we want to achieve is how to be productive and these can be achieved if you keep the following tips in mind:
Do not multitask
Remember the feeling when you look back to the times when you have so many things to do but so little time to work on them? Sometimes we resort to multitasking thinking that it will make things easier and faster in terms of accomplishing the deadlines but multitasking decreases your productivity.
Various researches tell us that multitasking disrupts short-term memory, decreases creativity, and can even lower your IQ. These reasons are alarming as it tells us a lot about how our brains just aren’t used to this kind of activity. It is best to choose one task at a time and concentrate on what needs to be accomplished immediately. Put away unnecessary things in the meantime and again, don’t multitask.
Not giving yourself any free time
Working all day in the office and at night when you are already at home may also reduce your productivity. Since it is a common misconception that working long hours is equated to success, it looks like you need to learn how to break it by giving yourself free time. You need time in order to have fun and for your brain and body to get rest from working too. So if you want to feel refreshed, remember to take a break from your work.
Skipping meals is not the one thing your body wants
Another thing that causes counterproductivity is skipping meals. It actually lowers your energy and concentration levels. It is important to take note that when you skip meals it also increases the cravings for unhealthy food items such as junk food and sweets.
Getting life organized with these apps
Having technology within our reach can help a lot with getting things done with less time and effort to be spent. Now that we are embracing the WFH setup or even for those who are tech-savvy and wanting to get stuff done using the comforts of their own devices, now is the time to check out these apps that can help you plan for your new tasks.
- Todoist – This app is a simple way to organize and keep track of your to-do list as it allows you to set tasks and their corresponding due dates. Todoist also has location-based reminders and options to sort stuff with tags.
- Evernote – If you are fond of note-taking and organizing all your ideas in one place, you should use Evernote. This app also allows its users to attach photos, audio, sketches, and more.
- Trello – If your job needs to have collaborative meetings and outputs with your workmates, Trello is a good app to manage your workflow with an easy-to-use layout.
- Toggl – This app is pretty interesting as it traces back how much time you spent working on different stuff. Toggl will help you plan your schedule accordingly and it gives reports of your data to help you in achieving productivity.
- Google Calendar – This cross-platform app is very popular for its easy scheduling tools that will not fail to remind you of your daily, weekly, or monthly meetings, appointments, reminders, and even birthdays! Google Calendar will help you with your busy schedule.
Productivity and organization come together
After feeling all the urge of wanting to learn new tips to be successful in organizing your work by being productive, but you are still looking for a shorter and easier way of achieving and embodying all these, you may start asking yourself, “But can I do everything that you said within one week?” The answer is a yes. But you should also be mindful that you actually need to get organized and dedicated if you aim to achieve an organized life within a week. It is also best to remind yourself to focus on one thing at a time and not to force yourself to change your lifestyles as fast as possible.
Your productive and organized life will slowly unfold as you start doing it every single day so that you can get used to it. You might not notice it but you are actually doing it on your own based on what really suits you and every week you get to notice that you have come a long way to get to where you are now in terms of your working attitudes and habits.
Congratulations on being a step closer to more productive and organized working days! Always remember that these two come together and it will help you achieve your goals if you keep in mind the tips that we presented here.
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