All You Need to Know About Improving Your Organizational Skills
A lack of organization can affect your life in a lot of different ways. Maybe your social life is suffering because you can’t keep track of your commitments, your home is in a mess, or worse, your career is struggling because you can’t keep on top of what’s important.
If any of the above speaks to your experience, then it’s time you started to think about taking control of your life again. It might sound like an overwhelming task. But, really, all you need to do is learn some key organization skills and start applying them to the different areas of your life.
What are the causes of disorganization?
People can be disorganized for many different reasons. It could have to do with your perfectionist tendencies, or it might be related to a proclivity towards procrastination. Whatever your problem might be, it’s important that you take steps to resolve it.
In order to organize your life both in and out of work, you will need to learn skills to increase productivity. By improving your organizational skills, you can also improve your quality of life.
What are the benefits of improving organizational skills?
By working on their organizational skills, already busy people can increase productivity. Meanwhile, the skills employed to boost efficiency in some can also help those with less going on to better manage their time.
Resultantly, being organized can do great things for your career. For one thing, it saves you time, which is particularly helpful for entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses.
And, with an effective time management technique and other organizational strategies in place, those looking for a new job can learn valuable assistant skills, which can be used in a whole range of industries.
10 ways to improve organizational skills
You can improve your time and get more out of life with better organizational skills, whether you’re a busy business owner or a stay-at-home parent. Check out these 10 tips that are guaranteed to help you reorganize.
1. Remove the clutter
You might be trying to organize yourself at work or start organizing at home, if not both. But, whatever area of your life you’re trying to improve, removing clutter is going to be an essential first step.
For starters, it’s pretty much impossible to concentrate when you’re sitting at a desk full of scrap paper or unwashed dishes. So, as a means of avoiding distractions and focusing your mind, you’ll need to do a big clear out. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. Make the time now, and you’ll thank yourself in the long run.
2. Make to do lists
Now that you have the headspace to focus on the tasks at hand, it’s time to have a go at making to do lists. These will help you to plan your days around important tasks, so that you always know what’s coming up ahead and what needs to be sorted before the evening rolls around.
You’ll find that, by making to do lists and sticking to them, you’re naturally a lot more focused each day. This reduces stress, because it allows you to get an awful lot more done without having to worry about a scattered selection of unfinished jobs.
3. Learn to prioritize
Once you’re a pro at making to do lists, you can start really upping your organizational game. A good priority system will help you to do just that.
Particularly if you tend to have a lot going on, starting to prioritize your most important tasks will help you with your time management skills.
So, divide all the items on your daily to do list into urgent, medium, and low priority. That way, if something comes along and disrupts the flow of your day, you’ll know exactly what you should keep pushing on with, and what can be shelved until tomorrow.
4. Plan your time
This isn’t the same as making a to do list. Scheduling time for the weeks and months ahead is much more of a long-term thing, and requires excellent time management skills. A time management tool could be a big help, for example a calendar, diary, or even Microsoft Excel.
If you’re the sort of person who always has a lot going on, this is one of the best time management tips you could take on board. Having a solid idea of what’s around the corner will help you to meet deadlines without any last-minute panic.
5. Storage systems
Just about everyone could benefit from putting a good storage system in place. It could be a filing system at work, whether that be paper-based or paperless. Or, it could be boxes under beds and folders in drawers full of important documents.
Just make sure you keep your storage system consistent. There’s no point filing some of your paperwork away in a dedicated folder, and related paperwork in a completely separate place.
6. Organizing your work station
You probably started to reorganize your workstation when you decluttered it. And, with a storage system in place, you’ll be one step closer to having a dedicated place for everything on your desk.
However, in order to make sure your workspace works at maximum efficiency, it will be necessary to put other organization systems in place. For example, make sure that everything is kept within arm’s reach, strive to only have current projects in front of you, and arrange your drawers so that they’re in line with your priorities.
7. Organize your inbox
Remember that staying organized doesn’t stop when you go online. As such, it is imperative that you take the time to sort out your email inbox, because your inbox is in many ways the virtual counterpart of your document drawer.
Use the tools provided by your chosen email provider to set message hierarchies, delivery rules, and delete spam in bulk. It will make a world of difference.
8. Fight procrastination
Trying to fight off procrastination will likely be the most difficult task you undertake. It is very often all too easy to put off tasks until the last minute. But, wasting time now will just lead to more hassle in the future.
So, what you have to do is simple: identify the thing you want to do the least, and bite the bullet. In other words, get into the habit of just doing it now. While forcing yourself to do something you don’t want to do might sound stressful in and of itself, it is actually one of the best stress management tools at our disposal.
9. Learn discipline
It’s all well and good putting the wheels in motion. But, if you can’t make your new organizational skills stick, then it’s all for nothing. As such, it’s important that you dedicate yourself to planning every day, staying within your systems, and making organization a part of your regular life.
It won’t just help you now. In fact, organization is one of the key essential leadership skills, along with delegating tasks and taking responsibility. This means that getting into good habits today could help your career prospects further down the line.
10. Reward yourself
Learning to improve organizational skills doesn’t mean you have to be super strict. In fact, it’s advised that you reward yourself after a job well done. This might come in the form of a short break or a snack after completing a big project.
Not only does this help to remind you that the productive times are worthwhile, but it also means you’ll be more likely to stick to your positive behaviors moving forwards. Not to mention the fact that striking a good balance between work and leisure will ensure that you always work at your very best.
How to learn organizational skills?
The new organizational skills employed by you and the practical tips you start putting into place now will help you out with a whole bunch of things, including time management, personal organization, and resource allocation.
However, if these things really don’t come naturally to you, then you might want to look into doing an online short course. Our Organizational Skills Online Certificate Course is accessible to all, regardless of previous education or background. And, it will teach you everything you need to know about upping your organization, for work and home life.
From critically examining your existing practices and resisting procrastination to understanding the value of filing, planning, and storing, the modules in this Courses for Success online course will help you to get organized now, and stay organized far into the future.
Why Courses for Success?
Courses for Success offers over 10,000 online courses, all of which aim to help you in your personal development and career progression. Not only that, but you can also study them anywhere and at any time, and take them at your own pace, too.
You don’t need career diplomas or specific experience to get started. With every course we offer created to be as accessible as possible, you can be sure that all of them, from our coding courses and trading courses to design courses and developer courses, will help to boost your prospects, no matter who you are.
Beyond just the education itself, students will be issued with a certificate online after successful completion of each of the learning courses they do. Our organizational skills courses are no exception. Our organizational skills certificates are recognized by industry leaders. You could really make a name for yourself in the business world by signing up for a Courses for Success short course.