Want to be More Productive? Get Organized!

Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is only 43 days away, which means there are only 72 shopping days left before Christmas! The busy holiday season is fast approaching. The best way to face it head-on is to be prepared, and the best way to be prepared is to be organized.

image - productivity3Organization leads to greater productivity, and when times are busy, your productivity level is the key to staying on top of your busy work days. That’s often easier said than done, right? I hear you. But there are so many easy, effective tools and tactics for staying organized and increasing your productivity, there’s just no excuse not to use some of them!

Let’s look at a few ideas for keeping your business organized so that you’re operating at maximum productivity every day—

Calendar/time management. Whatever calendar program you use, whether it’s Google, Outlook, or some other great tool, are you using it as effectively as you should be?  Try these simple tips for keeping your calendar organized—

  • Use the features such as flagging, categorizing and color-coding to quickly identify calendar items. You can categorize items by client, business, personal, whatever’s best for your business needs and work style.
  • Block times on your calendar for everything you do. Include times for admin work, client work, lunch, workouts, business development, and anything else you need to do on a regular basis. Blocking times is a bit of mind game; if it’s on your calendar, you’re more likely to make time to do it, rather than just try to work it in when you can. That’s how things fall through the cracks and don’t get done!
  • Whether you use a cool tool like Evernote, a full-scale project management program like Teamwork or Basecamp, or a simple notepad, it’s important to record your tasks and to-do’s somewhere. The busier you are, the more difficult it is to keep it all in your head. Don’t try. Grab a notebook or sign up with one of the online tools, and get those to-do’s out of your head and onto a list!

Schedule/meeting management. This goes along with calendar management, but at the same time, it’s also a process on its own. A few tips for scheduling your meetings—

  • Make use of the meeting scheduling feature on your calendar when setting meetings with others. It’s more efficient than trading emails, and you can set up reminders to help you stay on time. It also makes cancelling and rescheduling a much simpler task. Wow…organized and productive. Bam!
  • If you schedule a lot of meetings with prospects, clients and others, consider using one of the many online scheduling tools. From uber simple to very robust, there’s one out there that’s just right for you. Once it’s set up, you can add the scheduling link to your website and your email signature, and empower others to schedule meetings with you within the parameters you have established, while you’re busy being productive on other things!

Email management. This is a big one. Emails can be a huge productivity killer. Following these simple tips will help get them under control—

  • Be objective as you look through your email subscriptions, and if they truly are not of value to you, or you simply don’t have time to read them, unsubscribe to them.
  • Create priority folders for certain types of emails, or emails from certain people, and then set up rules to send those incoming emails directly to the priority folders. This helps to keep your inbox manageable, but more importantly, it keeps important emails from getting lost in the crowd.
  • Set up templates for recurring or frequent email responses. This is a great time-saver if you receive a lot of emails that require the same response; for example, coaching clients asking about lessons or programs; inquiries about your business services, etc. Once you get them set up and begin using them, you’ll love how much time it saves you!

Getting organized always takes a little time and forethought, but it really is the path to productivity. So get organized, be productive, and you’ll rock your work day, every day, even through those hectic holidays!

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