As part of your local business community, you may feel like everyone has it all together whilst you’re still trying to figure out how to become more organised in order to compete. But the truth is, we’re all in the same boat and there are some simple ways to become more organised.
Being a business owner can be hard work. You’re responsible for keeping an eye on the finances, building relationships, and ensuring everything runs smoothly. And – most importantly – you need to create the right environment for your staff to thrive in. It all stems from understanding how to be more organised as a business owner.
Being organised isn’t just important for your business. It’s crucial if you want to feel like you’re in control of your own business growth.
If you want to feel less stressed at work and more productive when dealing with problems as they arise (and who doesn’t?), here are some top tips to becoming more organised and productive as a business owner.
Write it down
Write down everything you need to do and prioritise the tasks. By doing this, you are engaging with the part of your brain that puts things in a logical order.
Plan your day in advance by using a diary or planner to help you stay organised and on top of things. If you prefer digital calendars, there are plenty of free options available online such as Google Calendar or iCalendar (for Mac). But, if you’re more comfortable with Microsoft Outlook for Windows users, then that’s good too.
Use tools like these to keep track of appointments, tasks and deadlines so that everything is neatly organised in one place. iIt’ll make life much easier when trying to figure out what needs doing next. And it always feels nice to tick things off!
Make a schedule and stick to it
It’s easy to get distracted by emails, phone calls and meetings when you’re working from home or in an office. It’s important that you make time for yourself to work or for personal appointments too. Having a set schedule will help keep things on track and give everyone involved an idea of when they can expect something.
Make sure that your schedule is realistic. If there are too many things to do and it’s long-winded then it won’t work out. The key here is finding balance between what needs doing right now versus what can wait until later. Try outlining separate monthly, weekly and daily schedules. Over the course of a few months, you may just find that the default diary type schedules become a habit.
Get rid of clutter
You’ll be surprised at how much clutter can get in the way of productivity. Getting rid of clutter allows you to focus on the tasks at hand without being distracted by things we don’t need any more or never needed in the first place.
First of all, get rid of all unnecessary items. Go through your desk and remove any items that are no longer needed and taking up valuable space. Then, create a filing system to keep track of documents. This will make it easier to find paper trails when you need them without causing yourself unnecessary frustration.
Invest in some storage solutions. This could include drawer organisers, shelves, or boxes. This could even turn into a bit of an interior design project. A new take on your working environment is good for a fresh and more organised start.
Don’t forget there is a wide variety of digital tools available to help you organise your files and documents. Utilising these (often free) tools can help you stay top of tasks and are actually not as complicated to use as you might think.
Try out Google Drive, ClickUp, Clockify, and Toggl for time keeping, diary management and secure file storage.
Organise your emails
Organising your emails will ensure you are staying productive and efficient. When it comes to organising emails, there are a few key steps you can take to make sure everything is streamlined. First, create labels and folders for any topics or categories that you regularly receive emails about.
Then, stick to a process for incoming emails that can help you quickly find or reference emails later.
Finally, unsubscribe from emails that are unimportant or no longer relevant. With these tips, you’ll be able to easily manage your emails and stay productive.
To stay on top of your incoming emails once you’ve sorted them, allocate time in your diary each day to dedicate to emails. You don’t have to have your emails open all day – the notifications can be very distracting. Inside, open them when you’re in-between tasks and have a spare 10 minutes. Or, sift through them and the beginning or end of each day.
To conclude
Understanding how to be more organised as a business owner will help improve your productivity and make your business run more smoothly. Initially, creating new neural pathways in order to form new habits may take a bit of time and effort at first. But, once they’re created, being more organised will come more naturally to you. So, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the things that need doing, stop, relax, and take some time out to try these tips to become more organised.
