Organization skills are one most important skill groups employees need to have in order to be the best asset in the office. These abilities are so diverse, and thankfully, you can work on becoming better in all areas. Poor organization skills can negatively affect your work productivity, focus, waste your time, and even cause stress, anxiety, and other health issues. If you’re ready to become a much better employee, keep reading.
4 Great Organizational Skills to Improve Your Work
What are the organizational skills that you need to thrive in your personal and professional life? These skills are much more than just tackling urgent tasks and communicating with your colleagues. This is a complex set of abilities each person should work on improving and excelling. Here are the four most important groups you have to know about:
Teamwork
You know what they say- teamwork does the dream work! When you want to go far, work with a team. Each team member has something to offer, a specific role, and there’s a structure everyone respects. Excellent communication skills are essential when working as a part of a team, but they’re also necessary when doing daily tasks during everyday life. The other skills in this category include discipline, collaboration, directing others, management, goal-setting, motivation, meeting goals, negotiation, multitasking, teaching, team building, etc.
Planning
Bad planning skills can be an issue for people, but thankfully everyone can work on becoming a great planner. Although it might not go as you initially planned, you have to be prepared to create a new list of steps and techniques you’ll use to get to your goal. The skills included in this group are scheduling, analyzing issues, forecasting, development planning and predicting, metrics, strategic thinking, research, trends, budgeting, decision-making, strategic planning, analytical thinking, deadlines, etc. For each project, you should be prepared to have an idea of the steps you’ll need to take, the resources you’ll need, create a strategy, and timeline.
Physical Organization
A well-organized desk will help you tackle the day with ease! According to studies, a messy and cluttered workplace can negatively affect your productivity. You shouldn’t only focus on removing the clutter but also work hard on keeping your workplace organized so that you can easily find and reach everything you need. When you can’t find things, you’ll waste time, lose concentration, and can even get frustrated. The physical organization skills include coordination, handling details, creative thinking, task resolution, effectiveness, situational assessment, administrative tasks, and more.
Other Skills
The other planning and organizational skills you should work on are active listening, self-motivation, decision-making, taking initiative, proactivity, maintaining focus, etc.
Types of Office Clutter That Kill Your Productivity and How to Deal With Them
Paper Clutter
Paper clutter seems inevitable in offices, but believe us, you can find ways to deal with it. Poor executive functioning can become even worse when your desk and workplace are cluttered with paper, so the best way to go is to reduce it. Stop printing things unless you really need them, label your files, create a paper station with an organizer, shred all the papers you don’t need.
Supplies Clutter
If you work in an office, you probably already know that supplies are all over the place. So many pens, highlighters, notes everywhere you turn! If you want to work on your poor organization skills, taking care of the supplies clutter is a great way to start. You should find an organizer that will store all the supplies, remove the notes, clips, binders, pens that don’t work anymore, and do this at least twice a month.
Under-The-Desk Clutter
All the things that are under your desk have to go. If you have a secret box where you leave all the items that can’t fit on the desk, then you have to organize it ASAP. Start by tidying up the desk, and move all the necessities from under to on the desk. Add a few bins near you where you can store items temporarily and use them whenever you need them. Revisit the situation at least once a week.
Memory Clutter
Having a photo frame or two isn’t really a problem, but things get cramped when you have plenty of stuff on your desk that is of emotional value. Try putting things up on the wall, especially your acknowledgments, photos, drawings. Take all the items you can’t store at home or organize them in a box at work. Some people can’t decide what to pack and what to leave, so they can take out one photo the first week, and another memory the second week.
Drawer Clutter
All of us have a drawer that is solely meant for clutter and things you don’t know where to put. You can label all the things in the drawer, clean it, and organize it. Avoid just throwing things in, and at the end of a workday, tidy up the drawer quickly.
4 Ways to Improve Your Productivity and Organizational Skills
Organization is one of the eight basic executive functions together with planning, self-monitoring, task initiation, and more. Poor executive functioning can be an obstacle for people to do their best and is often present in individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Working on improving your organization capabilities will bring you so many benefits and boost your productivity. Here are four valuable tips you must try:
Use Organizers
A great office organizer can change your life! Imagine having all the essentials at one spot and not having to lose focus to desperately search for things last minute. With the Multifunctional Wooden Desk Organizer you can store and charge your phone, watch, coins, wallet, pens, glasses, and much more. If you prefer to have things on a display, then you should opt for the Multifunctional Wood Docking Station & Desk Organizer.
Time Management Apps
Poor time management skills require work, and one of the best ways to do that is through apps. Some of them are free, and most offer a membership that will give you access to advanced features. There are also numerous tools that even big companies use for communication and organizing their schedule. You can download these apps on your phone, computer and keep track of your tasks with ease.
Decide on Task Priority
Create your own system and rate tasks according to their priority. For example, you can use three levels of urgency so that you can finish the most important ones first while you’re at your best brain capacity and leave the less-urgent ones for later.
Plan Your Day
There’s nothing better than knowing how you’ll start and finish your workday! Yes, the chances are not everything will go to plan, but writing down a list of tasks that you have to tackle each day will make your life so much easier. Create a to-do list each night before going to bed, or try planning weekly. Remember to include unimportant tasks to have a complete picture, even though they might not take too much of your time.
Conclusion
Excellent planning and organization skills can take your work productivity to a whole new level. The more organized you are, the more you’ll be able to focus on your job, perform your tasks better, faster, and without feeling stressed out.
