Top 5: How You Know You’re Unorganized
Happy Monday, friends! We are all working hard at Brown & Meyers, preparing for the busy week ahead. It is a Monday ritual of mine to look through my upcoming calendar for the week and make sure that I am prepared for every meeting and job that we’re starting.
This takes a lot of discipline, as organization does not come naturally to me. In fact, I had reached a breaking point – I literally couldn’t find anything, which is ridiculous when you run a document management company. I don’t want anyone to be in my previous situation, so I compiled a list of things to look for so you can reverse any bad habits!
Here are my top five pointers to look for if you think you might need an organizational intervention:
1) It takes you more than 10 minutes to search for a file: This is a huge waste of time, as you know. Imagine how many times a day you need to access information that you then have to search for. You’re essentially getting paid to watch your productivity decrease, which in the end, doesn’t work out well.
2) The words “I’m not sure, let me get back to you” are part of your daily vocabulary.
3) You’ve ever missed a meeting with a client: There is no excuse for missing meetings with anyone, or even being late. With so many electronic organizational tools out there, you have no reason to forget something. We use our email calendars to keep ourselves up to date. We set reminders so even if something does slip our minds, we are reminded!
4) You’ve had to have something recreated: You know the expense of having something done the first time, like a presentation – whether you did it yourself or not. So imagine having to do it twice? Only this time as a “rush” order!
5) You’ve ever missed a deadline: Take this opportunity to go through every step of the process that you have in place, and figure out what went wrong. Was there a communication breakdown? Was something being held up on your end because you didn’t follow through? It is important to keep your clients and your supervisor as up to date as possible in the event that you need to ask for more help or an extension on the project.
How do I keep myself from making these mistakes? I stay organized. Through the help of the calendar, that I mentioned earlier, and the scanning and indexing that we do here. At the end of the day, the only paper I should have on my desk is handwritten to-do notes for the next day. Having everything organized and at my fingertips has really increased my productivity, and helped streamline a workflow.
How can something as simple as document scanning improve your company’s productivity? Think about it! How much easier would it be if everything you needed to meet with a client was something you could just print, rather than find, maybe?
