Whether it’s your work life or personal life, the key to getting everything done is having a clear plan and some good habits. Let’s look at some habits of highly organised individuals:

 

Write it down

It may be tempting to rely on your memory, but I assure you, writing it down will guarantee that you’ll remember.

It doesn’t matter if you choose a to-do list (digital or paper), or you plug it into your calendar (again, digital or paper), all that matters is that you’ll see it.

Check out some of these digital to-do list ideas:

• Asana
• Trello
• Monday
• Todoist
• TickTick
• Google Tasks
• Microsoft To-Do
• Workflowy
• ClickUp
• Dynalist
• TaskPaper
• Things
• OmniFocus
• Apple Reminders

 

Implement (and stick to) Routines

Developing daily routines can help because our brains are hardwired to love routines. If parts of your week are slow, that time is perfect for catching up on tasks or activities before they become overdue. This will balance your week and you’ll feel more organised.

Routines go further than just work or personal tasks, though. Routines can, and should, include sleeping and exercising, as well.

 

Speaking of Sleep and Exercise

A lack of sleep can have detrimental effects on our health, and could possibly lead to high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, heart failure, or diabetes, among a myriad of other potential problems. Going to bed at the same time every day will help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. By aiming for 7-9 hours of sleep each night, you’ll avoid feeling unproductive and lethargic, as well as avoid many of the aforementioned issues.

As for exercise, like it or hate it, by doing it as early in your day as you can, you’ll increase oxygen and nutrients to your tissues, and improve how your cardiovascular system operates. By improving your lung and heart health, you’ll have more energy to tackle regular daily chores/tasks. Plus, exercise can increase focus, enabling you to get even more done, faster.

 

Prepare the Night Before

Mornings are hard enough without running around the house looking for items you need for your day. By taking some time the night before to gather and prepare, your mornings will be far less frustrating and manic. Ideas to implement this: 

• pack your lunch
• gather work/school supplies
• pull something out of the freezer for dinner
• set the coffeemaker
• lay out your outfit for the following day
• put your grocery list next to your keys

 

Break up Intimidating Tasks

As the saying goes, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

Any task can feel overwhelming if it contains many complex tasks and steps. By breaking the task up into small, more manageable tasks, it won’t seem quite so intimidating, and you’ll feel more productive as you tick another item off your list.

Likewise, if you are working with deadlines of any sort. Start with your deadline and work backward, listing what tasks need to be done by a week, month or more, before that deadline. This essentially creates mini-deadlines but makes the project easier to work with.

 

I hope these suggestions help you to become more organised. What would you add to this list? Let me know at shirley@virtualofficebox.com.

 

 

What tasks could you outsource to a Virtual Assistant?

This exercise will help you to identify what tasks you currently manage within your business.

By categorising them, you can identify areas that you really could outsource, which would save you time and money in your business.