getting organized at work Archives

Jul 08

Keep Stress at Bay by Learning How to Get Organized at Work

By Sherry Borsheim Business Organizing, Home Office Organization, Organizing Paper Files, Quick Organizing Tips No Comments

Stress is quickly becoming an epidemic in North America. Today, 75 – 90 percent of all doctor visits are stress related! Conditions like high blood pressure, allergies, migraines, ulcers, bowel and skin problems and more have all been related to stress. That’s not to mention the fact that stress has been linked to all the leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis and suicide.

In addition to causing all sorts of health problems, stress also affects businesses of all sizes in lost revenue. That’s because over 60 percent of employee absences are due to psychological problems such as stress, resulting in an estimated 1 million workers that are absent on an average workday. With this in mind, job stress is estimated to cost U.S. industry $300 billion annually, as assessed by absenteeism, diminished productivity, employee turnover, direct medical, legal and insurance fees and more.

With all this in mind, now, more than ever, is the time to protect your health and business by dealing with stress effectively. One way to do that is through organization.

Sitting down at a cluttered desk can immediately increase your stress level before the workday has even begun. And we all know that this is not the time of the day to start taking on additional stress. That will happen easily enough throughout the course of your day. The start of each day is the time to feel fresh and confident in your ability to make progress on your daily tasks. This feeling of purpose comes easily with an organized workspace. Clutter, on the other hand, washes all good intentions away in confusion and stress, and sets the tone for the rest of the workday.

How is it that a few stacks of disorganized paper can create a mass of stress in just minutes? It’s because clutter is actually postponed decisions. Each piece of paper on your desk represents something that you haven’t taken care of yet, which adds to your level of stress. Going unchecked, these paper molehills can become mountains of stress, leaving you completely overwhelmed. By this point, you may not even know where to start the organizing process.

Worse yet, the greater the stacks of paper, the greater chance there is for you to miss something important. Perhaps you misplaced a critical document that is needed for a meeting just minutes away, or you forgot about a bill that is past-due, or, you could even lose track of where you are on a significant project with an immediate completion deadline looming.

Here are a few tips for reducing stress by learning how to get organized at work:

1. Reduce clutter using the FAST System (There are only 4 options when it comes to paper – File, Act, Schedule, Toss).
2. Delegate tasks when appropriate – you don’t have to do everything
3. Don’t over schedule. Leave time free in your calendar for the unexpected and perhaps for a break now and then.

When you learn how to get organized at work, you can put an end to the stress caused by clutter and lack of organization. Each piece of paper is dealt with once and then filed, scheduled or acted on accordingly. You are left with more free time, because you’re able to get things done in less time. You are also able to focus on your goals and priorities, delegate projects clearly and effectively, and generally be on top of your game. This will relieve a great deal of stress, while creating a real feeling of empowerment and pride in your accomplishments.

If you are interested in learning more ways we can help you get organized at work, click here now.!

Jul 05

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The Secrets to Organizing Microsoft Outlook – Contact Categories

By Sherry Borsheim Blog, Business Organizing, Home Office Organization, Organizing Microsoft Outlook No Comments

Microsoft Outlook is a powerful productivity tool, when used correctly. When you aren’t sure how or why to use Outlook, it can be a source of frustration and anxiety! This article is part of a series of articles that will help you on your journey to organizing your Microsoft Outlook.

Categories are a way to group certain contacts together. Using categories makes it easier to find, sort and filter your contacts. For example, you receive a new email from someone you want to add to your contact List. Typically, you would add all their contact information. I suggest that you take it a step further and select a category for the contact, like Vendor, Client, Prospect, Advertising, Resource, Family, Personal, etc. Microsoft Outlook already has a list of categories in the Master Category List. You can add, change or delete any of these categories to suit your unique situation.

Why you should organize Microsoft Outlook Contacts

There are a several reasons for categorizing your contacts. Firstly, you can drag and drop an entire category or several categories over to your Inbox and all the email addresses will automatically appear in the To: field of your message. Make sure you cut and paste these email addresses into the BCC field before you send the email (this is to comply with privacy laws, as well as common courtesy). Secondly, it groups and organizes your contacts for easy retrieval. A group of contacts can easily be selected for a mail merge. Categories are also useful for those times when you export your Contacts into other programs.

The most important reason to categorize your contacts is to help you stay on top of your follow-up. In any business, the fortune is in the follow-up! Categorizing your contacts streamlines your marketing and follow-up efforts. You will also be able to easily sort, filter and print contacts by one or more categories.

For example, create a category called “Prospect” and flag it for follow-up on a specific day, or create an appointment from within the contact and select the date you want to follow up on that valuable lead. You could also create a category for different events that you have (a product launch, fundraisers, Christmas party, grand openings, products customers purchase, etc.). After the event you could sort your contacts by the category and show your appreciation by following-up with a thank you card to each person who attended the event.

How to use Microsoft Outlook Contact Categories:

My three step process when creating your initial categories

1. Plan your categories on paper first

2. Create the new categories in the Master Category List

3. Assign Contacts to the appropriate category or categories

Creating categories:

1. Select Categories from the Edit menu

2. Click Master Category List

3. Type a category name in the New category box

4. Click Add

5. Follow steps 3 and 4 to create additional categories

6. Click OK twice

Assigning a category when creating an item:

1. With the item open, click Categories (in an email click Options, Categories)

2. In the Available categories list, click on the boxes next to the applicable category or categories

3. Click OK

Assigning a category to an existing item:

1. Select the item

2. Click Categories on the Edit menu

3. In the Available categories list, click on the boxes next to the applicable category or categories

4. Click OK

A few quick Time-Saving Tips

1. You can assign several categories to one contact. For example, you may have a client who is in your Client category, as well as you Christmas Card List category.

2. When you export your contacts to other database programs, make sure you export the Category field. The category will map over into the new database and save you data entry time.

3. When you receive emails that are new leads it is important that you create a system to follow-up. Whatever your situation, categories and follow-up is critical to an effective contact list.

Taking the time to organize Microsoft Outlook by planning and creating your categories today will save you time and money tomorrow!

Jul 01

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How to be Organized at Work – The FAST Way!

By Sherry Borsheim Business Organizing, Home Office Organization, Inspiration, Organizing Paper Files, Quick Organizing Tips No Comments

Paper clutter is one of the biggest complaints people have about their workspaces. Reports to read, junk mail to sort, bills to pay, it can get absolutely overwhelming! This article outlines a proven method for tacking your paper clutter once and for all.

There are only FOUR things you should do with paper: File, Act, Schedule or Toss. The acronym F.A.S.T. will help you remember the steps to dealing with paper clutter. As you paper comes into your office, keep the F.A.S.T. principle in mind and sort it accordingly.

FILE

Reference items are placed in a tray labeled TO FILE.

Filing is done on a daily or weekly basis, depending on the volume of material you accumulate.

You should be able to find anything you file or store in 5 seconds or less! If you can’t, you need to set up a system for your filing. There are many professional organizers who teach people how to be organized at work and many of them have developed effective filing systems. Find a filing system that works for you and USE it!

ACT

Items that require action are placed in your Tickler File System to be acted on later.

There are two components to a good tickler file system. Part of the system includes an accordion file with tabs for each day of the month (1-31) and each month of the year (Jan-Dec), followed by a tab for Future Years. The other part of your tickler system is made of individual folders labeled for specific and repetitive actions, such as:

Call

Calls Expected – a folder to put notes in for calls you are waiting for.

Data Entry – a place to put business cards and other things that need to be entered into your computer.

Discuss – a folder to put notes in for weekly meetings with the same person, or if you meet with several people weekly, you may have individual folders with their names on them.

Errands – a folder to hold coupons, shopping lists, claim receipts, etc.

Pay – a place to put your bills until they are paid.

Photocopy

Read

Receipts or Expense Reimbursement – a place to store your receipts until you submit them.

Write – a place to store thank-you cards, postage stamps, return address labels, letterhead.

SCHEDULE

Items to schedule in your planner (you can use a paper planner or electronic planner, whatever works best for you).

Write all pertinent information in your planner (Example – name of person, event, location, phone number, etc.)

File the paper in your tickler system for that particular day or toss it.

TOSS

…..
Items which do not enhance your life can be immediately tossed! (NOTE: “Toss” means “get it out of here.” One form of tossing is to give it to someone else who would find it useful.)

Ask yourself these questions to determine whether or not to toss something:

By the time I might need this, will it be out-of-date?

Do I want/choose to keep this? (Notice that I did not ask if you “should” keep it.)

If I need it later, can I easily get it elsewhere?

Is it obsolete now?

Is it too late to do this?

Does anyone else care if I keep this? (Based on how important that person is to you, you may choose to keep something – such as an ugly family heirloom that does not fit your decor – because of its value to someone else.)

For bills already paid, am I keeping them just because, or is there any benefit to keeping them? Consider the following:

If you own your own business, keeping the bill for business expenses will be helpful if you get audited and need to prove legitimate expenses.

If these are personal bills that are not tax-deductible, identify if there is any benefit to keeping them.

You can deduct medical bills if they total a certain percentage of your income for the year. For most people, medical bills are not deductible because the percentage is too low.

Keeping the bill itself will not prove that you paid it. If you pay by check or electronically, you have a paper or electronic trail to prove that you’ve paid the bill.

If you are keeping bills to help you with your budget process, you may benefit from using a software program to help track your expenses. Once you enter the data into your program, you may not find any benefit to keeping the bills themselves.

Using the FAST system is a great start on your way to learning how to be organized at work. You will gain control of your paper clutter which will allow you to be more productive with less stress!