Getting Organized
One trait of an effective manager is the ability to stay organized, both with personal as well as team projects. Good organization, the ability to properly track tasks and manage work load are all important skills. These can be learned! Below are a variety of topics, tools and advice on how to get organized:
Filing
Good, ole simple manila folders, in a good filing cabinet can work wonders to get you organized. Creating a simple, alphabetical filing system is easy. Just start to label with folders alphabetically with names that make sense according to the information you need to file. All you will need are plenty of manilla folders, a cabinet, and a good pen or labeller. Here are some tips that may help you to file better:
- track your files online with a simple excel sheet. Two columns are all that's needed: file name, and file contents. Update this document periodically. Sometimes, after filing something (once your filing system is large enough), you might have trouble recalling where you filed a particular document. This excel sheet can help find what you need.
- buy a decent filing cabinet
- labelling is key; think of specific rather than vague categories for labels
- create subcategories by starting to label with a specific noun, and coupling it with another word (ie. "Sloan: 15.990", "Sloan: 15.390", etc.)
GTD: Getting Things Done
Getting Things Done, or GTD, is a popular organization method created by David Allen, and popularized in his book "Getting Things Done."
Email - Inbox control
Here's an idea, try to challenge yourself to maintain your email inbox to zero emails. Practical advice on how to do this:
- file incoming emails immediately
- delete a lot - many emails are not really needed - read them and delete!
- reaply immediately if you can reply quickly
- stop checking email every 2 minutes. This is quite unproductive; limit to once every 30 minutes if possible.
Gmail
Consider centralizing all your mail accounts with Gmail. The best thing about Gmail is its search function...you can archive all your emails and search for them quickly and easily. Of course, Gmail can also be coupled with GTD methodology - in fact, there's a firefox extension built to layer on top of Gmail a complete GTD filing system. (see: http://www.gtdgmail.com)