#11: TOP ORGANIZATION TIPS & TRICKS 📝
How to stay organized and be put together at work
“I love how organized you are!”
Both of my last managers have said.
But I wasn’t always that way.
It took some trial and error to clean up all my clutter from corporate.
I used to have my agenda to the left of my computer, a physical notebook and pen to the right, sticky notes all over my desk and my computer, and OneNote on my desktop.
Which, if that works for you, that’s great.
But I eventually lost track of which notes I put where.
I had to streamline my systems.
So now I present to you: My top tips to stay organized at work - what’s worked for me!
Use Microsoft OneNote
If you’re not using OneNote, you are in for a TREAT! I use it as my digital notebook where I store practically everything: my to-do’s, my meeting notes, links and passwords, accomplishments, email drafts.
You can create section tabs that run at the top of your notebook (ex. mine include “To-do’s”, “Meetings”, “Reference”, “Personal”, etc.) and then under each tab create individual page tabs.
It’s super versatile: You can highlight text, add check boxes, add in pictures and screenshots, put in tables, and even draw!
The great thing about digitizing your notes is that you don’t have to frantically flip through a physical notebook if you’re trying to find that one note from 45 meetings ago - instead, you can simply use the search bar to find what you need. 🙌
I also like to put a reminder in my calendar once a month to back it up: I download the whole thing as a PDF and then email it to myself.
✅ Make an agenda for 1:1’s with your manager
Weekly meetings with my managers became way more efficient because of this 1 thing: making an agenda.
When I wrote everything down that I wanted to cover with my manager, my 1:1’s became way more effortless.
Instead of me asking every single question out loud, they could simply read it off my agenda and then answer it aloud. The introvert in me was happier.
You can either create a Word doc with a running agenda list and attach the link in the meeting invite, or email an agenda to your manager before each meeting.
In this agenda, have a few main categories. One option is by status (ex. “In Progress, Completed” ), or the other option is by the categories of your work projects. I would also include a “Questions” and an “Other” section, for miscellaneous questions, upcoming PTO dates, etc.
📁 Create folders for your inbox
Client emails, team emails, spam emails, company emails, etc etc…too many emails!
To organize your inbox better, you can create different folders and then set up rules to AUTOMATICALLY forward emails into that folder instead of hitting your main inbox.
For example, I created a folder that receives all the emails from the company’s communications team to. It’s a nice bank that I can go back to and read when I have time.
Here’s a video on creating rules:
If your company uses Gmail, you can also set up rules.
🗓 Color coordinate meetings on your calendar
This is for the ones who have an eye for aesthetics. Me personally? I’m a little too lazy for this one. But I figured I’d add it since I know it helps some folks.
💻 Dock the peek
I love this cool little hack - you can put your calendar in the sidebar of your main Outlook window, so you don’t have to keep constantly switching tabs over to your calendar.
Here’s a tutorial:
🌐 Bookmark websites sans logo
Everyone uses bookmarks on their browser, but I recently saw someone only have icons as their bookmarks and thought it was genius - you can just have the default website logos stand alone. Why write out the whole name when you already recognize the logo? Now I have room for more bookmarks! 🙌
Health & Wealth ☕️
Too Good to Go: the latest foodie’s app
If you’re not already aware, I’m a big foodie. I mean, who isn’t?
A friend recently reminded me about the app Too Good to Go, which partners with local businesses such as bakeries and restaurants to eliminate food waste.
How does it work?
Businesses put surplus food in Surprise Bags and offer it at a heavily discounted price.
Check if Too Good to Go is partnering with businesses in your city!
Career Inbox 📩
Got a career question you’d like me to answer in a future post? (Ex. How do I do salary research? How do I negotiate an offer? What questions do I ask at the end of an interview?) Drop them in my inbox below!
Thanks for reading! 😊
Hope you enjoyed this article of 9 to Thrive!
Hit the reply button if you want to write me an email, and I’ll respond back!
Until next time, stay healthy, wealthy, and wise!
Sincerely,
Sarena