Staying organized is essential to running a business. If you can’t stay organized, you will forget important tasks and misplace documents that can help you move your company forward. With so many tasks to complete, you can’t afford to get overwhelmed with clutter.
The key to staying organized is to develop healthy habits. Follow these five foolproof steps to get organized and stay organized no matter what.
1) Go paperless:
You might be surprised at how quickly stacks of paper pile up all around your desk. An errant receipt here and a printed report there can quickly add up and create clutter within your workspace. This clutter reduces your productivity because you end up spending more time looking for things than actually taking action on them.
Commit to going paperless this year—or at least reducing your paper consumption. You can invest in an interview scheduler so you don’t have piles of resumes on your desk and sign up for automated billing so you reduce the amount of mail you receive. Over time, your desk will become less cluttered and you can feel like you have control over your workspace.
2) Centralize your customer service:
Your customers probably reach out to you from multiple outlets. On any given day, you might field phone calls, answer emails, and respond to questions on social media. This can easily become overwhelming. Instead, look for a software tool that moves your customer service to a single location. An omni channel call center creates one place to address issues and handle all customer complaints. This enables you to solve more issues and help customers faster. Not only does this make you more organized, but it also improves the customer experience.
3) Plan your social media campaigns:
Most companies don’t create and share social media posts each day. Instead, they develop content over a period of a few days and then schedule it out for a few weeks. This allows them to dedicate a set period of time to create social content so they don’t have to worry about it in the future. The only time they check their social channels is to respond to comments and answer questions.
Consider using a social media aggregator that allows you to manage multiple accounts and schedule posts. If you’re new to the world of marketing, sign up for an introduction to business course that has a focus on promotional strategies.
4) Set up a secure password manager:
How much of your time is spent guessing at passwords and then resetting them when you can’t remember what you chose? You’re not alone. The average person has between 70-80 passwords. Many of these are repeated or have additions like numbers or symbols.
Invest in a password manager to store all of your login information. These tools provide robust password manager security, often protected with one hyper-secure password, allowing you to access all of your information from one place. Plus, with your passwords located in an easy-to-access location, you can create more complex passwords that are harder to hack into
5) Create a dedicated time to get organized and set goals:
Set aside 20 minutes each week to get organized. Some people start their Monday mornings with this period, using the time to review the work in front of them and map out the week. Other people wrap up their Fridays with the organization hour so they’re ready to start strong when they return to work on Monday. This time belongs to you and provides space to recycle unnecessary papers, delete emails, and set up your calendar. Additionally, consider using okrs software to help you review your key metrics and goals each week. This can help you stay on track with what needs to get done.
Each week, commit to taking steps to get more organized. Over time, you can watch the clutter disappear and enjoy a clean, stress-free workplace.
