Ready to take on your new position as a manager, lead or supervisor of a team? Excel in your role by proving to yourself and others that you are worthy of efficiently managing a team. If you haven’t yet refined your organisational skills, check out the following 7 organising tips for new leaders to deliver set tasks and projects to its greatest efficiency.
To-do lists
From school children to CEO’s, to-do lists are the most well-known and effective way to keep track of your tasks. Its purpose is not only to remind you on what is due to be completed, but also keeps a track on tasks that are already done. For an effective to-do list that will have a greater likability to be followed and maintained, ensure that the list isn’t too long as it may appear unattainable to complete. Rather, split the list into three sections of priority. The first category are tasks that can be completed instantly and only take a matter of a few minutes such as phone calls and answering emails. The second category include tasks that can be completed relatively quickly but may take until the end of the day to complete such as reviewing documentation. The third are large scale projects that will enable business growth.
The use of physical material such as sticky notes and notebooks are a more effective way of maintaining a to-do list as it is separate from the clutter of open tabs and windows, programs and software on computer desktops and applications of smartphones.
Emails
To most managers, responding to emails may be seen as an impossible feat when being bombarded with emails every morning. Thus, it is critical to clean out your inbox by deleting emails that are of no importance, to quickly distinguish important emails to refer to.
Relocating emails in specific and defined folders is also an effective approach to organising emails. It is also critical to respond to each email as soon as possible and not delay the time to answer the email, as it may be left forgotten and may be more important than at first glance.
‘Me’ time
Out of all the hustle to attend to your team’s needs, it is also crucial to keep on top of your own tasks as well. Physically turn away all distractions including your email, phone and even your own team members and devote solid time to completing your tasks. This block-out period should also exclude scheduling meetings and calls, to reorganise yourself from being constantly pulled into different directions – even secluding yourself into a room if you must, to finish the task without interruptions.
Meetings:
When scheduling one-on-one meetings with clients or employees, ensure to book each person one after the other, as opposed to scattering the meetings throughout the week. This will allow you to keep track of time to be available to meet the next client. During the meeting, increase productivity by setting an agenda beforehand and discussing with the client the objective of the meeting and when wrapping up, discussing the action items that will need to be achieved during the next meeting.
Workspace
A cluttered and disorganised work desk simply calls for unproductivity! Ensure that all paperwork is filed or removed if no longer necessary or recorded in a digital format. Further, be minimalistic with stationary and items on your desk to not provoke procrastination and distraction.
Handling tasks
Be sure to not multitask because that will only delay the number of tasks to be completed! Once you receive an email, task, or any piece of paper or documentation, don’t linger and consider tending to it later. Act straight away – respond to the email, complete the task, file the documentation!
Communication tools
Using tools and applications are the best way to keep yourself and your team on track of tasks and be aware on what needs to be achieved. Productivity tools such as Asana, Trello and Wunderlist are effective task allocator platforms that show all members of the team their accountability of tasks. Further, communication platforms such as Slack, HipChat and Gmail’s chat box are simple tools to enhance responsiveness and clutter are horror stories evident in emails.
Emma Lewis is a loving mother, a devoted wife and a part of the team supporting Spacer – a company helping you find storage space whenever you need it. Emma is also a staunch supporter of the sharing economy and often mentions its benefits.
