Staff Training

In the last column, we explored time management focusing on two big time wasters—interruptions and procrastination. This month we will look at two time savers, organization and prioritizing, as part of overall planning.

Organization
Before you can prioritize, you must first organize. There is no one way to organize, but whatever system you choose must make sense to you. Remember the goal of organization is to find things without wasting time.

Clutter is a major time waster. Clear the clutter from your desk; discard those things that are unnecessary. Some experts suggest keeping only the papers you are working on that day on the desk, others suggest vertical files to hold all the paperwork for the week or duration of the project. Make piles, use bins, keep a recycling bin or shredder handy, and eliminate those items that clutter the desk and require you to handle them multiple times. The goal is to remove items, especially paper, that come between you and your high priority tasks. Train yourself to handle every piece of paper once. File it, act on it, or discard it.

Organize email. Move important emails into clearly marked folders, or flag them for future follow-up. By doing this, you ensure you can quickly retrieve information when needed, and maintain your inbox at a manageable size.

The most important part of organization is to make it a habit. Sort mail and email as you receive it. Delete unwanted or unnecessary emails. Organize in the morning before starting the day, or at the end of the day, to plan for tomorrow. Daily organization can take as little as five minutes and still be effective.

Prioritization
Not every task is equally important. The most important tasks move the work closer to long term goals. Prioritizing allows you to identify the most important tasks at any moment and give those tasks more of your attention, energy, and time. It allows you to spend more time on the right things.¹

Prioritization helps everyone to plan. It is a good way to ensure that deadlines are met and stress is minimized.

The first step is to make a list. Write down all the tasks or items you need to complete. For large projects, identify individual tasks that move the project forward. These should be small enough to be completed in a few days or a few hours. One source suggests keeping each task to something that can be accomplished in 1-2 hours.² Depending on application, your list may be focused on what can be accomplished in a single day, in the course of a week, or even longer.

The next step is to identify due dates. Which tasks are long-range, midrange, due next month or next week?