5 Tips On How To Be More Organized and Productive

Here I am talking about the tasks that you don’t like to do. We all know that we always find time for the things we like to do, and for the things that are truly important for us. So, what do we do with the ones that we just don’t like? We normally postpone them, hoping that maybe tomorrow it will not be necessary to do them anymore. Most of the time this is not true. It could be something at work that your boss asked you to do, or something in your personal life. You always wanted to lose those 10 extra kilograms, but you never “find” the time to start on a healthier life style. Your office is a mess, but you never “find” the time to clean your desk and organize all your files. Your invoice is long overdue, but you don’t seem to “find” the time to look over your finances and create a plan on how to pay it. We all have something there, I get it, I have it too.

Have you noticed that when you don’t want to do something, you have the tendency of postponing it? Have you asked yourself why? Why do you postpone things you don’t like? Imagine you had to do something important at work this week, something that you were not very keen on it, and you postponed it so long, that it got to Friday and now you have to go home. You did a lot of other good things at work, but will you think about the 99% things you did good at work, or about that 1% of the thing that you did not do? Because postponing, it doesn’t always imply forgetting.

Why Do We Postpone Things We Don’t Like?

There are plenty of reasons why people postpone things they don’t like to do: it could be the illusion of being too busy, or that you lost the vision for it, or you lost your passion for your work, or it can make you feel uncomfortable, and the list can go on. I have a fear of speaking in public. In my job, I have to go to conferences and make presentations 2 or 3 times per year. This drains my energy. I always say that I will make my presentations long before the deadline and practice at least 1 month before the actual conference. But guess what? I always postpone doing it, and I always end up preparing the presentation the evening before, or even on the day of my presentation sometimes.

Why is it important to be organized?

Because if you don’t manage to organize your time, someone else will do it for you. If you don’t organize yourself, then someone else will come over, and take up your time. Your time is the most valuable asset you have. So, why let someone else, or something else than what you want and what is important for you, take over? Every vacuum space has tendency to be filled by air. Same with your time as well.

A second reason for why you should organize yourself, is that if you don’t do so, you will never know what and how much you are losing. For example, if you own a company, and you don’t organize your expenses, will you know at the end of the moment how much money you lost? Same in private life as well. I do that all the time. I did actually. Until I decided (I took action) to create an excel file and keep track of all my expenses. Now I know exactly how much money comes in and goes out and I can plan accordingly.

So, here the 5 tips you will need in order to succeed on increasing your level of productivity and being organized:

1. Be aware of the Parkinson’s Law, which states that work expands to fill the time allotted. This means, that every chore/activity you do, it will take the time you are willing to spend on it. Has it ever happened to you to have a 5 weeks ahead deadline on a project, but still never started to work on it until the last 2-3 days? This happened to me (and still happens from time to time), especially when I had to study for my exams during my bachelor and master studies. It happens even now, during my PhD sometimes. I used to make a very elaborate plan for the 5 weeks period of studying, but always postponed it until 3 days before the exam. Then the stress is at it’s peak. When we have projects with longer deadlines, there is no urge to finish, or even start earlier.
2. Find out how you work. People have two tendencies: either they are running of something, or they are running towards something. Are you the type of person who likes to avoid the clutter or the type of person that likes to clean the clutter? What motivates you? Are you the type that likes to work under stress or the one that wants to avoid stress at all costs?
3. Delegate the tasks you don’t like to do. Ask yourself: is this something that someone else can do it for me? If the answer is yes, then don’t waist your energy doing that. Use your energy on doing the tasks that are really important to you. If you don’t have an exact passion for cleaning the house, could you afford to pay someone to do it for you? If yes, then go for it. Take it off your list. If not, then maybe is there something you could do to avoid it? If you are in a relationship, talk to your partner, and see which tasks you can delegate among yourself, and which you need to do together.
4. Have an “essential” approach when it comes to your tasks. Let me explain. Again, people have two tendencies: either they think that all things/tasks are essential, or that most of the things/tasks are non-essential. Which one of them are you? Those who think that most of the tasks are not essential, manage to keep focus on their main goal. It is important not to get yourself lost in too many activities. Someone wise said that in order for you to say YES to an extraordinary opportunity, you will have to say NO to many good opportunities.
5. Learn how to manage your time better. Here, actually, I could better say, learn how to manage yourself. If you master that, then time management will be a peace of cake. Because it is you who has control over your time, not the time over you. Learn how to manage yourself first. If there are things/tasks/activities that you are not fond of doing, but still you cannot delegate them, then put them first on your priority list. Start with the things that you don’t like, and you will be more motivated to do the rest. And the satisfaction will come.

Now, remember what I always say: just reading this lines will not help you change anything in your life as long as you don’t take ACTION. So, this week, try to delegate 1 of the tasks that you don’t like to someone else, and see how that makes you feel. Do you have more energy to do the rest of the things that you actually like?

If you love your life, don’t live it waisting your time.