Stop Neglecting To Organize Your Day

Staying organized is a crucial part of effective time management. It allows you to stay focused and work efficiently. It helps you to ignore distractions and get into a state of flow. Poor organization has the opposite effects, and can thus impede your productivity. For example, if you work without a to-do list or spend the day reacting to others’ last-minute demands, you’ll find it difficult to get things done. Or if your desk is cluttered, you’ll be more susceptible to distractions. That alone can lead to an array of negative effects on your ability to get things done (we’ll discuss these in the following section). The causal relationship between disorganization and diminished productivity is universal; it affects everyone. It also has scientific support. In 2011, the Journal of Neuroscience published a study examining the cognitive effects of clutter, a common sign of general disorganization. The authors found that clutter impairs our ability to concentrate and process new information. It’s clear that being organized helps your productivity. But it may be less clear whether you’re working in that state. If you lack the benefit of ongoing feedback concerning your efficiency, you might assume your workflow is fine. This is common with people who work from home (I speak from experience). They have the freedom to work at their own pace. Lacking a feedback loop, they never realize how inefficient their work processes are. How do you know if you need to make changes to your workflow? Signs of a problem include working without a schedule, working without a to-do list and working on a cluttered desk. Other signs are subtler. For example, do you know which of the day’s tasks are high priorities and which can be postponed or eliminated? If not, you can benefit from better organization. Are you frequently interrupted or distracted? If so, your day might need more structure. In a moment, I’ll give you several ideas that will help you to become more organized. First, let’s take a closer look at the ways disorganization hobbles your ability to work productively.

How This Bad Habit Hurts Your Productivity 

Disorganization, in all its many forms, may seem harmless in the moment, especially if you’ve grown accustomed to it. For example, if your desk has always been cluttered, you might not realize the extent to which clutter impacts your ability to work. In truth, being disorganized lessens your productivity in seven ways. First, it hampers your ability to focus. You’re less able to concentrate on the task in front of you. That forces you to take more time than necessary to complete it. Second, you become more prone to distractions. Without the benefit of a concrete schedule of time blocks and breaks, guided by a clearly-defined to-do list, boredom is likely to set in. That makes you more vulnerable to the siren call of social media, email and other diversions. Third, being disorganized makes you more receptive to interruptions. When you work without a schedule or to-do list, there’s a lesser sense of urgency. Consequently, there’s a lower perceived need to drive off coworkers, friends and family members (if you work from home) who visit your office or cubicle. Fourth, distractions and interruptions carry a switching cost. I mentioned this in previous article (e.g. Days 1, 12 and 16). Each time you switch from one task to another, you lose momentum. Lost momentum takes at least 20 minutes to regain. The more complex the tasks, the greater the setback in terms of time lost. Fifth, when you’re disorganized and prone to distractions, you’re unable to achieve a flow state. Flow is being “in the zone.” It’s a state of consciousness in which you’re completely focused on the task in front of you. When you’re in a flow state, you’re more creative and productive. You’re also able to process information more effectively. Sixth, disorganization robs you of control over your day. Because you’re constantly distracted and vulnerable to interruptions, your workday is spent reacting to external stimuli. You waste precious time on Facebook and Twitter. You accept calls from friends and family members. You give full attention to coworkers who drop by your office to chat. As a result, you never truly hold the reins over your workday. Seventh, you experience more stress. The brain prefers structure. It favors organization. When you’re disorganized, you’re unable to relax because you feel as if your work is never done. The constant feeling that you’ve left work unfinished leads to guilt and anxiety. In short, mess causes stress. If your typical workday is mired in chaos, the seven negative effects above should motivate you to make changes. Here are seven ideas for giving your day more structure and thereby boosting your productivity.

Action Steps 

1.Create simple, goal-oriented to-do lists. We covered how to create effective to-do lists in Day 3. The key here is twofold. First, limit your lists to five items. The shorter, the better. Second, eliminate any tasks that fail to align with your goals. Also, create your to-do lists the night before. Don’t wait until you arrive at your office to do so. Arriving prepared will help you to start the day feeling organized.

2. Use time blocks or the Pomodoro Technique to schedule work sessions and breaks. Resist the temptation to deviate from your schedule, even if you achieve a flow state. It’s more important to develop the habit of staying organized and on task. If you work in a corporate environment, print your schedule and display it where others can see it. That way, if coworkers visit to chat, you can refer to your schedule and ask them to come back later. If you work at home or a coffee shop, have your schedule nearby. That way, it will serve as a constant reminder of the times during which you should be working.

3. Create time blocks for addressing others’ demands. People are going to interrupt you, especially in the beginning when you’re developing this new habit. At that point, you haven’t yet set the expectation that you’re unreceptive to their impromptu visits. Now’s the time to “train” them. Set aside 30 minutes in the afternoon to follow up with people who asked for your attention earlier in the day. By handling their requests in a single 30-minute window, you’ll avoid forfeiting your momentum to a string of midday interruptions. Schedule the time block toward the end of the day when your energy is waning. Then, tell anyone who visits that you’ll be happy to help them during your regularly-scheduled 30-minute time block.

4. Schedule your work sessions and breaks according to the times of day you have the most energy. Your energy levels directly impact your productivity. Don’t fight it. If you do your best work between 7:00 a.m. and noon, build your schedule around that personal sweet spot. Focus on complex tasks in the morning and leave dull tasks for the afternoon. If your energy is highest between 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., schedule your work sessions and breaks accordingly.

5. Track your time. If you’re disorganized, you’re allowing time to slip through your fingers. Tracking how you use your time will reveal ways in which you can improve. You might be surprised by the results. For example, you may find you’re spending far more time than you realized on social media. Or you might discover that coworkers’ interruptions are costing you two hours in lost time each day. Famous management consultant Peter Drucker used to say “what gets measured gets improved.” To that end, use tools like Toggl or RescueTime to measure how you use your time. Track your usage and record the results for two weeks to identify unproductive trends.

6. Say “no” to impromptu meetings. Just because there’s something to discuss doesn’t mean it must be discussed at that moment. Most items can wait. If you work in an office and your coworkers want to have an unplanned meeting, decline the request. Suggest a later time, either that day or later in the week. Do likewise if you’re self-employed and a client requests an impromptu meeting. Rather than agreeing to meet at that moment, even on the phone, suggest a later time. That will help you to keep your day organized.

7. Limit meetings to 10 minutes. And prohibit the use of chairs. Most meetings take more time than necessary. Part of the reason is because too much time is allocated for them. If an hour is set aside for a meeting, the meeting is likely to take the entire hour. Allocating 10 minutes gives participants a sense of urgency. Parkinson’s Law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” So it is with meetings. Another reason meetings go on too long is because the participants are comfortably seated. So remove the chairs. Those in attendance will be more inclined to finish the meeting early and return to their offices and cubicles, where their comfy chairs are waiting for them.