The “organization” topic can sometimes feel like something that was hammered home a little too aggressively in … middle school? Meaning that all the little tips and tricks were gracefully put by the wayside. Then, years and years later you find yourself short on time, digging for a client’s contract and forgetting to follow up. Suddenly, organization tips sound a whole lot more meaningful. With that said, here’s a little music to the ears of those struggling in the organization department:, “Here are a few of our favorite organizational tips and tricks”:

Schedule Your Day Wisely

Everyone has the same amount of time … using your time as best as possible is what will separate you from others. Make it an absolute priority to schedule your priorities (yes, “priority” is big here) - and do so ahead of time so you aren’t deciding what to work on while already caught up in the day and likely already worn out from making decisions. Be sure to include time each day for finishing tasks required to close for current clients, and prospecting for new clients.

To Do Items

This may sound obvious, but when you are in the thick of chaos it’s not always as obvious as it may seem. You should at MOST be having to look at your calendar, email, CRM (if separate) and one source of to do items to know what you are doing for the day. If you have scattered pieces of paper, notes on your phone and notebooks floating around in ADDITION to the above mentioned, there is no way you can seamlessly know what you are doing for the day, let alone know what is a priority! Try using a single notebook, dated each time you start a new day, or a simple online tool like Trello or Basecamp.

Email Mindfully

Email is a slippery slope. Dive into emails and there goes valuable time in the blink of an eye. Don’t open emails and there is a pile up large enough to want to avoid opening email forever … Instead, try the one-time email open strategy. When you check your emails (preferably only at certain times of the day so you aren’t hung up on emails all day), try to open each and resolve. By opening and resolving, it doesn’t mean you are having to drop everything and do what the email requires instantaneously - it just means immediately choosing an action-oriented option. To do this, open up an email and quickly either delete (or the safer option, archive), respond back if it would take less than 30 seconds of your time, delegate to the correct person, or add a to-do item on your own list for later. When you do this, you keep emails from piling up in an unmanageable way, and likely have less of a pile up than you think when you sort accordingly by your types of action. Having a few to-do items written down is a lot less daunting then 100 unopened emails! 

Maximize Your Workspace

By this, we mean both physically and digitally - equally important in very different ways.

Have a dedicated workspace even if you work from home - even a basket where your supplies go is better than nothing. If you do have an official desk, limit items on the desk, and especially limit papers. One tip is the “touch things once” rule. If something is put on your desk - when you pick it up you need to scan, file, whatever you need to do to be done with that piece of paper - no more shuffling back and forth! (And going to go out on a limb here and say try to NOT keep paper files. Everything is easier if paper is scanned and kept online!)

You should also be able to get to digital files in just a couple clicks. Only use your computer’s desktop for temporary file storage - try to make sure you are always ultimately filing them away in actual folders (and preferably in an online capacity)! 

Aim to have all information on every client in a single place - including your conversations, you don’t want to have to go digging for clues for your own interactions! 

Absolutely Use a CRM 

For those unfamiliar, CRM stands for “Customer Relationship Management”, and it’s truly what it sounds like. When you first start out and only have a few relationships to manage it feels like second nature. As time goes on though, it’s impossible to keep track of old clients, new leads, potential prospects … the list goes on and on, and keeping up with it any other way than a tried and true CRM might be close to impossible. The options are so endless for what type of CRMs you could use, we aren’t going to go into that - however, here and here are some lists of potential options to look into.

Automate Marketing As Much as Possible

Work small chunks of time into your schedule to get your marketing set up in an automated way. Once you do this, you can spend a little time each month making sure everything is set up for  for at least a month out - that way, you are DONE with an entire part of your business for the day. By automating your marketing you can schedule out emails to prospects, social media posts and more all without having to actively take time out of each day to manage that process.