Lessons Learned in How to Stay Organized in a Fast-Paced Environment
By Veronica Baginski
After I graduated from college, I was immersed in the fast-paced environment of the grocery industry. Every week there was a new project or target we needed to focus on. Over the years and through several jobs, I learned ways to keep organized between my work and personal life. Hopefully there is one item here you will find useful to help you stay organized.
I journal my tasks for work every day.
Am I perfect at it? Absolutely not! But I make it a priority to take notes to stay organized with projects and tasks. Journaling is not a new idea but there are a few things I do to make the notes easy to find.
I use a physical journal because the process of writing information allows me to recall the information more easily.
I start every day with a new page with the date written at the top, even if the page from the previous day only has one or two lines used. This helps when I must reference a previous meeting quickly, I can scan the tops of the pages to find the date.
When I start a meeting, I underline the title of the meeting to mark in the journal that the information below came from a meeting. At the end of the meeting, I draw a wavy line across the page to mark that all the information above was from the meeting. This differentiates the notes so I can remember what was discussed in a meeting.
I skip lines to make information easier to read and to separate one task from another.
I have running to do lists for each project I am working on.
This makes tasks for projects easy to see. It’s a great visual to help prioritize what needs to be done that day. I prefer to keep the work lists on physical paper at the office and keep the personal projects in the notes app on my phone.
I block off time on my calendar to get my personal projects completed.
This sounds more intense than it is. Usually, it’s a simple 30-minute block with a calendar alert for the approximate time I will get home. In the notes of the calendar event, I copy from my digital list what I need to accomplish when I get home. I only do this for things that I always forget to do or for something that has to be completed that night.
I always have scrap paper nearby for quick reminders or taking note of something a colleague needs from me.
Any email that I don’t need to reference or doesn’t have follow up to gets filled away in a folder in outlook. It keeps my inbox clutter free and is an easy reminder of who/what needs a response. If I sent them the necessary information, I keep the email in the inbox until I receive a response or the task has been complete.
