Many aspects of leadership are written about, or taught about, from a very high-level perspective. Things like vision-casting, communicating, coaching, equipping, encouraging, and managing can sometimes be hard to put into practice regularly. This series of posts contains practical ideas you can implement to become a better leader.
Organization could be considered an aspect of leadership, but I'm really starting with this one because it is involved with every other aspect that I'll mention later. Many leaders are okay with not being organized simply because it's not their "gift" and they aren't good at it. Unless you have an assistant, you'll probably need to have decent organizational skills in order to increase your leadership capacity.
Here are some ideas to help you get organized:
- Read the book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity. This book provides a system you can use to organize everything you have to do in a way that helps you not stress about it. I don't use that system, but I use the principles. I have places to store everything I need to do, and don't have to worry about "dropping the ball" if I use my system well. (I put my system at the bottom for you extremely interested folks, all 2 of you). One part of this system is - if you can do it in less than 2 minutes, do it. If not, file it away for later.
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Control your technology and don't let it control you. I'm pretty bad at this, but the idea is that you can turn off your email (work offline), completely silence your phone, and avoid other distractions for blocks of time to focus on specific things. I learned this from the book Time Traps.
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If you're email inbox is part of your to-do list, be sure that you direct email that isn't work related to another folder, or place "to do" emails in a specific folder and don't mark them "read" until they're done (or you can check/uncheck them if your client has that feature).
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Store your "to do" items somewhere. A moleskine, rememberthemilk.com, the task manager in your email client, your forearm, wherever you can access it regularly.
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Use a calendar. That could be Outlook/iCal, Google Calendar, or a hard copy calendar that you write in. Record all of your meetings, or other meetings/events you need to be aware of.
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Create a filing system. Unless you digitally scan in everything you come across, you'll need a filing system to store the hard copy things you want to save. You could use a portable one but that would probably not suffice.
Bottom line, it's important to be organized in order to lead well. People aren't interested in following disorganized leaders. While it may simply be an area you aren't gifted in, it comes across as if you don't care enough to put in the work. Organized people have a way of thinking disorganized people are lazy. I'm not saying it's right, but it's reality.
My system:
I use rememberthemilk.com (RTM) for most of my tasks and projects. I have separate "lists" for bills, personal, work-tasks, work-projects, study, and a couple random ones. I put deadlines on most of them and RTM emails me when that deadline comes up. In that way, I also use may email inbox. If I can reply to an email in under a minute, I do it. If I can't, I let it sit until I have time to work on it based on how I've prioritized everything I need to do.
I use a moleskine the same way I use RTM. But, I primarily use the moleskine in meetings where I can't access RTM. I'll leave some items in the moleskine without transferring them to RTM, knowing that I check the moleskine daily and items on there are a lower priority.
I have a filing system in my desk for anything and everything I want to save. That could include staff documents, articles I like, project notes, pictures, documents, etc.
I have a PDA-phone that syncs with my Outlook Calendar which helps me stay organized while I'm away from my computer. It's great for reminding me to do things I would normally forget because I'm in the midst of something or away from my computer. It's huge for me on Sunday mornings, when I need to remember to meet people or do things at various times throughout the morning.
Everything I need to do is placed somewhere in that system, and I don't stress about it once it's there. Adopt a system that works for you, but without a system you'll probably forget things, do things incorrectly or do them inefficiently.
