Becoming a more organized person can help you in many ways. Being organized is crucial to being on time, being more productive, and becoming more efficient, all of which, are essential elements for running a business.
If you are your own boss, then it is vital to understand how to be more organized. It will help you control your business in a stress-free manner and hopefully, help you gain greater success.
Here are the best ways to become more organized as a business owner.
Organize your work setup
Whether you work at a desk or play guitar for audiences, having an intentional setup will ensure that you can be as organized as possible while working. Putting things back where they belong and tidying up are pretty obvious ways of keeping things organized.
A great tool to have at your side, no matter what industry you work in, is a cable tidy. At Singular Sound, you can find cable tidies to help keep your wires free of tangles and well organized. This ensures that your desk, guitar setup, or presentation screens are always mess-free. A tidy space equals a tidy mind, which will help you become more productive and focused.
Integrate your devices
You might own several devices to run your business; perhaps a tablet, a computer, and a phone. By integrating your devices you can access all files and data that you need no matter what device you are using at the moment. Should you leave behind your tablet or run out of battery on your phone, then you can rely on another device to help you with whatever business task it is that you need to do.
Write down your plans and goals
You should have your own goal or a plan of action to help you attain your desired level of success. Although it can help to have this goal and plan clear in your mind, it will become clearer and more organized if you write it down.
The benefit of writing down your goals is that you can understand whether they are realistic. Likewise, it will help you untangle primary and secondary goals (something I promote for moms, as well as businesses owners, in From Procrastinating to Productive Mama), which will help your goal become clearer. From there, you can write a more specific plan, which will help you achieve your goal.
Write daily to-do lists
Speaking of business plans, every business owner has a to-do list. Although it is useful to have a long-term to-do list, it will benefit you if you break the tasks down and dedicate certain days to them. Hence, a daily to-do list will help you run through each task and devote sufficient time to it. Ultimately, these daily tasks should help you complete your longer list of things to do. A to-do list is a great business organization tip, which will help you stay on top of your tasks and work productively and meaningfully.
Use whatever to-do list works best for you! If you are a paper planner, check out Planner Pads or Tula XII. I am a devoted Artful Agenda user and make use of their features to both prioritize my lists AND easily move items forward or even make them recurring tasks.
Hire a virtual assistant
Whether you run your business alone or have a team behind you, it often helps to have that one extra pair of hands to help with daily admin. Hence, hiring a virtual assistant is a great call if you want to become the most organized business owner.
Virtual assistants are sometimes more beneficial than an in-office assistant, as they can work around you and your time, without getting in the way. You can send off tasks to complete through email or an online work platform and they complete the tasks in your specified time fram.
Hiring a virtual assistant means that you won’t have to hire a full-time assistant, as many will offer freelance/flexible hours, so you gain extra help and become more organized, but without spending too much money.
Set task times and set alarms
Business owners commonly spend far too long on certain tasks in order to perfect them, but at the expense of OTHER tasks! It’s unrealistic to work all hours to try and dedicate the same time and dedication to each task.
Therefore, it is a good idea to set timers for each task. Not every task will take the same amount of time, so go through your set tasks and align them with the realistic amount of time needed to complete them. Having set times will help you structure your workflow and become more efficient.
You will soon learn how to juggle your time and work the right amount of hours, all while being more organized and getting more done each day. If it helps, set alarms so that you do not run over your time.
I recommended occasionally tracking your time to get an idea of how long tasks REALLY take so you can consider hiring help or outsourcing some tasks. OR to be able to give better quotes for contracted work.
Plan leisure time
Finally, the most essential part of being a business owner is understanding how to create a healthy work-life balance. It can be difficult when you have more than one role to fulfill. You might need to run the production line as well as the social media platforms.
However, it is essential to relax and take time off so that you can rejuvenate your energy. If you work endlessly, then you will eventually burn out and lack the motivation or passion to work as hard as possible. This sometimes contributes to procrastination, so I really encourage scheduling in your down time in From Procrastinating to Productive Mama!
Having leisure time will help you reset and when you do work, you will work to your full potential.