I recently listened to a TED talk about creativity and one particular sentence stuck with me: “Write what you know about.” Well, I know how to be and stay organised. My colleagues are jokingly saying it’s in my genes. I’m German after all.
It makes me laugh. I wished it was that easy to explain. In this blog, I’ll share some of my own struggles (yes, there are times when my dining table has papers laying all over it) and also provide tips and trick which will help you have an organised life and mind.
At work, I’ve often been told I’ve high expectations or I’m trying to be perfect. Now, anyone who knows me also knows that I’m by no means a perfectionist. The high standards, maybe, I like a job to be done well and yes, I expect a certain level, fair enough. However, I’ve also learnt that I’ve only so much time in the day and at some stage, it’s good enough.
Many of you may be in a similar situation that you’re working with limited resources. My corporate job covers 3 continents and it’s exhausting, no matter how rewarding working with all these different cultures is. My team has gone through redundancies last year and I’m very grateful for still having my job. However, it means there’re fewer resources available and I don’t even need to ask about getting an admin helping me with filing, preparing presentations or setting up training sessions. It forces me to work more effectively and more focused. After all, I’m not living to work. I love my social life too much to become a corporate workaholic. It’s not always been easy to delegate or push back, yet, I’ve learnt:
- Good enough is good enough and it will be okay and accepted.
- Prioritise your weekly goals according to importance, urgency and deadlines. Then break them down into smaller to-do action items.
- Block time in your calendar to simply work. If you are a morning lark or a night owl, use your most productive time for your most challenging and thinking tasks. Don’t forget to turn off your phone and email during this time!
- Don’t plan 100% of your work day. There will be unexpected emergencies or last minute meetings.
How are you going to schedule your week now?
I hope you’ve enjoyed the first entry of my blog where I’ll share my strategies and insights to freeing yourself from physical and mental clutter in your business, home and mind. Let’s start creating an exclusively organised and structured business, home and life shaped around your unique requirements. Make sure you don’t miss my upcoming blog post where I’ll introduce to you SYSTEM: saving you space, time, energy, money.
Until next time,
Agni