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I recently received a compliment that surprised me...
"Rachel, you're so organized!"
Wrong.
I am, by nature of my particular brain wiring, not organized; but through many carefully implemented crutches, I am able to trick others into thinking I have my stuff together. It's an artform.
For my second post on the blog, I wanted to address this topic because it's so fundamental to everyday functioning.
We're gonna do three things in this post:
Capture a few best practices from someone who is inherently organized for those of us who are not
Share some tools and tips that work for me, a tornado person
Remind you that you're probably doing better than you think and that perfection is not required.
The Guru
I consulted with another colleague of mine from Intel, Tiffany Lawrie, on the mystical properties of being organized. Tiffany is an Intel vet of 20 years and a native of my hometown in Jackson, Michigan; she is a graduate of the world-class Supply Chain program at Michigan State University and holds an MBA from ASU.
TIFFANY: I've always, always, always been a very organized and planned person. I mean, I think it helps in any job that you're in whether it's supply chain, sales, market development, I think it helps in what you do. I would say, by nature, with that that skill of being organized, planned, operational, that is definitely what sticks out for me. And that's where I find in all of my roles, I perform the best.
Tiffany's credentials are simple: she's a naturally organized person. If I can talk her into it, she's even written up an organizational handbook that I'd like to link on this post - you can buy it on Amazon for $5.99 someday ;)
First... Are you overthinking it?
The foundation to being as organized as you need to be lies in three key areas:
Do you understand your priorities?
Do you have systems in place around you that work with you, not against you?
Are you able to get what you need done?
1. What's Important: Identifying Priorities
In any sort of sales gig, there are going to be a million things you can do every minute of the day that can technically keep you constantly busy. Is it the right kind of busy?
You may already be familiar with Steven Covey's Urgent/Important Matrix. I have this bad boy printed out and stuck on my wall.
Your priorities will differ from mine and that's just fine: the key is understanding what's on a deadline vs. what can wait until tomorrow (or next week... or next year!).
In the future, I'll dive in a few layers deeper on discovering priorities based on your values and motivations, but for now, the tactical angle of a priority matrix is enough to get started.
2. Systems:
It's 9:00am. Do you know where your "To Do's" are?
I'm currently in need of a reset in this area. At my worst, my tasks are everywhere. I've been guilty of sticky notes all over my monitor, a whiteboard that (in theory) was going to solve all my problems, two physical planners, countless productivity apps, and a never-ending email thread of things that need to get done.
There are lots of formal methodologies for getting yourself organized; I was formally trained on the "Getting Things Done" system by David Allen in 2011, and I find the "collect, process, organize, review and do" flow supremely useful.
Allen published a completely revised version of his book in 2015 and it's on the way to my house as I type.
Tiffany's guidance on the topic of systems is succinct:
Pick ONE place for all your action items.
Make sure it's as SIMPLE as possible.
TIFFANY: It's got to be simple. If it's anything that becomes difficult, you're not going to follow it, you're not going to do it.
Below is Tiffany's system for her to-do list - note that she schedules out which week it needs to be done, considers how much time it will take, and denotes an appropriate priority level.
My particular tool is very visual: I use Marc Andreesen's personal productivity board template on Trello.
Here's how to use the lists:
Done: Tasks completed today.
Anti To-Do List (optional): Anything useful you did today that was unplanned
Today: Tasks to complete today.
To-do: ‘Must do’ commitments to prioritize.
Watch: Everything with a blocker that you need to track.
Later: Tasks that aren’t a priority.
Before you go to bed, move 3 to 5 tasks from your To-do list to your Today list. The next day, try your best to complete those tasks. When you complete them, or if you do anything else useful during the day, add the cards to the Done list. At the end of the day, marvel at everything you’ve completed, then archive all the cards in the Done list.
(The above is an excerpt from the Trello site itself; you can find more about Marc's personal productivity systems here.)
3. Are you getting it done?
Take time to reflect on those actions you've collected - are you able to achieve what is necessary in the time you have?
Tiffany dedicates time every week to allocating tasks by day, and at the end of each week, checking to see whether everything got done. This is SO important for how busy we are all the time - spend a few minutes before your week kicks off to schedule those tasks, and reflect when the week is over to see how you did. Over time, iterating through this process will give you a better sense of what is possible and how long certain things take - especially important for those of us who chronically underestimate how long it will take to clean up Salesforce completely :)
Sanity Check: You're Doing Fine
A key question to ask yourself before going into panic mode about feeling disorganized is:
Are you truly hindered by a lack of organization?
Historically, I've felt so stressed and negative about myself because I compared myself to those around me who are just naturally better at this stuff.
What a waste of energy.
I mean, you do you: if you absolutely thrive on color coded everything all the time and filing emails into multi-hierarchical folders, I'm not stopping you. But, if you're not thrilled to pieces at the thought of doing anything other than the bare minimum to stay on top of things...
THAT'S OKAY TOO.
Take a breath, take stock of where you're at, and move forward accordingly.
Next Level: Get More Efficient
Once you have the basics in place, how do you go about taking it up a notch?
That, my friends, is the subject of a future post.