Getting Out of Your Summer Frame of Mind and Organized For Fall

Ah, summer … it was great visiting you, but now it’s time to get serious again for fall. If you’re feeling the need to turn over a new leaf (bad pun intended) and finally get organized, there are some basic things you can do to make a world of difference. And don’t panic, none of these involve the use of pumpkin spice. Because, after all, everything turns to pumpkin spice after Labor Day, right?

Here are my top four things you can do to mentally and physically declutter and organize yourself for 2020 and beyond:

1. Declutter your desk

Chances are, it’s been forever since you moved all the junk on your desk and really cleaned it off. Or scrubbed it. Or, disinfected it. Most likely, you’ve never done it since you moved into your workspace—whenever that was. But hey, even if that dust bunny behind your computer is so big and old you’ve given it a name, it doesn’t matter, and no one cares … just do it now.

A clutter-free desk literally makes your brain work better. A study published in The Journal of Neuroscience showed the downside of a cluttered desk on the brain. In layman’s terms, too much stuff around you restricts your brain’s capacity to focus and process information. Plus, if we’re being honest, a really cluttered desk makes you look less professional. You won’t inspire people to do good things if your work area looks like it can be on the next episode of “Hoarders.”

To unclutter your work area, do the following:

• Prioritize what’s on your desk and get rid of what you don’t need
• Put everything in its own spot and keep it there. The more important it is for you to do your job, the closer it should be to you, like within arm’s reach. On the other hand, the less you use something, the farther away it should be from you.  
• Sort, organize and file the folders and piles of papers on your desktop
• If you haven’t looked at it in a year, get it out of your workspace completely

Finally, if those knick-knacks, plants (real or plastic), toys or decorations on your desk are covered with dust, it’s time to get rid of them. Or at the least, keep them dusted and clean.

2. Organize your emails

Do you secretly seethe in anger looking at your email inbox? Are there non-work-related emails such as newsletters or “News of the Day” emails that have been sitting there for days, weeks, or even months because the headline really intrigued you, but you haven’t had time to read it? Yeah … time to declutter and organize your emails.  

No matter what service you use, there are tutorials available to help you gain control of your emails. Create folders for the mail you receive and you’ll learn to tame the beast.  Zach Hanlon wrote a great post a couple of years ago on sorting emails that is just as relevant today as the day he wrote it.

In a nutshell, Hanlon says don’t create folders based on a topic because emails often don’t fit nicely into them. Instead, use a system that only requires five folders in total.

The system that Hanlon suggests is:

1. Inbox: The so-called holding pen for emails. Emails should only stay here as long as it takes to file them into another folder. Exceptions are ones you answer immediately and you’re waiting for a quick response.
2. Today: Everything that requires a response today.
3. This Week: Everything that requires a response before the end of the week.
4. This Month/Quarter: Everything that needs a longer-term response. Depending on your role, you may need a monthly folder. Others can operate on a quarterly basis.
5. FYI: If you’re like most people, 90 percent of your emails will probably end up in here because they’re informational. If you think you’ll need to reference it again or want to make sure you have it for a paper trail, put it in here.

Even though you only have five main folders, obviously you can create sub-folders within the five. This is especially true if your work is mostly project-based.

Otherwise, that’s it. Be brutally honest with yourself on how quickly you need to answer an email so your “Today” file doesn’t just become an extension of your Inbox.

Finally, be ruthless with your Delete button and only keep work-related emails. Unsubscribe from newsletters you never read and switch your daily deluge of marketing emails to once-a-week or once-a-month frequency.

3. Consolidate your calendars  

Do you juggle multiple calendars for personal and professional schedules? We all do, and often we’re juggling them across:

• platforms
• devices
• sticky notes or pieces of paper
• on the backs of those doctor appointment cards we shove in purses, wallets or car visors  
• notices our kids bring home from school
• And, much more

Work, family and social commitments can start running into one big blur if you don’t have a way to keep them all straight. To keep this blog shorter than a Russian novel, because of the different technologies involved with calendars, I suggest looking up syncing your calendars online.

4. High-level planning

Figure out what your next six-to-12 months are going to look like with work projects and plan accordingly. Schedule time to speak with your boss and get his or her input on how to proceed. Will you need some kind of skills training to complete a task? Figure that out now and give yourself time to get it. What other resources are you going to need in your job? By thinking about it now, you reduce the chances of surprises later. Additionally, the resources you need will undoubtedly cost money and your boss (or you) will have to find it somewhere. Often, department budgets are stretched thin, but more companies are realizing that employee training is critical to organizational success. Giving management a head’s up and time to plan is never a bad way to go.

Using any of these four tips will help organize your life but using them all will practically guarantee you’ll be ready for 2020 and beyond.