Millennial Executive: Organize Your Life (Finally) in 2018

In case you missed it, our Vice President of Online Strategies has her own blog called “The Millennial Executive.” Since the SOM blog (Samantha on Monday) started on this site, we don’t want our readers to miss out on her newest article!
The article is published over on The Millennial Executive and has been partially reproduced here with permission from the editor.
Below, Samantha is telling you how to organize your life in 2018:

Now I could provide you with some depressing statistics on time wasting (for example, the average person spends 4 hours a week on preparing for status update meetings), but, well, that would be a waste of time. Instead, let’s focus on easy ways for you to save time (for example, reading this article, duh).
Anyways, here are my top tips for working smarter, not harder.

Tip #1: Figure Out Your S**t

Sure, that sounds a bit aggressive but I do mean it. The biggest time waster is redoing work—let’s just say it kills me! No really, I die a little inside every time I have to repeat work (or, rather, repeat myself). If you are like me and die a little inside, then this one is for you: Get organized. Yeah, it is that easy. However, the trick is getting organized to fit your needs and your work style. Read up on some “best practices” for getting organized and pick and choose the strategies that will work for you (or that you think will work). Oh, and scratch out a good amount of time to do it right the first time; it does not help if you have to “get organized” every week.

Hold up, let’s go backwards a moment. If you noticed, I did not tell you what to organize. Many times, people have different levels of chaos that works for them. Reversely, being “organized” can mean nearly anything. I mean, maybe you need to organize your paper files (maybe you don’t even have paper files any more). Maybe you need to organize a specific excel sheet (maybe you need to create one). The point is, you should now be your type of organized.

Tip #2: Make a To Do List for 1,000 Things

First off, don’t freak out on me. I know, I know, task list with 1,000 tasks is, clearly, intimidating but I have a plan here. All too often we fail to identify everything we need to get accomplished. For example, you may have “End of Year Report” on your list but fail to put “Mail Out Vendor Check.” Each task is important and yet those little tasks tend to get lost in the bigger picture. Each time you forget to do those small tasks, it’s a waste of time.
Think of it this way: you forget to send out that check so the vendor emails you to ask when it will be sent. Then you forget to send it out again, so they follow up and then, maybe, even CC’s another member of your team. Now for a five second task, you have wasted your time, the Vendor’s time, and, now, your team member’s time. Again, dying here.

Needless to say, make a To Do (Task) List for every task you have to accomplish. No matter how small or, potentially, insufficient it may seem, put it on there. If you want to take it a step further, you can organize your list. Depending on your job, you may want to do it by project or by frequency of task. No matter how you do it, spill your life out on paper and make them all into actionable items. At least one thing is for sure to come from the 1,000 Task List, you can now show your boss that you work way too hard for way too little money.

You can find the whole article (including more tips for a successful 2018) by clicking here.
You can also view more of Sam’s articles on our Business News Page!