Being successful depends on an individual’s ability to be efficient, which is impossible without proper self-organization. Well-organized people are capable of managing their time and know how to achieve their goals. Clearly, being well-organized is not a gift given by a divine force by chosen people. It is easy to learn how to be well-organized and efficient. To become an organized person one needs to follow a number of easy steps including making plans and schedules, being determined but flexible.
The first step to self-organization is obtaining a habit of making plans. It can be beneficial to take your time and start your diary. It is a good idea to make a plan of your one-year and five-year goals at the beginning. It may seem superfluous but it is an effective way to remember about the most important life goals and remain determined.
Notably, students and office workers will greatly benefit from such a diary as they will be able to write down the tasks they need to accomplish each day. Writing a plan of things to do can help prioritize effectively. Thus, one of the secrets of being efficient is prioritizing tasks. One more benefit of having a diary is that a person will never forget about anything.
The second step is to follow the plan created. It is inappropriate to put off important tasks for later. This ‘later’ can never come. Hence, if there are important things to do, it is essential to do everything according to the schedule in the diary. It is important to remember that if you put off something, one day you will have a dozen of unaccomplished projects which will lead to failure.
At the same time, it is crucial to be flexible as this is one of central components of effective prioritizing. Sometimes numerous minor tasks appear and accomplishing all of them at once can prevent a person from focusing on really important things.
The third step on the way to efficiency is making schedule. Every person has a variety of arrangements each week. The diary has to include this information as well. Write down precise time of the meeting, place where it will take place and the name of the person you are meeting. It can be a very good idea to predict time the meeting will last. This will help you stay on track and be able to plan other things to do. Again, it is inappropriate to spend more time at a meeting if you have other important tasks. Finally, it is important to look into the diary every morning to make sure you remember about all arrangements and things to do.
The fourth step is to evaluate your effectiveness weekly (or even daily). It is necessary to look through the tasks planned and to analyze whether they were accomplished effectively or what went wrong. Of course, this will help to avoid such mistakes in future. However, it is important to remember that evaluation should be rather quick without unnecessary anxiety or frustration as an unaccomplished task is a way to analyze and become more efficient.
On balance, it is necessary to note that being well-organized presupposes having a diary, being flexible and determined. People have to understand that they are often overwhelmed by tasks and it is a good thing to have a diary where all major things are mentioned. Of course, this diary should not be a piece of paper to write, but it should be a plan to follow and analyze weekly or daily.